Leading on the Frontline

8Listen and learn

How HRH The Prince of Wales became my mentor in the most unlikely setting, a Tibetan refugee camp in Delhi

If you are trying to move mountains it certainly helps to have someone powerful on your side. In the summer of 2002 I was given just the lucky break my Tibet project needed.

Since the 1950s more than 150 000 Tibetans had found refuge in India. In contrast to the experience of many refugee communities, money had streamed in from sympathetic donors, and more than half of this was funnelled into education. There were now 106 kindergartens, 87 primary schools, 44 middle schools, 21 secondary schools and 13 senior secondary schools catering to 25 000 Tibetan students. Where only 65 per cent of Indian youngsters came out of school able to read and write, more than 90 per cent of Tibetans in India had achieved these skills.

The well-funded, highly organised Tibetan camps had also done a fine job of preserving Tibetan culture, but by isolating themselves from their hosts (the 1.4 billion Indian population could have gobbled them up in a heartbeat), they had created other problems.

Young, well-educated Tibetans led a sheltered life in the camps. Then, at age 18, they were released into the outside world to compete with the more streetwise Indians. There was little vocational training on offer, and unless they became more commercially savvy they hadn’t a hope of competing in the job market. With little attempt at integration, they were left to sink or swim. This situation ...