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| From April through June, 2007, we will be supporting Amicus Foundation, a volunteer-run non-profit that supports a variety of projects in Bhutan. We will be providing funds for one of their specific projects, the Simtokha school and orphanage. The cost per child at this school is approximately $10 per month. Please use WNF for searching and shopping, and spread the word so we can help the children at Simtokha school and orphanage in Bhutan. | ||
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A small organization with a big heart 
Amicus Foundation was founded by James Winkler, a Physician Assistant in Hawaii who visited Bhutan many times as a student of Bhuddism. His "root teacher," the high Tibetan Buddhist lama Nyoshul Khenpo Rinpoche, encouraged him to pursue enlightened activity, and in response Winkler founded what eventually became the Amicus Foundation in 1986. "Spiritual practice requires the blending of one's insight with action," Winkler says. Amicus is a small organization, with no paid staff, dedicated to their work with orphaned children, destitute families, disenfranchised women and imperiled cultures in Bhutan, Tibet, Nepal, and Thailand. Nearly 100 percent of the money they raise is passed directly to their projects. One beautiful story from Amicus embodies the generosity and philosophy of the people of Bhutan. Lopen Pema runs Tongsa Dzong, one of Bhutan's largest spiritual centers.... "In the Spring of 2002 Pema lead me (Winkler) on a tour of Tongsa Dzong. Over 500 young monks with one "bathroom", no running water, no electricity, sleeping seventy to a room, a single blanket on cement floors in the below-zero weather of the Himalayas, barely enough food to survive. I asked him what could we do to help? He nodded his head and smiled saying, "we are quite fine here, but there are some nuns in Eastern Bhutan who are having a really difficult time. Maybe you could help them?"
Amicus has always allowed the needs and insights of the people they are serving to steer their work, rather than imposing culturally inappropriate solutions. Their philosophy is
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to try diligently to embrace these timeless words: