Your words of support are important to the children. In keeping with Jhamtse Gatsal's Project Earth initiative, we ask you to send electronic letters via email to sponsorship@jhamtse.org. These letters are forwarded to the Community throughout the year and shared with the children. Sponsors will hear back from children once a year.

Typically, a letter from your child will arrive as part of Jhamtse Gatsal's annual sponsor update, which contains a letter to you, new photos of the child, and a report on how the child is doing from a teacher, Ama la (house mother), or school administrator.

As we share sponsor letters electronically, we ask that letters be kept to a couple of pages in length. Children love seeing pictures of you, your family, and/or your daily life. The children love to hear about your family, things you like to do, and what the world looks like where you live. These are subjects that translate easily across different environments and cultures and to a younger age group.

When writing, remember English is not the children’s first language. Short and simple communications are most successful; Ama las and older students may help translate for the younger ones, but mostly the children love looking at the letters independently. Many of the smallest kids are still learning to write the alphabets of the three languages they study. Their native Monpa language has no written form.

Birthdays

While we prioritize birthdays in our society, in Monpa culture, they customarily have little significance. Parents often don’t know the exact date of a child’s birth.