Jetsun Pema, the younger sister of the Dalai Lama, being welcomed by students at the new home for orphans and destitute Tibetan refugee children built by International Maitreya Foundation in New Delhi, India, on 16 November 2014. International Maitreya Foundation
By Konchok Yangphel
NEW DELHI, India, 16 November 2014
A new home for orphans and destitute Tibetan refugee children built by International Maitreya Foundation has been inaugurated in New Delhi today.
Jetsun Pema, the younger sister of the His Holiness the Dalai Lama, was the chief guest and opened the new building.
Chief sponsors of the Foundation Bonnie Cappuccino, Director of International Child Haven, Canada, and Sally M Patrick from the US were among the guests and speakers on the occasion.
Dakpa Rinpoche, President of the International Maitreya Foundation, said that the Foundation was started and registered in 1997 under the India Society Act of 1860.
It was started with five children from a small rented house in Dwarka in the outskirts of Delhi with seed money of one lakh rupees (100,000) donated by the Dalai Lama.
There are 25 children in the Maitreya Home today. The children attend a reputed Indian Public school called Shiksha Bharati Public School at Dwarka.
The home is staffed with four volunteers and two home mothers.
The Foundation also sponsors 75 children and 25 elderly people. The aims of the Maitreya Foundation are purely to help the Tibetan refugee community in distress.
Dakpa Rinpoche started the Foundation in 1997 after passing his degree in Buddhist Philosophy from Drepung Loseling Monastery in South India.
Rinpoche hopes to provide a better future for the children through this Foundation.
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