Trees for Tibet: After 800km we finally arrive in Santiago ! Trees for Tibet trek ends !!

Monday 31 August 2009

After 800km we finally arrive in Santiago ! Trees for Tibet trek ends !!

On the 26th August we finally arrived in Santiago de Compostela after a 42 km hike that day. We had only intended on walking 20 km but we met a great group of Spanish and Italians who willed us further and further, until the only right thing to do seemed to be to walk all the way to Santiago.It was exhausing and emotional to finally reach our destination and lay on the plaza looking at this amazing cathedral that we had seen only in pictures for so long. Its difficult to explain what one learns about oneself on a trek this long, with such intensity. Some things are empowering, others difficult to face. For me personally I know it brought up alot of emotional struggles but also a greater strength to learn from these struggles. Most people on this Camino that we continued to meet had alot of ghosts or pain in their past that they wished to heal. A very kind French priest that we met called Lionel said that for all pilgrims throughout the centuries the church told them that the real camino begins when you end this pilgrimage and go back to your daily life and hopefully take with you what you have learnt. I know I have made many mistakes in my life , as we all have, but heres to forgiving oneself !! It all sounds a bit corny but this camino defenitely gets one thinking.
I want to thank all the wonderful people we met on this trek who I know taught us alot in different ways, even if they dont realise it... Joan, Zoltan, James, Lewis, Real, Amalia, Raquel, Jose, Kimberlee, Johanna, Allissandro, Elena,Claudia,Feran, Heather, Ferruccio, Patxi, Jorge, Fatima and the many kind people we met along the way.

Donations

Please send donations to my https://www.paypal-marketing.co.uk/sendmoney/send_to_a_friend.htm account using barleyhill2002@yahoo.ie as my ID.Also I have set up a bank account as many people have said they cant send money via paypal. One can donate through paypal or this bank account.
Barclays Bank
Acc name- Fiona Catherine Sheahan
Acc no - 43936686
sc- 209655
IBAN- GB72 BARC 2096 5543 9366 86
BIC- BARCGB22
I appreciate you taking the time. Thank you very much.

Trees for Tibet

Since the 1949 occupation of Tibet up to 50% of its forests have been needlessly destroyed which has led to the desert area of Tibet expanding to 500,000km sq in the past 35 years. 1,000,000 people are dependent on these grasslands for survival as well as numerous species of wildlife and their habitats.
This deforestation has led to increased sediment in the rivers and as 10 of Asias major rivers are sourced in Tibet eg Yangtze, Brahmaputra, this causes major environmental problems.Major flooding in the Bay of Bengal has been attributed to deforestation in Tibet.

Trees for Tibet project was set up to raise money to help the people of Lowah village in Amdo province, East Tibet. They live in an area called Mangra and 1000's of peoples livelihoods are effected by the increasing problem of desertification. Amdo is also an area which has maintained a very strong nomadic culture.

This Tibetan way of life is already under threat by new Chinese law restricting freedom of farming and the housing of nomads in towns and cities.If the nomads grasslands are also destroyed by desertification they will be further forced from their land in to Chinese cities. This results in unemployment, drug and alcohol abuse and the death of a proud and unique way of life already struggling to survive.

Since 2002 Pujah and the villagers have taken it upon themselves to save the grasslands by buying and planting Aspen trees each year, approximately 1,000,000 in total.This was aided by free seeds and saplings from the Chinese government at the beginning , as well as some financial support from Germany.But this support has stopped!At the beginning of this project the survival rate of the trees was 70% now it is 95% due to greater knowledge and experience.

Financially this is a huge struggle and Pujah is forced to take out bank loans which are a tremendous burden to pay. Sadly the family are often forced to sell their livestock to do so.£1 will pay for 8 trees, including transport, labour and fencing costs.The local government has given the family permission to plant 26,000mu(17km2 of land).They need to plant approximately 15,200mu(11km2)more ! There is still much work to be done.

The Tibetan people need to be listened to and given power to protect their grasslands, environment and culture. The Chinese Governments plans to resettle chinese people in Tibetan areas has led to over farming and increased desertification as they have no knowledge of the grasslands.

This is why Pujah and his fellow villagers need to be supported and given the power to decide their own fate as Tibetan people. Please help us to continue raising money to help these villagers fight to protect their environment and culture.