Community Development

  • Tibetan Students Dream Big

    Trace Foundation receives a visit from a young Tibetan woman fresh from a year of study at the SIT Graduate Institute

  • Little School in the City

    A short, stocky man with long dark hair Humchen appears, at first glance, to be quite ordinary, but he’s a man with a mission.

  • A Tibetan medicine clinic, built with support from Trace Foundation, in Sok County

    Reviving Tibetan Medicine

    In 2009, a study by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre and the World Bank revealed that less than 10% of the earth’s landmass is more than a two-day trip from

  • Kelsang Kyi, a Trace Foundation scholarship recipient in our library

    An Education

    Sitting quietly at the end of the long conference table in Trace Foundation’s headquarters in New York, Kelsang Kyi nervously plays with a few sheets of paper, shuffling an

  • Conference participants at the Seventh Congress of the International Association for the Study of Traditional Asian Medicines in Thimphu, Bhutan

    Cultivating Traditions between the Global and the Local

    Sienna Craig reflects on the 7th Congress of the International Association for the Study of Traditional Asian Medicines (IASTAM), Thimphu, Bhutan, September 7-11, 2009.

Unaffordable credit, lacking opportunities for women, and poor education: these are just a few of the obstacles to economic development in Tibetan communities. Trace Foundation directly invests in Tibetan pastoral and farming communities, crafting interventions that raise the value of local resources, promote economic literacy, and expand educational opportunities.

Trace Foundation supports community development projects that build on local assets and strengths while respecting local culture to improve lives on the Tibetan Plateau. Support is available for a wide variety of projects, particularly those that make sustainable improvements to the quality of and access to education. We are especially interested in kindergarten, primary, and middle school development; teacher training; women's leadership initiatives; and the development of educational materials that can be made accessible online to benefit greater Tibetan communities.