The month of January was also very special for THF as a group of 11 children along with 2 teachers were leaving for 26 days UK cultural tour. Tibet Foundation, a charity based in London as a part of their 20th anniversary celebrations, had invited this cultural group to UK . The group along with their heavy luggage of costumes was bid farewell on the 20 th of January from the Indira Gandhi international airport. The group reached safely to the Heathrow Airport in London and was warmly received by Tibet Foundation. After a two days sightseeing and rest, the group began their UK cultural tour which kept them very busy and took them to the four corners of the UK . The group during its 26 days tour visited 31 schools and interacted with almost over 3000 students visiting schools in Newcastle, Northumberland, Liverpool, Manchester, Weston supermare, Wales, Scotland, Devon and East Sussex. Apart from the presentations and interactions with the school students the group also made some public performances in London . The group returned to India on the 14 th of February. On the whole the cultural tour had been very successful with a lot of positive out comings. 

The students in grade X and XII during these two months had been very busy, first with their extra coaching classes at school and thereafter with their self-studies. Their board exams were to begin from the 1 st of March until 1 st of April, 2005. 

Losar the Tibetan New Year was on the 9 th of February and thus the family homes were very busy during the month of January and the first week of February making preparations for the big day. Among the many preparations cooking of Tibetan cookies (Phungu Amjo) for New Year offerings to the alter is one particular difficult task for the families for the Tibetan New Year as not everyone can make these special cookies. So at the family homes the skilled phungu amjo makers are usually in great demand as the Losar approaches and they usually spend a complete month making cookies for all the different family homes. Cleaning of the homes and the surrounding is one other work, which keeps everyone on their toes just before Losar. A day before the New Year, the alter was richly decked with offerings of Tibetan cookies, sweets and fruits. 

The Losar was celebrated with much fun and gaiety at the family homes although the cold climate took off some of the charm but this was a celebration to which no one would stay back stage. On Losar everyone assembled for the formal function during which scarves were offered to the portrait of His Holiness The Dalai Lama and children made Tibetan cultural presentations. At the homes the parents prepared special meals for the children. 

Soon after Losar, the Opera group of the school, who had been practicing the Tibetan Opera visited the nearby Tibetan settlements and performed for the Tibetan community in Poanta and Dickeyling settlements, this was also a practice session for the group before they actually performed in the annual Shoton(Opera) Festival in Bylakuppe, south India. In the third week of February the opera group left for the Shoton festival and performed for one full day at the Shoton festival. Their presentation was highly appreciated and well received by the audience; a lot of ex-THF students warmly greeted the group and provided the performers with much assistance during their stay in south India . As a part of the tour the group also visited the different Tibetan monasteries and temples in Bylakuppe. 

The end of February was also the time for the children who had been for holidays to their near and dear ones in India to return back to school. On 28 th February all these children who had left for holidays reported back and on the same day the 1 st school teachers meeting of year 2005 was held. 

On 1 st March the new academic session for the Tibetan Homes School began and it was wonderful to see all the children dressed up smartly in their school uniforms at school. The first week of the school was very hectic for the children with distribution of books and it took them almost the whole week to settle. The beginning of March also had the school busy with arrangements for the school board examinations as Tibetan Homes School was once again nominated as the Mussoorie centre for holding the CBSE board examinations. The examinations began from the 1 st of March and were conducted successfully. 

On 5 th March we celebrated Parent's day by paying our respects to the Mother of His Holiness The Dalai Lama and thanking all the foster mothers and parents at our homes for their tremendous commitment and dedication in serving the children. The school captain spoke on behalf of the children and expressed their gratitude to the home parents, which was followed with games and tea refreshments for our home parents. The month also saw the start of the inter house competitions and among the co-curricular activities the English essay, Tibetan essay and the Tibetan calligraphy competitions were held for the junior and the senior division. The overall winners in the three competitions were Trisong house, Songtsen house and Namri house respectively. 

On 2nd April the Graduation Day took place for our children who had completed their grade XII. There were 88 outgoing students. They were congratulated with a traditional scarf each. They are now on a long summer break and will be returning when the results are declared in May. After which depending on their marks they will be selecting their further education courses. At the function, last year's environment club members were awarded certificates and a traditional scarf each to thank them for their work carried on last year. Our students who took part in the Tibetan Essay competition (organised by the Department of Education in Dharamsala) were awarded cash prizes and traditional scarf each. 

On 7 th April, the World Health Day the senior nurse in charge gave talk to the Home parents on the topic Health and Hygiene. The Home parents were provided first aid kit box to be used for the children with instructions and definitions on how to use them. They were specially stressed on prevention of skin and diarrhea diseases, which were common among our children. We are happy to inform you that we are now also maintaining a small medical ward with a nurse at the school for the children so that they may be provided immediate care and treatment. On 11 th April, it was the inauguration of the new dental equipments of our dental clinic. Our dental clinic now has a completely new outlook with a new dental chair, autoclave, compressor, water filter and geyser. We are happy to report that the recent dental check up of all the children under the care of THF have showed excellent results.

We celebrated the 43rd anniversary of the Founder's Day on 23rd April 2005 with prayer and scarf offering ceremony. The cultural dance and song group presented brilliant items. The General Secretary presented a progress annual report on the institution with regard to its innumerous reach of support to children from Tibet and the poorer Tibetan communities in India despite the continuous inflow of children from Tibet . Similarly he also gave a report on the number of infirm and aged grans supported by providing them shelter and financial assistance through the help received from our kind sponsors and donor organizations to whom he expressed his deepest gratitude. During the function the awards for the best girl and boy were given to the students from the three sections ie the Montessori school, the primary and the senior. After the function the children were distributed a packet of tuck each. The spring fete was organised on 24th and the younger children were given Rs. 60/each while the older ones were given Rs. 100/each to spend at the various games and food stalls. While on 25th we gathered at the temple for a traditional prayer and scarf offering ceremony towards the 16th birthday of Panchen Lama Gendun Choekyi Nyima.

We are also very happy to inform you that this year we have had 26 new admissions of trainees in our vocational training centre and at the same time from Tibet until the end of the period of April we have received 79 new children from Tibet .

We hope the above information on the activities of THF during the last four months has been very informative to you.