Tibetan Children's Villages
Tibet/India
The Foundation was born in 2007 from an encounter in India with the Tibetan world. The connection with the Tibetan Children's Villages has been there from the beginning — and continues today.
Who they are
The Tibetan Children's Villages are a network of communities founded in 1960 under the patronage of the Dalai Lama. They welcome orphaned Tibetan children and young people whose families cannot provide for their education, offering quality schooling, preservation of Tibetan culture and vocational training. They are one of the most important institutions for the survival of Tibetan cultural identity in exile.
Our support over the years
Since 2007, Casa Costa Foundation ETS has contributed over €299,000 through very different kinds of intervention.
In the early years the support was direct and structural: covering food and accommodation costs for the children, purchasing equipment for the first aid clinic at the Dharamsala campus, three dairy cows for a nomadic village in Ladakh where children were drinking powdered milk, rebuilding House 13 and expanding the girls' boarding house in Dharamsala — which today hosts over 80 young women. Then came the funding of the university campus in Bangalore, established by the Dalai Lama to preserve Tibetan language and culture among younger generations: one floor of the Girl's Hostel B-Block, 54 beds, 216 students accommodated.
These were years of substantial, direct commitment that left something physical and lasting behind.
How we support them today
The way we are present has changed over time. Today our main contribution comes through the purchase of Freedom Bands — handcrafted Tibetan bracelets made by TCV communities. We buy them every year and distribute them as couverture in the Casa Costa 1956 properties.
It is not just a purchase: it is a mechanism that brings the Tibetan cause into everyday hospitality. Every bracelet a guest finds in their room tells a story — who made it, where, and why. It is a quiet and concrete way of keeping alive a bond that has lasted since the Foundation began.
Why we do it
Tibet is where everything started. Maintaining this connection — even as the form changes — is faithfulness to our roots. Not nostalgia: continuity.
Other projects in Tibet
