TIBET AID
STRUCTURE & HISTORY
BOARD OF ADVISORS
NOT FOR PROFIT STATUS & ACCOUNTABILITY
HISTORY
During the summer of 1997, Steve Drago, now the Director here at Tibet Aid, visited Tibet House in New York City and while there, read a letter from Drepung Gomang Monastery in South India. The secretary of the monastery was appealing for help for the newly arrived monks from India. Steve wrote to the monastery and asked what he could do. The abbot suggested that he sponsor a monk.
Steve said that he would do that and asked if he could have the names of ten other monks so that he could mention their need for assistance to his friends. Within a few weeks, Steve and his friends were sponsoring a dozen monks. Soon Steve began going to India regularly to visit these monks and other Tibetan communities in exile to see first-hand what help was needed for Tibet and the Tibetan people.
Upon returning to the United States, Steve sought more volunteers and established a web site for the "Tibetan Sponsorship Project." Advertisements started appearing in various publications and volunteers sponsored and staffed booths at Buddhist events around the country.
The response to the appeal has been extraordinary. Thousands of Tibetan monks, nuns, elders, children, and families have been sponsored. The Tibetan Sponsorship Project has grown and has found a home within the umbrella of Tibet Aid, which Steve incorporated in 2001 as a not-for-profit organization dedicated to providing humanitarian relief to the people of Tibet.
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