In November 1999, THF invited a delegation from Lhasa for an exploratory visit to Nepal. THF co-director Ms de Azevedo and THF water engineer John Niewoehner accompanied 12 officials from Lhasa City Cultural Relics, People's Government of Lhasa, Lhasa Housing Office, Lhasa Planning Office, Lhasa Construction Office, and TAR Foreign Affairs. German and Nepali NGO project sites were visited, including the World Heritage Sites of Swayambunath, Patan and Bhaktapur. Thanks to Mr. Rajendra Pradhanang from the GTZ Urban Development through Local Efforts (UDLE ) Patan GTZ project who showed the delegation local project activities. THF continually explores its links to the Asian-wide community projects coordinated under the ACHR Bangkok umbrella. In September 1999, a THF delegation attended the international Leadership Conference on Conservancy and Development, organized by the Center for US-China Arts Exchange. Held in Kunming and Lijiang, Yunnan province, existing projects and project ideas were introduced with the aim to create sustainable development that pays respect to Yunnan's multifaceted cultural heritage. The THF Lhasa programme was praised as a model project at the conference. THF has also given a public presentation of the Lhasa project in the Island Club in Beijing, and the cooperation project with the Chinese University of Hong Kong was continued in 1999. A group of architecture students, accompanied by Professor Puay-Peng Ho and architect Frank Chiu spent the summer in Lhasa and did a lot of documentary and analysis work in the Kirey neighbourhood. In 2000, the university will help to design a pilot solar energy project for one of the buildings studied in 1999. Thanks go to Hollis Brookover and the Friends of THF Hong Kong , and the Young President's Organization for raising additional funds to help cover travel expenses for the students. Graduate student Michel Radon and the German Fachhochschule Luebeck (water engineering department) have begun work on developing a model for the rehabilitation of a traditional composting toilet system in cooperation with THF. Regional networking was supported by Trace Foundation with $13528. Pioneer Valley Friends of Tibet supported networking and fund-raising acitivities with $9048. |
