People from the North of India, this includes refugee Tibetans and Himalayan people, have to come to Chandigarh, a large city in the Punjab region of India, for medical treatment. This is where there are many specialist doctors and hospitals. For the past few years patients going to Chandigarh have been helped by various volunteers. However, there was an overwhelming need for a more structured approach to the patients requirements and so the Trust was established.

The main purpose of the trust is to provide a hostel so patients have somewhere to stay in Chandigarh, provide fully trained staff to go to the hospitals with the patients, provide after care and translate for the patients as many of them from Tibet or the remote Himalayan villages do not speak Hindi. The staff ensure the patients time in Chandigarh is as stress free and comfortable as possible.

In the hostel there is one room specially fitted out for patients requiring intensive care and another room for a Lha-Khang (prayer room). Education on how to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS, TB and Hepatitis is also offered. It is our wish that a fund of money will be built up to help pay for the treatment and medication of the very poor and needy patients.

In future we plan to establish a branch of Sangye Menla Trust in other cities, such as Delhi, Kolkata and Banglore. This is because these cities have a large poor and needy Tibetan population.

The trust has 6 staff at present who are all volunteers. Although we do not pay them we do provide accommodation, food and some pocket-money. This, along with the monthly overheads, leaves us with very little money to build up a medical fund or put money aside for unforeseen circumstances.

We have found that a medical fund is extremely important, as we do not intend to turn anyone away.