Jhamtse Gatsal

Who they are

Jhamtse Gatsal is a non-profit community founded by former Tibetan monk Lobsang Phuntsok in the remote northeast of India. It welcomes orphaned and vulnerable children into a real family setting: there are the Amalas — the "house mothers" — teachers, volunteers, and a vision of education that brings together learning, compassion and sustainable ways of living. Their story is told in the film Tashi and the Monk.

How we support them

Our relationship with Jhamtse Gatsal is one of the Foundation's longest-standing. Since 2017 we have contributed over €40,500 — initially supporting structural works and the construction of the community itself, accompanying the physical growth of the spaces that today welcome the children.

Today our commitment has focused on the annual sponsorship of one child in the community. A contribution that covers everything needed for a year: education, food, accommodation, medical care, and all formative activities. It is not an anonymous gesture. It is a bond that renews itself over time, with a specific person, in a specific place.

Why we do it

The Foundation was born in 2007 from an encounter in India — that of Michil Costa and Giovanna Pedrollo with the Tibetan world. Supporting Jhamtse Gatsal is not a new direction: it is faithfulness to our roots. A bridge between the Dolomites and the Eastern Himalayas, built on shared values: community, care for the natural world, respect for human dignity.

What happens at Jhamtse can also be measured like this: Rinchen arrived as a frightened child, from a family that couldn't afford to send him to school. He studied, graduated in tourism management, worked in Delhi for three years. Then he came back — not as a guest, but as the administrative manager of the very community that had once welcomed him. This is exactly the kind of outcome we believe in: not assistance, but roots that become autonomy, and autonomy that becomes care for others.