Interview: Built on Respect Uses DIY Punk Passion to Aid Tibetan Refugees

In the summer of 2008, Heidiminx went to India through Cross Cultural Solutions (CCS), an international volunteer program based in New Rochelle, New York. While she was there, she took time to explore part of upper Dharamsala called McLeod Ganj, a Buddhist area.

Another volunteer through CCS told her about Tibet Hope Center, which was founded by Kusang Tenzing and Chundak on May 8, 2007. THC teaches English to over 150 students with an age range between 18 and 50 years old. Tenzing himself is only 22 and fled to India when he was seven; he does not know whether or not his parents are still alive.

Heidiminx began helping at the THC when one of her friends was teaching Photoshop to its directors and asked her to help. She started teaching the directors various things such as how to make CD labels.

“The next thing you know,” Heidiminx explains, “the students were saying, ‘You were teaching the directors last night. You understand computers. How do we set up e-mail? How do we attach photos?’

“We didn’t have an Internet connection at the school at that point, so they’re taking notes on how to sign in to Google. I was taking it for granted that I knew how to set up an e-mail account. So much of the computer usage there is to just keep clicking things to figure out what happens.

“I have very strong business and marketing skills, and I can’t teach them with a check in the mail, so I’ll go and teach first hand so that the center can be sustainable. When you share knowledge, you empower someone.”

So Heidiminx decided to create a nonprofit instead, and she received a lot of support for her idea in the punk-rock community. Built on Respect filed for nonprofit status, and it was fiscally sponsored by the arts-related nonprofit owned by her accountant, Howie Seligman, as well as The Solo Foundation, an incubator for developing nonprofits.

Heidiminx utilized all of her punk-rock connections and now INKED, Black N Blue Productions, and I Scream Records are all sponsors. Cro-Mags, Wisdom in Chains, and Trapped Under the Ice threw a benefit concert for Built on Respect on December 28 at New York’s Knitting Factory.

Sick of It All posted a PSA early in the life of the project to show support; Devil Doll posted a bulletin and raised funds at its first annual XXX-Mas Bizarre; numerous other bands have posted testimonials on Built on Respect’s website.