“Adopting” a school doesn’t mean sending off a donation every once in a while but rather committing oneself, consistently and long-term. A school is not a sudden emergency; it doesn’t require charity so much as continuity, stabilitly, certainty that every year a new academic year will begin, that there will be teachers, students, and classrooms, and that all the children, without any kind of discrimination, will have access to education.

Originally, we weren’t sure if this little school would survive all of its hardship and poverty. Now that our first students are in secondary school–committed to taking their lives in hand with admirable determination and touching grace–we are sure that the Rangdum school, despite the obstacles that it continually has to overcome, has borne fruit.

At its heart, adopting a school means contributing to the growth of free people. Lama Tenzin, with a voice choked with emotion, said to us, “Please, do not forget the school at Rangdum.” We told him that we never would.