Lha Charitable Trust is one of the biggest volunteer host and coordination organizations in Dharamshala. Since its inception in 1997, Lha has hosted more than ten thousand volunteers; before the COVID pandemic, on an average daily basis Lha hosted around 15-20 volunteers, assisting its many of our activities.
Lha offers a wide range of volunteer opportunities to share the knowledge and skills with Tibetan refugees, local Indians and people from Himalayan regions. Teaching English, French, Chinese and German, writing news articles on Tibet issues, website and social media management and environmental research projects are some of the many opportunities available at Lha.
To register for the volunteering position click on the below link:
Lha offers classes at different levels in English, French, Chinese, German and Tibetan. All the language classes run for a period of three months and we request all our volunteer teachers to commit to a minimum stay of three months in order to ensure course continuity and completion for our students (see the schedule below) . The volunteer must have experience in teaching language to foreigners, and volunteers with certificates of language teaching such as TESL or TEFL will be given preference.
Teachers have access to a variety of teaching aids and materials through the Lha Library, located in the office building. Language teachers are responsible for taking daily attendance, lesson planning, creating and grading homework and periodic exams for their students, and notifying the Program Coordinator in a timely manner should they be unable to attend their scheduled class.
All our language classes are available to students of all ages from within the Tibetan refugee community and the local Indian community. Feedback from students show they have an interest in learning languages to enhance their employment opportunities (e.g.some students are planning to go abroad to a French-speaking country), college course preparation (students have to learn one foreign language for college), and to exchange knowledge and stories with people from the other side of the world.
New registration for language classes are taken after every three months. Below is the schedule for each batches.
Besides the regular language classes, Lha also offers volunteer opportunities to participate in English conversation classes and have one-to-one sessions with personal tutors.
Volunteers will sit for an hour with a group of English language students to speak with them to help improve their social and communication skills. The volunteer can choose any topic for conversation, which in turn gives great opportunity to learn about Tibetan and Indian culture and customs. This beneficial exchange often creates lasting friendships.
There are no time commitments required, volunteers can sit for one session or as many as they are able.
Monday to Friday at 4pm-5pm at Ahimsa House.
Lha has a long list of community members looking for English, Chinese, and French language tutors to help them with both their coursework and their conversation skills.
Tutoring takes place on a one-on-one basis and is arranged to accommodate both the volunteer’s and the student’s schedule. It’s a great way for our students to get individual help with their language skills, as well as for volunteers to meet and connect with members of the Tibetan community in McLeod Ganj.
Volunteers are required to commit to a minimum of one week.
Lha welcomes fundraising professionals from around the world to help develop and coordinate its fundraising efforts throughout the year. We often have volunteers running fundraising campaigns from abroad, within their personal and professional communities at home.
We have had great success in the past with volunteers coordinating with others abroad to organize online raffles. We at Lha are happy to help provide Tibetan handicrafts and other items as prizes for events of this kind. Some volunteers also organize auctions in their communities and send the proceeds to Lha. If you are interested in planning and holding events of this kind, please don’t hesitate to contact us at office@lhasocialwork.org for further information.
Web Developers and Designers can assist with updating, maintaining, and sometimes renovating our websites. Lha manages and runs three other bilingual websites in addition to the Lha website.
Additionally, volunteers with web-related skills can teach special courses to Lha students, or individual lessons to Lha staff members wishing to learn web design. We also welcome hardware and software engineers to advise us in our office and help us to update and maintain our computer system.
Lha manages and runs a bilingual website on Tibet’s environment and ecosystem as a part of its environmental protection and awareness program. Volunteers with experience or professional skills in fields relating to the environment are welcome to produce research and news articles on Tibet’s current environmental issues; coordinate environmental awareness courses or manage some of Lha’s environmental clean-up efforts locally.
We can also connect volunteers with these skills to other environmental organizations and NGOs in the Dharamshala area.
Contact Magazine, a monthly publication of news related to Tibet and the Tibetan situation, is always looking for contributing writers. Contact has been a popular source of news and information for 25 years, reporting on Tibetan issues which, in addition to the Tibetans’ fight for their human rights within their own country, include culture, religion and politics.
Recognised by Lonely Planet and other international travel resources, the printed magazine is freely available around Dharamshala, as well as in digital on-line format, and on Facebook and Instagram. With its diverse readership, Contact magazine aims to raise awareness of the multidimensional issues faced by the Tibetan people, both those living within their homeland and in exile.
Volunteers with professional experience or skills in journalism can write, conduct interviews locally, and be published in Contact Magazine and potentially in other local publications as well.
To read more, please visit www.contactmagazine.net
Note: Currently we have put a hold on this program as we change our programs and focus based on the need of the time in the community.
As Lha is a non-profit organization, we are constantly in search of funding for both new and continuing projects and initiatives.
We frequently apply for grants in order to meet these needs and welcome both professionals in this field and others with experience in grant applications to help us meet our funding goals.
As an effort towards becoming self-sufficient, Lha runs a small handicraft shop under the name of Lha Tibet Fair Trade Pvt. Ltd. which offers a wide range of Tibetan traditional handicraft products.
Lha seeks professionals who are interested in designing products and Tibetan cultural and traditional clothing which represent the unique cultural identity of Tibet, merged with current trends in the fashion world.
[su_quote cite=”Divya Batra (former Lha volunteer)”]Your time here will be full of learning, growth, and lovely experiences; and the students are eager to learn and teach you so much in return. [/su_quote]
The culture of volunteering and volun-tralvelling is growing in India. Many Indian university students are now required to do a certain period of volunteer work as a part of their academic curriculum.
Dharamsala, a place with diverse culture and multi nationalities, is also the epicenter of the Tibetan diaspora, where you can experience Tibetan culture, learn the Tibetan language and attend Buddhist courses and meditation sessions alongside volunteering. Lha welcomes volunteers from all different walks of life and we strive to give a meaningful volunteer experience.
Social Media / Marketing
Lha is looking for volunteers with experience in social media management to oversee and develop our online presence.
This position would be responsible for creating content about Lha’s activities and programs for our Youtube, Facebook, and Instagram channels.
Ideally, qualified volunteers will have some photography experience and the ability to create content for Lha’s website in the form of pictures, articles, and blog posts.