Global news drama for Fylde tourists based in town of exiled Dalai Lama
9:29pm Wednesday 7th May 2008
A group of tourists found themselves at the centre of global news recently during a holiday with a difference.
The party of 12 Fylde women have just returned from a trip of a lifetime to the Himachal Pradesh district of Northern India where they were involved in a project to renovate a small school in the foothills of the Himalayas.
The group was based in Dharamsala, home to Tibet's exiled, Dalai Lama.
The Dalai Lama's temple complex became the focal point for candlelit demonstrations each night led by Buddhist monks demanding freedom for Tibet and an end to alleged Chinese human rights abuses.
The trip was organised by Bispham-based Impact Travel whose slogan is Journeys with Conscience, because their trips give holidaymakers the chance to get involved in a community volunteer project.
Jeremy Mannino, who runs Impact with business partner Ross Raeburn, said: "This was a particularly exciting time to visit the region.
"Outside the Dalai Lama's residence we were moved by a hunger strike by young Tibetans who were calling for an end to the cultural genocide taking place in their country.
"Many of the hunger strikers were schoolchildren left orphaned by Chinese violence."
Whilst in Dharamsala the Fylde group was granted a private audience with one of Tibet's most important spiritual leaders, the Karmapa Lama, at his official Indian residence.
Besides the renovation work at the school the group was involved in leading a variety of classroom learning activities with the children.
The work of the dedicated group prompted considerable interest and the project was reported by Indian TV and radio and was also covered in the local Hindi press.
The group also plans to strengthen its ties with Dharamsala by sponsoring a visit to the Fylde in July by the headteacher of the school where their work took place.
Similar trips are now being planned for April and July 2009 to work in an orphanage in Kathmandu in Nepal.