March 6, 2008 | Read Time: 1 minute
Photograph by Dugkar Kyab
When Patricia Schiaffini, then working on her Ph.D. in Chinese literature, started conducting research in Tibet in 1999, she realized that many children were learning to read and write primarily in Chinese, and were not becoming fluent in their native Tibetan.
After receiving her doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania, Ms. Schiaffini continued to ponder Tibetan literacy, but it was only after becoming a mother herself, she says, that she came to appreciate the role of children’s entertainment in teaching them language.
In 2006, Ms. Schiaffini founded the Tibetan Arts and Literature Initiative, in Austin, Tex., to promote Tibetan culture and literature in the Tibetan areas of the People’s Republic of China.
Using a $10,000 grant from a foundation that asked to remain anonymous, the organization produced 5,000 copies each of two children’s books last year. “If we can give these kids the ability to go back home and watch Tibetan kids [on television], read Tibetan books, we are empowering them to keep their traditions, but in another way,” says Ms. Schiaffini, who also teaches Chinese at Southwestern University, in Georgetown, Tex.
Distribution of the two books was a major challenge, since many towns in Tibet cannot be reached by road, but Ms. Schiaffini says she was able to persuade other nonprofit groups to help.
The Tibetan Arts and Literature Initiative, an all-volunteer effort, is in the process of obtaining its tax-exempt status, and plans to branch out into other media to promote literacy.
Here, Tibetan schoolchildren read children’s books published by the charity.
