BBC investigates life under China’s boarding School System in Tibet

BBC World Service have just broadcast an explosive in-depth radio piece exposing the harrowing struggles of Tibetan children forced to live in China’s colonial boarding schools in Tibet.

Please share this important story today: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w3ct4m8g

“I remember the first few days were difficult. I missed my family but I couldn’t cry and I couldn’t talk to other students and teachers because I didn’t know Chinese then. There were many other children who missed their families and cried too. Some of the younger ones often woke up in the middle of the night crying and they would run to the school gate.” – 15 year old Tibetan girl who recently escaped from Tibet.

This 27-minute story includes this heartbreaking account of adjusting to life in boarding school from a young Tibetan girl who recently escaped from Tibet. She, and other eyewitnesses, tell a devastating story of children ripped from their roots, and parents left with no options but to send their children away to be raised as strangers in state-run schools.

Their voices – until now silenced by China’s apparatus of surveillance and repression – must be heard around the world. By sharing this piece widely amongst your family and friends, you will help us bear witness to their suffering and resilience. And, most critically, help us raise the alarm and mobilize action to stop this mass-scale atrocity from continuing. We will not stop until China’s genocidal boarding school system in Tibet is abolished, once and for all.

As we approach March 10, the date marking the 65th year since the Tibetan national uprising in 1959, each and every person who reads this message please: listen to this vital story and share it with your family, friends, colleagues, and even elected representatives.

The suffering of an entire generation of Tibetan children, and their parents, must be heard.

Recent days have seen Tibetans in Tibet continue their brave resistance against China’s colonial projects – with over 1000 Tibetans in Dege in Eastern Tibet, violently detained for peacefully resisting a Chinese dam project that will flood their ancestral lands and destroy ancient monasteries. China is clearly hell-bent on erasing Tibetan life and culture, but we can also see there is no shortage of determination or courage amongst Tibetans in Tibet.

The same is true for brave individuals like Dr. Gyal Lo, who speaks movingly in this BBC story, who risk their lives and security by speaking out against the colonial boarding schools in Tibet.

You can help us ensure their voices are heard.

Share today: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w3ct4m8g