Pendeba Program, China

Pendeba is a new Tibetan word for “worker who benefits the village.” 

Pendebas are local volunteers who work to improve daily life within China’s protected areas. Future Generations partners with the Tibet Department of Science and Technology and a new non-profit organization known as the Pendeba Society to provide training in:

• primary health
• sanitation
• nutrition
• income generation
• conservation concepts

The Pendeba is the local person whom these remote communities can turn for help. Pendebas:

• Advise and help their neighbors improve health, sanitation, and nutrition in the home
• Help their communities build latrines, dig irrigation ditches, access simple solar lighting and cooking technologies
• Promote opportunities for income generation through improved animal husbandry, non-timber forest products, and tourism

The program began in 1994 in the Qomolangma (Mt. Everest) National Nature Preserve and has expanded to the Changtang Nature Peserve and the Four Great Rivers protected area.

More than 600 Pendebas have been trained both through local-level training and study tours to Nepal for senior-level Pendebas who serve as trainers and supervisors.

In 2009, a Future Generations Master's Degree student, Norbu Tsering, established the Pendeba Society, a local non-profit organization registered in Lhasa. The Pendeba Society will strengthen training and networking among the 276 Pendebas of the Qomolangma (Everest) National Nature Preserve.