Regional Tibet Support Groups Meeting Convened in US/ENG

2012. március 20./CTA/TibetPress

Washington DC: A three-day American regional meeting of the International Tibet Network was held in Washington, DC, from 16 – 18 March.

The meeting was attended by 55 Tibetans and its supporters from America, Canada and Mexico including people from the UK and India.

The first day of the meeting saw a panel discussion by Gordon Chang, China expert, Mr Lobsang Nyandak, Representative of His Holiness the Dalai Lama in the US, and Sharon Hom from Human Rights in China, who in their distinct approaches gave presentations on Tibet and China.

The session was meant to set the context of the three-day meeting as well as to find more about the political reality in which Tibet groups around the world are working.

Briefings, presentations and trainings were facilitated at the meeting to ensure Tibet groups in the US are equipped and trained to do better and smarter campaign planning when they return back to their respective areas.

Dhondup Phunkhang, a representative from Tibetan community of Boston said, “It was great that I was able to attend this meeting, I strongly recommend Tibetan communities all over US to attend such meetings in near future which shall be of enormous help to their own community in building stronger and strategic campaigns.” Another participant, Tsedup Wangdu, the president of the Tibetan Association of Northern California when asked about the meeting said, “Media training and other workshops given at the meeting were really helpful and I wish there are more Tibetan community leaders. There are so many things they can learn from this.”

International Tibet Network holds their regional meetings every 18 months in the US, Europe and Asia separately. The American regional meeting were held four times since 2006; three in US and one in Mexico.

“This meeting was really important for us especially at a time when we keep hearing sad news of self-immolations from Tibet every now and then. It was important that we come out with a concrete campaign planning,” said Tenzin Jigme, International Coordinator of the International Tibet Network.