Rigzin Angmo, our first „child“ 

Everything started with her. The medical student Johanna Komp found her in the summer of 2001: a two year old severely handicapped little girl, lying on the kitchen floor of their primitive farmhouse in Lingshed. Johanna spent her time teaching English to the nuns of this remote village. Geshe La, the leader of the monastery of Lingshed, had visited Germany and recruited her at the same time to teach in Lingshed. While visiting Rigzin, who suffers from cerebral palsy, Johanna promised the mother to get professional help for her daughter. Rigzin’s nine year old healthy sister and a grandmother complete the family. The four women live in extreme poverty and with two pieces of land they farm as tenant farmers. The entire property belongs to the stepbrothers of Rigzin’s mother Thugjay. They do not like the second family of their father very much. Thugjay has another younger sister by the name of Lobzang Dolma. She lived  as a student in Bangalore, Southern India, being supported by Geshe La. This Lobzang Dolma contacted us per e-mail and we found out a lot about the family and their problems. Rigzins mother has been divorced twice and there is no man is available to help them fight for survival and to carry the heavy load of the labour in the fields. Now, Rigzin’s aunt has returned to Leh and has been married to a local. 

Rigzin in her special chair brushing teeth
with her sister Lobzang Dolma
 

As we arrived in Lingshed in September 2003, we were awaited eagerly by the whole family. We encountered two very skinny women complaining tearfully about their plight. They live in unbelievable poverty. The broken down roof of their tiny sod black kitchen is being supported by a log only. The only animal they had was an old sheep.

Four hours a day, we worked with the disabled child, and the family stayed with us every minute. This helped us to really work together and get to know each other. We fell in love with those wonderful people and adopted them as our “second family“. We had a special chair built for Rigzin. Now she was able to sit upright and well-supported. We bought her a donkey and had a special saddle made for her. We saw to it that she got good nourishment like egg powder and milk substitution. The family was instructed in the therapy of the child and they stuck faithfully with it.

As we returned in June 2004, we were astonished about the progress of the little girl. She even recognized. Her mother had spent winter 2003/2004 in Leh together with Rigzin and had the girl checked over and treated at the government hospital. She herself  took courses at the Namgyal Institute of the Handicapped. Their extreme poverty though struck the family very hard: While Thugjay stayed in Leh, food ran out in Lingshed and the grandmother and Rigzin’s sister had to go beg for food at neighbours' houses.

With the help of a translator we discussed their situation with them. For the winter of 2004/2005 the family plans to move to Leh together. They will try establishing themselves there. The adult women are very good at sewing and knitting. We would be delighted if their talents would provide them a certain base for an existential minimum. For the 9year old sister of Rigzin, Lobzang Dolma (she has the same name as her aunt, very common for this area) we were able to secure a place at the Moravian Mission School. We expect her to receive more attention and a better education. She shows the typical signs of a neglected child. Her mother and grandmother spend an awful lot of time with Rigzin, the rest of the time out in the fields. Nobody has time for the healthy child, Lobzang Dolma. Her mother complains that the girl is often naughty when she is not around to control her. Despite her age, she has the educational knowledge of a first grader.

The village community is not fond of the emmigration of one of theirs. That is why we do not consider the step of moving to Leh as being a final one. There is always the possibility for the family to move back to Lingshed in spring to work in the fields.

all four women