Tibetan Youth Leadership

Students from the Second Annual Tibetan Youth Leadership Program.

Fourteen young Tibetans in the United States participated in the second Tibetan Youth Leadership Program (TYLP), organized by the International Campaign for Tibet in Washington, D.C., from March 4 to 9, 2002. The first program was held in March 2001.

The program is designed to provide Tibetan youth exposure to different fields of activism, practical organizing skills, and opportunities necessary to become more effective leaders in their communities. The program features workshops; fieldtrips to Amnesty International, Capitol Hill, VOA and RFA; panel discussions, nonviolence and cross-cultural outreach, and special events emphasizing NGO networking, media and messaging, working with the US Congress and Administration, and organizing within the Tibetan community.

“We are excited to meet this second group of Tibetans and have prepared a multifaceted program for them,” said Tenzin Dhongthog, Program Coordinator. “The participants come from seven states with a wide range of experience,” Dhongthog added.

This year’s participants attended a Congressional hearing on Tibet on March 7, 2002, providing them with an opportunity to get a close perspective of the United States policy on Tibet. U.S. Special Coordinator for Tibet, Paula Dobriansky, Special Envoy of H.H. the Dalai Lama Lodi Gyari, and ICT Board Chairman Richard Gere testified at the Hearing. Participants were selected from essays they submitted on the topic, “What it takes to be a leader in the Tibetan community.”

Special Envoy of H.H. the Dalai Lama Lodi Gyari, Office of Tibet (New York) Representative Dr. Nawang Rabgyal, Burmese nonviolence activist Ka Hsaw Wa, Tibetan scholar Dr. Dawa Norbu, Chinese human rights activist Harry Wu, and Amnesty International USA’s Advocacy Director T. Kumar, were among the experts who addressed the participants in this year’s program.