Today we went to visit Lama Tenzin Choegyal at his organization the C.E.D. Institute, Children’s Educational Development, an orphanage for neglected children of the Himalayas. He also runs many other initiatives including G.I.F.T., Girls’ Institute For Technology, empowering disabled girls from remote villages of the Himalayas. When we arrived we were greeted by the children and young adults. They were all very excited to see us.

Lama Tenzin Choegyal arrived shortly after us because he was out shopping. We walked inside and there was a big table with samosas and different kinds of tea and all of the children sat with us. After we were all settled Lama Tenzin Choegyal told us the stories of each of the children, and he went in order from the youngest children to the oldest. Telling us the details of the circumstances that the children were in and what he had to do in order to get them to India. One of the older boys arrived in need of medical care. The doctors in India said it was a 50% chance that he would actually get better. After hearing this, the Lama got the boy a visa to travel to the U.S. because the doctors in the United States said that they could perform the surgery with better chances of the boy getting better. The Lama travelled with the boy to the U.S at the age of 2 and the surgery was successful. He is now studying to become an optometrist. 

Even without having an obligation to help these children Lama Choegyal does it out of the goodness of his heart. You can tell that the children have been raised well. They welcomed us with open arms, gave us gifts, as well as just having the most wonderful conversations with us.-Chloe Smith