How one woman is helping to empower youth in Parkdale's Tibetan community

Chemi Lhamodidn't just how much she could give back to her own neighbourhood until shephoned home from a clean water project she was helping with in Sri Lanka.

Lhamo was in Grade 10 at the time.Butthat phone call to her mother, who was in India, turned out to be a defining moment.

Lhamogrew up in Toronto's Parkdale neighbourhood, one of fewer than 10,000 Tibetans who call Toronto home. She went toschool atParkdaleCollegiate Institute.

But while she wasn't the only member of her community living in Parkdale, she realized two things were missing: a sense of community and the resources to succeed.

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"I saw a lot of Tibetan faces which was reassuring," she told CBC Metro Morninghost Matt Galloway on Tuesday.

"But as a young child, new immigrant, I felt a little bit lost with school, jobs, lots of other issues," she said.

Looking to her own backyard

Over the course of that conversation with her mother, Lhamolearned there were thousands ofTibetans living in India after fleeing the Chinese occupation of their homeland.

Lhamolearned toojust how privileged she was and that she was in a position to give back.

That's when she decided she wanted to do more to contribute to her own Tibetan Parkdale community. It wasn't long before she started an internship with the Tibetan Canadian Cultural Centre.

During her several years with the organization,Lhamohas helped launch the Tibetan Youth Alliance Committee, aimed at empowering young Tibetan Canadians through mentorships, community events and promoting cultural preservation.

"It all goes back to my Buddhist traditions, the values of wisdom and compassiongoing hand-in-hand, learning about how to be happy, internally happy," she said onMetro Morning.

'That's where I draw strength from'

"Personally, that's where I draw strength from when I looked to within my own community, that's where I found all of the answers."

Today, Parkdale is transforming. The neighbourhood is one of Toronto's gentrification battlegrounds.

But in the midst of that,Lhamosays, the Tibetan community has grown.

"There's a number of Tibetans going to Parkdale Collegiate Institute," she said.So much so that "now we even have the 'Tenzin joke'" because so many Tibetans are named Tenzin.

And now every Wednesday, the space outside Parkdale Collegiate becomes a dance floor, where Tibetans young and old come together to perform andpreserve the traditional circle dance somethingLhamonever could have anticipated when she first moved into the neighbourhood.

What's it like?

"You've got to see it yourself,"Lhamosaid with a laugh.