In lower Dharamsala, lining the steep and dirty embankments of a boulder choked riverbed, lies a 1,000+ inhabitant refugee encampment. We know it as Tong Len because some of the children that live here will qualify to move to the nearby Tong Len Charitable Trust School which was recently completed and concecrated by His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
We approached Tong Len teacher Mary Hayman asking to run an earthaware workshop for the 85+ kids that attend classes held in the encampment by volunteer teachers. We agreed to use materials found in the encampment only and set about gathering them with the children.
Again we started by drawing animals that the children could recognize: Monkey, Dog, Cow, Cat and Snake. These little ones had never really drawn much so being able to express animals they know was very exciting for them, they laughed and showed each other what they could do.
The next several days were spent making the animals and learning how to clean our materials.
The Earthaware team for Tong-Len cosisted of Ada, Leila, Nicole, Maya, Leon, Simon, Ciannait and Moy: thanks for your amazing efforts!!!