About Dickey Orphanage

In Lhasa, there's been a "sweet home" to over 80 children, most of whom are orphans. It is called Dickey Orphanage. The found of Dickey Orphanage is a self-motivated action by a middle-aged Tibetan woman, Tamdrin Dadhon, or as the children calling her, 'Mama'. "Dickey" in Tibetan language means "Fine and Happiness", which Mama Tamdrin wanted all of their children to be of.

Having seen what many poor Tibetan children had suffered, Tamdrin Dadhon was thinking it was too cruel for these little kids to go through such miseries and she needed to do something to make a better life for them. In September 10th, 2002, Tamdrin Dadhon sold her family jewels, gathered the proceeds of the teahouse and with 300,000 yuan and a lot of courage started Dickey Orphanage in Lhasa, Tibet's capital. Thus, Tamdrin Dadhon's generous and humane course got started.

In Dickey Orphanage, children's ages range from 2 months to 14 years old. The children are at the orphanage because their parents died or were too poor to take care of them properly. Some of them were even found abandoned on the roadside, such as our little baby Tenzin. He was found abandoned 2 months old near Sera monastery in Lhasa and is the youngest of the orphans and is the most recent child to come to the orphanage.

As Dickey is a private initiative, there are, however, no official government grants for Mama Tamdrin. Other than receiving some financial support from local business men and international donations, the only way to sustain the orphanage is the income from her teahouse. The donations are not constant and stable. When her teahouse was in slump, both Tamdrin Dadhon's life and the situation of the orphanage became worse. Even though, she didn't quit and give up the job she likes and tried her best to keep those children safe and warm.

Time went by, in 2006, Tamdrin Dadhon thought it was very necessary to improve the living condition for those children, because the rooms she rented as the orphanage were quite small, sometimes a single bed was shared by two children. Also, there were more orphans to come, but the rooms they had could not accommodate more. To fulfill her dream of building a proper home, though facing too much pressure, Tamdrin Dadhon made up her mind and made a loan from the bank to build a new orphanage on a land of about 2000m². To minimize the costs, all orphanage staff were working with the constructors. In 2007, new orphanage was finished. They moved to their new home that has a capacity to house 200 children. The children were very happy with the new location and the most important thing for them is that every child could have their own bed.

Now, with many kind-hearted people's help, children in Dickey Orphanage are living a better life. But due to the loan for new orphanage construction, they don't have much more money to furnish their rooms with heating system and many other infrastructure facilities, instead, they have to try to save to pay back the loan. Tuitions are also a problem that worries Mama Tamdrin, for she had closed her teahouse and doesn't have enough income to hire proper teachers to give children a decent education. Also, as more orphans may come, the orphanage family is getting bigger and bigger. With what they now have, they cannot provide good care for the new coming ones. They are still in need of assistance of merciful people. We do wish this could be changed in near future. You and us, together, can do something to make Dickey Orphanage a place of fine and happiness.

>>> ATT Gives Back: Dickey Orphanage Fund