Special Olympics

For the last six or so years my Trust has been supporting a disabled daycare centre in Butwal, southwest Nepal. It's a great place - set up in 1995 by a group of parents of disabled children. These include former British Army Gurkha Captain Bishnu Shrestha, whose daughter Kalpana has cerebral palsy. Each year we provide 100% funding for the centre's home visit programme that provides outreach to those disabled children who are physically incapable of coming in to attend the centre on a daily basis.


Yesterday I heard that Chandra Prasad Pun, 20, (right) from the centre has been chosen as one of 14 people to represent Nepal in the forthcoming 2007 Special Olympics World Summer Games being held in Shanghai, China from 2-11 October 2007. Chandra has been selected for the 200 metre race and the relay event in China having won many medals and trophies in his preferred 200m and Shot Put at National Level events in Kathmandu over the last couple of years. Chandra now comes to the daycare centre every day, where he has learnt some English and how to make some money by making candles and envelopes. Other children also learn to sew whilst physiotherapy and speech therapy are also available for those that would benefit from them. Initially Chandra accessed these services through the home visit programme which we fund. This has been such fabulous news for us as the funder and I wish him every success at the the Games.