The Board of Advisors of the Rowell Fund for Tibet has selected five Tibetan grantees for financial support totaling $34,469 for 2019. The winners were chosen from 26 project proposals and these will be carried out in the Tibetan community in India and other countries.

John Ackerly, a member of the Rowell Fund for Tibet Board of Advisors, said: “We want to congratulate the grant recipients this year. They carry on the spirit of adventure, social activism and social service that Galen and Barbara Rowell lived by. Friends and family of Galen and Barbara still help raise the funds for these grants, and we are the ones who decide who gets the grants. I can speak for all of us in saying that reading the applications about all the great work that Tibetans and Tibetan groups are doing, gives us inspiration and motivation to keep this fund going.”

The Rowell Fund for Tibet was established in 2003 in memory of the late Galen Rowell and his wife Barbara who died tragically in a plane crash in 2002. Galen Rowell was an internationally known outdoor photographer whose “Rainbow over the Potala Palace” has become an iconic photo for adventure travelers and Tibet watchers.

The Rowell Fund for Tibet was established by friends and family of Galen and Barbara, in cooperation with the International Campaign for Tibet, and aims to support the work of Tibetans communicating issues of importance to broader Tibetan or international audiences through photography, film-making, writing, journalism, and other projects. It is part of our Lodi Gyari Tibetan Empowerment Program.

The grantees for 2019 are:

  1. Tibetan Nuns Project, Dharamsala, to enable nuns to participate in philosophical debate at the 2019 Inter-nunnery debate
  2. Maternal and childcare
  3. Education program for children
  4. Tenzing Sonam, Dharamsala, creation of a user-friendly online resource to host the photo/documentary archives relating to the Tibetan resistance movement in the collection of late Lhamo Tsering and various video and other visual material gathered during the making of The Shadow Circus: The CIA in Tibet. Radio Journalism club
  5. Community radio station, Tashi Delek 90.4FM, in Dharamsala, aimed at the Tibetan-speaking community in the area, for strengthening its program.

Two of the selected projects are confidential ones, as requested by the grantees and considering the nature of the projects and where they are being implemented.

The Advisory Board of the Rowell Fund includes: John Ackerly, David Breashears, Bob and Beth Cushman, John Jancik, Terre Baker, Bob Palais, Tony Rowell and Forrest Ryan. The Fund is managed by the International Campaign for Tibet.

For more information on the Rowell Fund in general please contact: [email protected]

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