Amala's Message on receiving the "2nd Edition of the Education and Peace International Award" on 10 November 2000, Italy.

It fills me with a sense of tremendous gratitude and honour that the "Opera Nazionale Montessori", http://www.montessori.it/english the Italian non-profit institution responsible since 1924 for the dissemination of the thought and work of Madam Maria Montessori, has designated the Tibetan Children's Village Organization, India as the recipient of the "2nd Education and Peace International Award" during its International Conference from 16-18 November 2000, in cooperation with the city of Chiaravalle near Ancona, where the great Italian educator was born.

I accept your prestigious award with simplicity on behalf of myself and thousands of Tibetan Children who have learned and grown independent from Maria Montessori's wonderful educational philosophy and method, which has spread the world over from 1907. And I deeply thank Pietro De Santis, the President of the Opera Nazionale Montessori and all the colleagues for this recognition of our work in promoting the thoughts and work of Madam Maria Montessori.

Much as I want to come personally to receive the award, due to problems at home, I cannot come. As informed earlier, I am deputing our General Secretary, Mrs. Tashi Lhamo and two children from the village to represent the Tibetan Children's Village organization to receive the award.

Ever since we came into exile in 1959, due to the Chinese occupation of our country, on one of the foremost concerns of His Holiness the Dalai Lama was on the care and education if the children. Since the children were the future seeds of the Tibet and since they were the most vulnerable at the time, he proposed the setting up of a nursery for the children. My elder sister the late Mrs. Tsering Dolma Takla, personally volunteered to take up the challenge of organizing this centre which was known as the Nursery for Tibetan Refugee Children. With the untimely demise of my sister in 1964, I gave up my studies and continued what she started.

Aside from taking care of the children physically and emotionally, the need to find a suitable way of educating the children demanded equal attention. With the help of very dedicated and learned volunteers like Miss Umadevi and Montessori teachers like Miss Chandara Bhatia and Miss Bhatia Trivedi, we were able to start educating the children in the Montessori Method in 1970. From then on, we moved from strength to strength and we became the first organization to start the Montessori Methods in the Tibetan community. Today, all Tibetan Children's Village Schools have the Montessori Method in place at the pre-primary level.

The success of the Montessori Method at the Tibetan Children's Village generated a lot of enthusiasm in the other schools and centers of the Tibetan Educational practices in exile. Requests for workshops and training programs flowed and we readily agreed. So far, we conducted 9 such training programs for the teachers over the years and the practice of the Montessori Method is now widespread in our Tibetan Community in exile. Along with the teaching practice, we have started a Montessori Centre at Dharamsala where we produce Montessori equipments and development of the Montessori practice for all the schools.

The practice of Montessori Method in the Tibetan Children's Village Schools in particular and in other Tibetan Schools in general, has been very successful and rewarding, and we find that Madam Montessori's Educational Philosophy and Practice is very similar to our Buddhist Philosophy and way of educating children. Therefore in our community, we did not experience any conflict or difficulty introducing the Montessori Method in any way.

It is needless to say that we are always grateful and deeply indebted to Madam Maria Montessori and what she gave to the world in the way of caring and educating children which completely changed and revolutionized the way we educate and see children.

Once again, I deeply thank the Opera Nazionale Montessori in particular and all the dignitaries gathered here in general for giving recognition to the work we do in our community in exile in India. We will always cherish this award and we will rededicate ourselves to practice the Montessori Method the way Madam Maria Montessori envisioned.