August 11, 2021, Lhasa, Tibet - For its eleventh consecutive year, the Love Without Borders volunteer group, now consisting of over twenty middle school students, high school students, and their family members from China, Canada, and the U.S., held its "I Love Tibet Week" on the ground. Due to the global pandemic, this year's participants encountered their share of bumps along their way to Tibet. In fact, many were unable to participate in person as travel restrictions only added to the complications of reaching this high-altitude and mysterious city in mountainous Western China.
 
Even before events kicked off on the first day, volunteers were notified that the orphanage for the blind they had planned to visit was placed under lockdown. Nonetheless, permissions for entrance were negotiated, and scholarship awards were handed out to the students during a makeshift ceremony on the orphanage playground. Over 60,000 CNY in funds were raised after a month-long fund-raising activity for the orphanage via social media initiatives. Two industrial refrigerators and numerous other provisions of daily necessity were donated as well. The orphanage, affiliated with a cardboard factory, is in great need of such donations: orphans are expected to earn their keep by working part-time at the factory to pay for their room, board, and tuition.
 
Attending the event on a clear, bright Lhasa day was Tinley, a local monk from the nearby Yenmari Monastery who blessed the ceremony with his presence. Many of the volunteers who could not attend in person participated online. By collaborating in this hybrid format, student volunteers also organized special meals for the orphans. They had the opportunity to get to know the orphans, learn their stories, and share their stories of the outside world. One student from the Kent School in Connecticut, Zhikai (Oscar) Wang, performed a piano concert via an online live stream for Tibetan orphans – and all the attendants of the ceremony celebrated love beyond borders. Over the following days, middle and high school students pitched in by guiding local workers online on how to re-paint the common room in students' dorm, for example. After a week of charitable events in Lhasa, Love Without Borders continues to prove that its mission, serving people for the better, rings true.
 

Reporter: Zhikai (Oscar) Wang, Kent School