Friday 30 May 2008

Shailaja's birthday

Today is Shailaja's birthday and a fitting opportunity for me to pay tribute to this lady who has given herself over so fully to beneficence.

Shailaja is the Director of our local partner organisation, Esther Benjamins Memorial Foundation (EBMF), based here in Kathmandu. I know her very well by now and have to admire her stamina in the midst of an ongoing huge workload and at times open hostility. Anyone who is good at their job and at heart will inevitably have their detractors in Nepal and Shailaja has been no exception. Indeed, when I first came to live in Nepal I was horrified to discover that she was being actively discriminated against by her (male) employers; not only was she more committed than they, but she had the wrong ingredients of being both an Indian and a woman. There is a widespread mutual antipathy between Indian and Nepali and no shortage of misogynists in Nepal. Now her pathetic narrow-minded persecutors from that time have all gone and Shailaja has taken the leading position that was her destiny.

A few weeks ago I recommended Shailaja for an international humanitarian award. Here is an extract from my pen picture:

"....Once again she has thrown herself into this task, building EBMF from nothing into a leading player in the fight against child trafficking within the course of a year. She has traveled widely within the trafficking prone areas of Nepal, motivating field staff and interacting with the communities and their children. She is a “people person” and never more comfortable than when operating in this kind of role. Shailaja has shown typical courage, herself going on rescue missions where “no” is never taken for an answer. She has been directly involved in the counseling of teenage girls who have been intercepted on the trafficking routes and has managed to convince them to give evidence against the traffickers (no small undertaking). As a consequence agents are now behind bars. And just a couple of weeks ago she was the one who personally confronted a lady at her Kathmandu home in a bid to rescue a ten year old girl from domestic slavery. The lady tried to intimidate Shailaja by telling her how important she was; Shailaja responded by filing a case with the police which is ongoing.

Shailaja now lives in the midst of 120 children, mainly trafficking victims and their “at risk” siblings at the EBMF refuge in Godawari to the southeast of Kathmandu. It is hard to overstate how fatiguing this must be, day in, day out, with little time taken by Shailaja for holiday. However she manages with her ready grin. Go to most Kathmandu orphanages and you’ll find grim Dickensian facilities, and idle staff. Visit the EBMF one and you will see the model of how things should be. I called in there last week, totally unannounced, and found a volleyball competition underway with Shailaja in the middle of the cheering children, dressed in her Manchester United strip.

I venture to suggest that you will find within this part of Asia few examples of commitment to social service and child welfare as strong as Shailaja. On the back of her motorbike she has a sticker reading “Catch me if you can”. I expect that few ever will."


Happy birthday Shailaja.

Thursday 29 May 2008

Terror on the Terai

In my post of 1st February I referred to the cover up over the pogrom that had taken place in Kapilvastu, south Nepal, last September. In what was a clear case of ethnic cleansing, extremists from the ethnic Indian (Madhesi) population had committed atrocities against the immigrant Nepali hill people (Pahadi) who have been living on Nepal's southern plains for the last couple of generations. The inquiry into the violence passed this off as just having been caused by criminal elements with no recognition of it having been inter communal strife. Today, as Nepal celebrates the declaration of a republic, I regret to have to write that this ethnic cleansing continues largely unreported.

The Esther Benjamins Trust has a major project activity in Bhairahawa, Rupendehi District, which is one along from Kapilvastu. I am reliably informed by a local contact in Rupendehi that Madhesi terrorist activities are being intensified there. Over the past week or two four Pahadis were killed in Rupandehi and over a dozen abducted, to be released only after payment of substantial ransoms. On 24th May the newly elected president of Bhairahawa's Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Mr. Mahendra Kumar Shrestha (a Pahadi) received a letter from one Madhesi faction (JTMM) demanding almost £20,000 as a "Terai Tax". It was mentioned in the letter that Shrestha should pay the amount within 72 hours as a tax for running business and owning property in the Terai. According to the letter every Pahadi who wishes to remain in the Terai should pay a Terai Tax or expect physical punishment or death. The letter has been followed up with phone calls to Shrestha, threatening his life if he didn't pay immediately.

This is a huge challenge to the new Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, with Madhesi rebel outfits demanding their own Pahadi-free province running right along Nepal's southern plains. This would cut across possible future federal boundaries that might run north south in an attempt to delineate Nepal's farrago of other ethnic groups. And whoever controls that southern strip can put a stranglehold on the country given imports from India must cross this troubled territory.

Wednesday 28 May 2008

Happy Holiday

A few months ago Bev and I were lounging on the grass outside a government building in Kathmandu waiting for some civil servants, who were in the midst of an interminable tea break, to sign some of Alisha's adoption paperwork. The young Nepali lad who was with us (as staff at Alisha's source orphanage) said to us "The problem with my people is that we are lazy". We of course vigorously rejected his comment politely and vigorously. You only have to see Nepali women labouring in the fields while their menfolk expend equal amounts of energy playing cards to realise the invalidity of his generalisation. Seriously though, I think there is actually an extremely strong innate work ethic in the Nepali people and those who are living abroad reap rich rewards from their industry. The problem is the bizarre domestic culture of holiday taking that is forced upon the nation by others, a culture that drains initiative and cripples industry and risks condemning Nepal to remain an economic backwater and its people impecunious. It is a growing problem, especially now that the more inclusive "New Nepal" recognises many more public holidays in deference to minority cultures and religions. This development flagged up in a typically insightful article in the Nepali Times in April this year.

Tomorrow the new national Constituent Assembly will meet for the first time and is expected to pass a resolution that will turn Nepal into a Republic. No longer will tourist brochures be able to trumpet Nepal as being "the world's only Hindu kingdom". Hopefully the king will have the good sense to capitulate and leave the royal palace with dignity; the plan is that the palace will thereafter become a national museum but heaven alone knows what that is going to exhibit. I have nothing personal against the king but I am pleased as a republican to see the Nepalese head of state becoming a president. For dynasties hold no monopoly over good genes (even if as in this particular royal family there has been a historical claim to be an incarnation of a deity) and I feel it must always be the preserve of the people to elect the national leader.

The interim government just yesterday called a three day public holiday to recognise this auspicious occasion.

Tuesday 27 May 2008

Disastrous education

So much attention, both nationally and internationally, is paid to the importance of education in Nepal. Yet even the most superficial analysis reveals what a raw deal the children are receiving in reality. I have written previously about the flaws of the chronically under-resourced government school system that sees so very few pupils (who are drawn from the lowest social classes) lasting the course to age 16 to take successfully the School Leaver's Certificate (SLC) examination. I have commented on the rote learning that bedevils both the government and private school methods of instruction, with examinations serving as tests of inculcation and memory rather than of education. I could write about the corporal punishment which is endemic in the schools and is just as vicious and sadistic as that which I knew as a boy in Ireland. However today I write about the latest news of the Ministry of Education deciding to close all government schools until the 10th of June. This is as a result of a lack of text books that over the weekend led to street disturbances at several locations across the country. The shortage is entirely due to the recent election when the national printing effort was directed towards producing ballot papers instead of the books that were necessary for the start of the academic year (April). So today's politicians have been elected to the disadvantage of tomorrow's citizens, who already have the cards so stacked against them. And those most disadvantaged kids whom we are trying to help will spend the next couple of weeks at the refuge providing a recreational and educational challenge to our already over-stretched staff. Brilliant.

Yesterday I visited our Arts Rehabilitation Centre in Godawari. It was lovely to witness our new art tutor, Jolanda Aucott, at work teaching the girls the basics of colour. The girls seem to thrive not just on the artistic input but on the attention that they receive from our enthusiastic volunteers. And the standard of mosaic work is soaring, with these becoming all the time smaller and more intricate, reducing shipping costs and making them more desirable to the tourist who might be limited by luggage space. The bee eater mosaic (published right) was designed by my wife Bev and based upon a photo I took at Bardia National Park (see my post of 4th April). It is just 12 cm by 16 cm and takes a girl around one week to make. Not bad for £60.

This morning's ornithological treat in my garden was a hoopoe which I spotted grazing on the lawn. It was a little distance away so please excuse the quality of the image. There's a mosaic in there somewhere...

Sunday 25 May 2008

"As big as bleedin' cats...."

Such were the rats in the Quartermaster's store, according to the old British Army song. The rats in Kathmandu also reach a healthy proportion in this very unhealthy environment as per this fine specimen which met its nemesis in my garden this morning in the form of my dog Bryher. Bev rushed out in the hope that it might yet be saved (she cares for all animals) but Bryher doesn't do anything by half.

Most days I drive past this billboard advertising a school that purports to offer a "New Vision in Education". As I do so I muse upon how beautiful the hills are in the background and how they have been spoilt by something resembling an internment camp. Sadly this is all too typical of the modern day ugly "pile them high, sell them quick" Nepali style of building that pays no respect to the country's rich architectural heritage. I suppose in defence of local advertising standards, this ad doesn't suggest for one moment that this is any kind of a heavenly vision - just a new one.

A felicitation

Yesterday was the fourth birthday party of the Kathmandu Animal Treatment Centre, a super little NGO which is now supported by its own UK registered charity. This is the one of the few other charities that I choose to support apart from of course The Esther Benjamins Trust. In spite of its acronym, KAT exists mainly for the welfare of dogs and the humane control of the Kathmandu stray dog population. Historically this problem has been "managed" (by others) through the widespread indiscriminate poisoning of dogs but this cruel practice achieves only a temporary reduction in the population. The KAT approach has been to pick up bitches off the streets and spay them, an approach that has had a documented long term benefit in other centres. Yesterday a spokesman for KAT said that they had over their first four years spayed 5,733 dogs preventing the birth of an estimated 55,000 puppies. That represents a real impact. KAT helps other animals on modest scale, including most recently one donkey (see my earlier post on "The Working Donkeys of Kathmandu", 9th April 2008) and has introduced pet therapy to a major children's home (our facilities don't need that kind of support as the refuges are already crawling with rescue dogs that my wife Bev has picked up off the street).

Yesterday's occasion turned into a "felicitation" for the organisation's delightful founder, artist Jan Salter who hails from the West Country in the UK. This rather quaint, antiquated term refers to an exercise in the erection of a gawdy tent and in fawning, lofty speeches that are usually rounded off with the presentation of a "token of love". The latter is usually a gimcrack of a statuette or picture of some description. A felicitation tends to be launched as an ambush on the unsuspecting recipient. I have been caught like this a couple of times and there is no escape from the onslaught. You just have to sit there with a fixed smile and curled toes while you take the compliments; on one occasion I was even referred to in a speech as "God's Wondrous Creation". The truth of the matter is that God's Wondrous Creation would rather run a mile than be part of such a ceremony. I am bemused by those who mis-read me so much to think that I might get any kind of a buzz from such public acknowledgement. Not only am I inherently quite shy, but the buzz that I get comes from making the Trust's whole operation work for the kids - and to find the funding for it to be sustained. That's quite enough for me.

Anyway, the event went as well as these things ever can do. It was rather a paradox though to have heard animal welfare speeches being made to the background chorus of howling dogs that were indignant at being put in their cages for an occasion that was being held in their usual exercise compound. Two of the longer speeches in Nepali were really useful for me as during these I managed at last to read a really interesting article on podcasting, this being my latest interest for improving the Trust's communication strategy.

As for Jan, she took the whole process in her stride even if she did fluff her acknowledgement speech in her uniquely dotty way. Bev and I are proud to be supporters of KAT and to have Jan as such a colourful friend in drab old Kathmandu.

Thursday 22 May 2008

The Sundhara Project

Since March this year we have been training deaf school leavers in Bhairahawa, southwest Nepal, in mosaic art techniques. This initiative was profiled in an article, "Silent Beauty", in the Nepali Times of 21st March. The trainees have been learning the basics in advance of our major mosaic project at a cafe in Sundhara, Kathmandu. The link is that this is one of the Nanglos "bakery cafe" chain that is distinctive in its favouring the employment of deaf and other disabled staff. The plan is to place a large mosaic in each of ten wall panels that surround the open air atrium that serves as the cafe's dining and function area.

Sculptor Rebecca Hawkins, who earlier this year was a volunteer art tutor at our workshops for child trafficking survivors, is designing the artwork, using as a theme the wildlife of the Terai (the southern strip of Nepal). This morning she sent me her design for the first of the panels (see right). She'll now have an input from my friend British professional mosaic artist Jo Letchford and then the young deaf artists can get started on those tiles. The project will be part funded by the cafe and by two schools, Sha Tin College in Hong Kong and Kingston Grammar in the UK.

Rebecca (wearing black) is shown in the video below measuring up the panels at the cafe, assisted by Esther Benjamins Trust staff member, Camilla Kinchin, who is coordinating the project.

I hope this will be the first of many such projects in Nepal that will raise the profile of disabled and other stigmatised groups within society.

Wednesday 21 May 2008

Meet the parents

We have been hosting representatives of the ChildLine India Foundation for the last couple of days on this their first working visit to the Esther Benjamins Trust in Kathmandu. Two of them, Kelvin and Komal, I had liaised with before on previous visits to India. They are still smarting following a joint attempt with us at circus rescue last summer that ended in defeat, with the team encountering a devious scoundrel of a circus owner who had protected himself well through links with the local authorities in that particular area. These two are as determined as we are that this should not be the end of the matter for that circus and nor should the failure be repeated elsewhere. To that end and to chart out the way ahead they brought with them a Delhi-based barrister, Nandita, who will be supporting the team. The very passionate Nandita is sharp as a razor and her emotions were fired up by meeting the children at our refuge who, well rehabilitated, were able to talk with her objectively (and even to her surprise with humour) about their experiences.

Yesterday morning we had a round table meeting with field staff, Trust office staff (who include two former circus girls), our own organisation's lawyer and two parents whose children are still languishing inside the circus. The purpose was mainly for the ChildLine India team to gain an understanding of how children are trafficked (from the parents' accounts), what they can expect once inside the circus (gleaned from the two former circus girls) and the historical difficulties experienced in rescue (from the field team). With my Welsh friend Duane Clifford-Jones, who is fluent in Nepali and Hindi, translating the exchange was quite electric and highly informative.

So often I have written sympathetically in our charity literature that agents prey upon the ignorant and naive parents of the children. The two who came to us yesterday were cases in point. However as Duane extracted from one of them (with great sensitivity) what had happened I felt a very different emotion. He told how he had pretty well handed over his daughter without even any financial transaction having taken place or paperwork. Two years later, and having heard nothing of his 12 year old daughter in the interim, he was feeling that he had made a mistake. Naivety and ignorance is one thing but this was just plain stupid and irresponsible, and for what he has visited upon his daughter he really deserves a good slapping. After the two parents had given their evidence we excused them from the meeting while we discussed the prevalence of sexual abuse within the Indian circuses.

Following yesterday's meeting we have agreed to launch another rescue mission, with the proper legal and networking backup, within the next two to three weeks, most likely on a major circus in Mumbai.

Continuing violence

Nepal is a land where conspiracy theories abound where apparently all kinds of dark forces are at work to scupper progress and those who are on the side of what is right and good. The best illustration of this is probably the plethora of these that followed the massacre of the Nepalese royal family in 2001. Conspiracy theories make for intriguing speculation by the man in the street but they also are a way that for example a political party can prepare its constituency for failure. The Maoists are no exception in this respect and there have been many statements from them since their landslide victory in the Constituent Assembly elections suggesting that plans are afoot to deny them their destiny to govern and form the "new Nepal". I am sure that they are, at least in part, quite correct however it could well be the case that the biggest threat to the Maoist agenda coming to fruition lies from within. For it would appear that some from the ranks of the People's Liberation Army have not grasped yet that murder is no longer an acceptable activity in the post-conflict Nepal.

Last week some PLA fighters abducted a Kathmandu business man, Ram Hari Shrestha, and took him to one of their cantonment camps near Chitwan. It was alleged that he had been involved in theft and for that he was beaten to death. A PLA brigade commander has been arrested and two others are at large. The Maoist leadership has been quick to condemn the outrage. For Shrestha was not just any old member of the public. He was prominent within the Kathmandu community and his family had given shelter to the Maoist fighters during the People's War. Such was his connection to the Maoists that the Maoist chairman himself, Prachanda, went to the widow's home to tell her of the vicious circumstances of her husband's demise. There have now been street protests against the Maoists and today in Kathmandu there is a "bandh" (strike) that will close down the city and all transportation. This has been a Maoist shot in the foot if ever there was one but maybe Shrestha's death will not be in vain given the impact that perhaps the public revulsion will have on ensuring that the Maoists stick better to a non violent path in future.

More difficult to read has been the bomb attack on the Norwegian Embassy last weekend, a discrete establishment which is within ready walking distance (earshot) of my home. It is hard to imagine why the affable Norwegians should be the target of anyone's aggression. Unless perhaps someone from the European community is giving them a taste of their own medicine for the atrocities inflicted upon their ancestors by marauding Norsemen a thousand years' ago. More likely it is a protest by a disgruntled Nepali tourist who has been on holiday in Norway and is making a statement against the cost of the basic essentials of life over there. I visited Norway way back in 1984 and the cost of beer was ridiculous. I haven't been back since.

Sunday 18 May 2008

Making a dent

In yesterday's post I commented on how I was increasingly of the impression that the best that one could do in the fight against girl trafficking was to make a significant "dent" in the problem; sadly I feel that the scale and economics of human trafficking makes the fight unwinnable given the limited resources a Trust like mine can muster. However, I added that I felt one had to continue to try to make that dent else one forfeits one's right to remain part of humanity.

After reading my post my wife Bev reminded me of the content of an amazing obituary we had read recently. It was for Polish lady Irena Sendler who passed away this month at the age of 98. During the war, as a gentile social worker, she risked her life to save 2,500 Jewish children from certain death by smuggling them out of the Warsaw ghetto. Later in the war she was captured and in return for her courage was tortured by the Gestapo.

Of course it could be argued unkindly that this heroism had but a modest impact given the scale of the Holocaust. Indeed, at the end of her days Irena herself remained haunted by the thought of how she could or should have done more. Nevertheless last year she was honoured by the Polish senate which had no doubt about her contribution as a national heroine. She had made that significant dent. Irena was too frail to attend the ceremony, but instead one of those children she rescued read out a letter in which she stated "Every child saved with my help is the justification of my existence on this Earth, and not a title to glory".

I am very pleased to share that philosophy, not least in the context of the motivation, professional background and beliefs of my first wife, Esther Benjamins.

Saturday 17 May 2008

A job interview in Nepal

A few years’ ago I listened to a programme on Forces Radio that had been compiled to mark some anniversary of the launch of the service. In it presenters reflected on some of their golden moments from over the years with one veteran, Richard Astbury, recalling how another, Richard Nankivel, had been the victim of a prank. He recounted how an interview had been set up between a visiting foreign dignitary and Nankivel on live radio. His mischevious colleagues hadn’t told Nankivel beforehand that the visitor didn’t speak a word of English.

I was reminded of this anecdote yesterday when we conducted interviews for a new researcher’s appointment within my INGO, Esther Benjamins Trust – Nepal (EBT-N). Chairing the interview, I invited my colleague Chris Kendrick to initiate the questioning of the final candidate who had quite a strong, well-written CV. None of us could have guessed from this that she hardly spoke a word of English. Chris was visibly discomfited by the experience, his own excellent command of English stretched to the limit, writhing as he tried in vain to frame a question that the unfortunate lady would understand. The amazing thing was that she seemed to remain quite cool during this process; I’d have run a mile. In the end I called a premature halt to the interview and we sent her on her way. I guess she, like so many other Nepalis in a land where there is so little work to be had, tries her luck with every appointment that is advertised. You’ve got to admire the tenacity if not the wisdom of it all.

The successful candidate, who has a Masters in Law, was effusive about her interest in joining our effort against trafficking. This is a subject that has been greatly on my mind these past few days, following my unsuccessful fundraising attempts for our Programme in Nepal and after receiving this rather depressing article from my co-worker in Nepal, Helen Sherpa.

Given the scale of the problem and the vast amount of money that is involved in the traffickers’ and collaborators’ ill-gotten gains I really wonder if this, like poverty and prostitution, is an issue that is going to be with us always. We have nothing to counter this with apart from commitment and courage, but these are insufficient if not underpinned by a financial input that just can’t rival the economics of evil that we are up against. When I asked the young lady yesterday what she saw as being the solution she felt it was just a question of interested organisations pulling together to maximise their effort. There is some truth in this but there is also the reality to contend with of the rivalry that inevitably arises between organisations that have similar agendas and are forced into a situation of competing against one another for scarce financial resources (grants).

My depressing conclusion from all of this is that the best we can do at the end of the day is to make some kind of a significant dent in the criminal activity that goes with modern day slavery. And we must do this if we are not to forfeit our right to be part of humanity.

As Bev was carrying Alisha down the hallway this morning Alisha pointed behind her and said “Incey Spider”. When Bev looked around Incey turned out to have the proportions of a dinner plate.

Friday 16 May 2008

Kathmandu massage

The most common search words on Google that lead researchers to my blog are "Kathmandu", "Nepal" and "massage". For some reasons the sex tourists never use the words "prostitute" or "brothel". So for those visitors to this post who are considering to travel all the way to Nepal for a "massage" I thought I would post a picture of the kind of facility to expect; these salubrious premises are just around the corner from my home. If this doesn't make you review your plans then reflect upon the circumstances of the girls who are involved in the "massage" industry. They are often coming from desperately poor village areas and broken homes to be ruthlessly exploited by pimps - oops, proprietors. And if that doesn't bother you particularly you might be interested to learn that many of the girls who have been trafficked to India into the sex trade are sent home after they contract HIV. They duly enter the domestic sex trade and carry on their activities out of desperate need for an income.

Maybe best to stay at home?

Thursday 15 May 2008

Baya Weaver

It's always a welcome distraction from work when the bush outside my office window attracts a bird that I haven't seen before. This morning it was the turn of the "Baya Weaver" which I noticed rustling around in the ample pre-monsoon foliage. This is the male of the species, which is now in its yellow breeding plumage. As you can see by its rather startled look it had in turn spotted me just as I was snapping this image. According to my guide book it's quite a common resident but then again this is central Kathmandu!

At the end of March child counsellor Steve Shears came on trek into the Annapurnas through which he raised some very welcome funds for the Trust. This gave me a chance to meet him for the first time after a correspondence that had been running for the previous few months. I took Steve to see the refuge and art workshop and we had a good one to one chat about the kinds of problems our children have experienced and that we might have to deal with in the future. He is now writing up his journal from that visit and you might be interested to see the entries that appear on his blog. After that you might like to give him a little retrospective sponsorship towards our work through his secure online form. Thanks!

Monday 12 May 2008

HIV in Nepal

My colleague with The Esther Benjamins Trust in London, Chris Kendrick, arrives in Nepal on Thursday for his six monthly operational attachment. His main remit in UK is to fundraise and such field visits keep him in touch with our activities at the coal face. Chris has a background in implementing HIV related projects in Malawi, so for this trip I have asked him to begin a needs analysis on HIV and its impact upon Nepalese children. The situation already looks very bleak. See this overview by Surya Prasai, written just last week. I feel that the Trust has to play a role in fighting the infection and its consequences and Chris's research will start us off down that path.

Following my comments in yesterday's post, it is interesting to read Mr Prasai's sobering comment:

"The actual truth expressed by Nepal´s prominent AIDS activists in various world AIDS blog sites point to the fact that a massive diversion of attention of health resources has gone towards organizing expensive seminars and foreign travel jaunts for Nepali civil servants than focusing on the crises, thus adding injury to insult among those infected and affected."

Sunday 11 May 2008

Saturday in Kathmandu

Yesterday morning Bev and I decided to do some shopping in Kathmandu for books and posters for the children at our refuge, in advance of paying them a surprise visit in the afternoon. En route to the refuge we stopped for lunch at The Godavari Village Resort. It does a super lunch at the minute with locally-farmed Godawari trout being a seasonal delicacy (I highly recommend the Tandoori version of the dish).

The Resort is an amazing place, massive in scale, traditional in style and very plush. One wonders at first sight how it manages to make ends meet, given that it must have huge overheads yet is around three quarters of an hour away from Kathmandu’s tourist attractions and nightlife. Its view over the brickfields and chimneys below can only hold attraction for but a few of its visitors. The reason why it seems not just to survive but to prosper is its being a popular venue for conferences, especially for those conducted by “development” organisations.

When we arrived at the Resort there was a banner welcoming the delegates to a refresher course on "Orchestrating Ownership and Sustainability" (whatever that might mean), under the auspices of two organisations with the unfortunate acronyms of NAAN and MDF. I had heard of neither of these before but googled NAAN (Netherlands Alumini Association of Nepal) when I returned home. From its website it really gives the impression of having primarily a huge social emphasis, with the site mentioning its last tangible benefit to anyone, apart from themselves, being a cardiac clinic way back in 2002. I was taken aback to see on the poster that the course runs from 11-23 May; that must cost someone somewhere (most likely not the privileged attendees) an arm and a leg. However custom like this must do wonders for the "sustainability" of the Godavari Village Resort.

Conferences and seminars play a huge part in the daily life of the development sector over here and, in contrast to the edgy work that we are doing, seem to have no difficulty in attracting lavish funding support. Maybe the return from something like this is more predictable and funders are content to know that x number of participants attended for y days and studied such and such subjects. As for my Trust, we can only apply for funds stating in honesty that our plans are at times of necessity rather vague. For instance one of our rescue teams might go to an Indian circus, not knowing how many children are inside beforehand and (if the circus hasn’t moved in the meantime) whether or not they will come back empty handed or not. And as I wrote in my post of the other day liability considerations (given the risks involved) has scared off at least one potential grant maker this week from our very vital work. There's not much risk involved in attending a sustainability conference at the Godavari Village Resort, beyond sustaining wakefulness at the start of the afternoon session following a splendid lunch. The Resort is but one of a number of troughs used by those who purport to belong to the development sector in the racket of “conferences” and “networking”. Their contribution is an obscene squandering of scarce resources that are being frittered away slap bang in the middle of one of the world’s poorest nations where real need is so obvious and burgeoning.

After lunch we called at the refuge to be greeted by the refuge dog, a stray that Bev had picked up in really bad shape at the end of last year. The animal has gone from a having no fur and being mere skin and bone to becoming a picture of canine health and fitness. Before and after pictures are alongside. The kids gathered around us eagerly to study and savour the posters and to bask in a bit of loving adult company. The children’s main carer and local director, Shailaja, joined us and we spent some really quality time with the children, reminding ourselves once again of what this is all about.

In the group were two small boys who just the week before last we transferred from our other children’s centre in Bhairahawa following their achieving top marks in the end of year school examinations. The schools in Kathmandu are more challenging than those in the rural areas and we're going to stretch them to the limit of their abilities and give them the best chance possible in this very tough society. The boys know that their industry is being rewarded and they are over the moon to have been given this opportunity.

We left the children happily colouring in work books that we had brought them, and looking forward to Bev's return this week when she will be doing a library session with the youngest kids. Of course I am more than a little biased, but she's fantastic in this role and her rapport with these kids and their hypnotic response is a joy to behold.

Friday 9 May 2008

Establishing identity

One of the first projects that we give new arrivals at the Esther Benjamins Trust art workshop in Kathmandu is for them to make their own names in mosaic. After having been rejected and sold by their families to subsequently spend years as non-persons inside the Indian circuses this is an important opportunity for the girls to re-assert their identity. This week I extended the idea by encouraging the workshop girls to visit the 24 residents (or as they are termed by their carers the "inmates") of the nearby Karuna Bhawan hostel for HIV infected infants and women (see my post of 11th April), establish relationships and make them name plates as well. The girls have enjoyed this immensely and it has the added benefit of giving real purpose to their training. This afternoon I visited the workshop and photographed the students, touchingly absorbed with their task. The next project will be to make a mosaic of a flower as a follow on gift. I spent some time yesterday photographing flowers in my garden to provide sufficient inspiration to ensure that each of the 24 mosaics will be different, again allowing an expression of individuality. I will publish some of the results on this blog next week.

On the way home I called in to see our refuge children in Godawari. I was thrilled to see seven year old Juna Titung again for the first time in two years, she being one of the four children that I mentioned in my post of 5th May. She was practically wriggling with delight at seeing me again and I felt strangely flattered, an emotion that I don't experience that often or for that matter have any time for. But after that I felt a lot better with myself for having taken the decision to reunite her and her siblings with their family two years ago, inadvertently causing them such hardship and distress.

Thursday 8 May 2008

Cinderella

When we first came to live and work in Nepal in late 2004 my wife Bev acted in close support to the “Blue House” children’s refuge in Bhairahawa, southwest Nepal. Bhairahawa was hot, sticky, mosquito-blown, snake-infested, remote, socially and professionally isolated, but notwithstanding all of this Bev found her Blue House experience quite electric and well worth any “sacrifice” that we might have made. For the children there were little boy and girl survivors whom The Esther Benjamins Trust had just freed that year from some very dangerous and vicious Indian circuses. The challenge she shared with the children’s prime carer, Shailaja, was to bring them back into the real world, showing them love and affection in the process. Bev would go there just about every day, take classes, play with them, develop and restore their interests and personalities. Some video footage, narrated by Bev, shot inside the Blue House at that time can be found on the EBT YouTube channel.

This morning as I was reading Cinderella to my little daughter Alisha, I commented to Bev that the subtleties of a “wicked stepmother” would surely be lost on our 21 month old. Interestingly Bev remarked that those children in the Blue House had been transfixed by the story, wanting her to read it to them again and again. For most of those children were themselves unwanted and unloved, and had known cruel stepfathers or, more likely, stepmothers. Marriages break up frequently in their communities, elopement or early death of a parent is commonplace. Children from first marriages are often not wanted within a family unit (especially when it’s a very poor one) and that’s how they ended up being sold into the circus. For them Cinderella was no fairy story but they can expect few fairy godmothers to come to their help.

Wednesday 7 May 2008

Heroes


Each year the U.S. Department of State Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (G/TIP) publishes the TIP report giving an overview of the measures being taken against people trafficking in 150 countries. In the 2008 report the Nepal section will include a profile of "heroes" who are in the frontline, the heroes in question being the Esther Benjamins Trust's circus rescue team. Yesterday I forwarded a picture (right) of the team members for inclusion in the report. They are from left to right, Kumar Giri, Ganesh Shrestha and Bhim Lama. Ganesh and Bhim are former circus ringmasters, poachers turned gamekeepers.

I hope the accolade that these brave guys receive in the report leads to some funding being forthcoming (see yesterday's post on our desperate need). Otherwise they'll need to be stood down - I don't relish the prospect of telling them that - and girl victims of trafficking will have to remain trapped inside the India circuses. If that happens the 2008 TIP report will create the impression that something significant and positive is ongoing when in reality it may have already been terminated.

Tuesday 6 May 2008

The dangers of working against child trafficking

I am currently engaged in an exchange of correspondence with a U.S. based Foundation as I try desperately to raise the funds needed to fund our growing operation against cross border trafficking. Yesterday I was advised by that Foundation's Director that it was likely our dangerous rescue activities would not be eligible for their funding support as their Board would not be prepared to accept the associated liability.

This is an interesting point to reflect upon. There are charitable activities that carry no risk to life or limb at all - for example education or healthcare projects or work with orphaned or street children. That's fair enough and many organisations do wonderful worthy work in these fields. However, the difference with child trafficking projects as compared with the rest is that if you are to undertake work that is of any significance you will automatically be getting in the way of the livelihoods of criminal elements. That inevitably carries risk which in this part of the world where life is so cheap can have fatal consequences. The alternative (and one that some organisations follow) is to just pick up the pieces, say for example helping HIV infected girls who have been sent home as they have outlived their usefulness in the international sex trade or providing counselling to trafficking survivors. Useful as that is, it takes one into the realms of a kind of peaceful coexistence with the trade in human lives. If you are to genuinely "battle" (the word by the way used on this particular U.S. Foundation's website) human trafficking - and by implication win a victory - then you've got to be prepared to take the risks that go with battle.

My mind goes back to an Esther Benjamins Trust Board (Trustee) meeting in early 2003 that immediately followed the research that we had conducted on the abuse of trafficked Nepalese children inside Indian circuses. The question was "what now?". The Board was split down the middle, with one half thinking intervention was too risky and preferring us to confine ourselves to continuing to assist the dependent children of prisoners, disabled children and street children. The other half felt that we had to do something and take risks to rescue these desperate and abused children. The argument was won largely by the outspoken views of one Trustee (of Indian ethnicity) who pointed out that positive changes in the world had been effected by risk takers who stuck their necks out and risked their lives - like Gandhi and Mandela. She supported my view that we should get on with it and the decision was taken to proceed with raiding circuses in association with the Indian authorities. Afterwards I gave that Trustee a big hug for her support. I hadn't wanted the charity that bore my defiant late wife's name, she who had always been a fighter, to confine itself to addressing the symptoms of a problem.

That decision has led to over 300 children and teenagers being rescued from circuses; many had experienced rape and sexual abuse. We are pressing on to the next stage of the battle, firming up our relationship with ChildLine India, towards a final victory. All I need now is the money which doesn't seem too much to ask from those who are remote from the danger, money that will support those of our staff members who believe passionately in what they are doing and are prepared to risk their all.

Monday 5 May 2008

Failed family reunifications

Around five years ago we took in four siblings who had been languishing inside Bhimpedi jail in central Nepal. Two boys and two girls, their mother and father were serving life sentences for murder. The children were popular additions to our Bhairahawa refuge and they did very well at school. Then in February 2006 out of the blue there was an amnesty and the parents were released, with the mother coming to Bhairahawa soon afterwards to retrieve her children. We persuaded her to wait for another couple of months until the end of the school year (April) to avoid disrupting her children's education. The children were duly reunited with their parents two months' later along with 15 other refuge children whose parents had been freed from jail or whose domestic circumstances seemed to have improved sufficiently to allow them to care for their children. The reunifications were handled very sensitively by us with the children being given photograph albums as mementoes of their time and of their friends at the refuge, while parents were given our financial support to help with their future education.

Last week one of our field visits to this family found that the father was being conspicuous by his absence from the family "home" in the depths of the jungle while the mother would be away all day tending livestock. The children were malnourished, in poor health and now attending school irregularly. They pleaded to be allowed to return to the refuge and I agreed immediately. They are likely to be with us now until they come of age bringing to 169 the number of mouths that my cash-strapped Trust has to find the funding to feed.

I hate the "children's home" concept with a passion, as children belong in proper family units. It is very necessary though to have such facilities that serve as a vital safety net where there is no state provision for genuinely needy children. Our impetus remains to try to get children back to families, however of the 19 children that we reunited in April 2006 eight have since come back to us. I suppose that remains a success for the other eleven but it reflects the bleak social milieu within which we have to operate in Nepal.

I was very dismayed though to learn that these latest children were last week blaming me for sending them back to their poverty two years' ago. They can of course be forgiven for the child's analysis of the decision that sadly led to their experiencing such grinding hardship. At the time I felt that I was acting in the children's best interests and if I had to do it again (as I do each April) I would make exactly the same choice. Nonetheless their bitterness towards me can't help but hurt after so much of my personal involvement in their welfare which stands in stark juxtaposition to the neglect and indifference of their parents.

Saturday 3 May 2008

Inclusion

This election was unquestionably the most inclusive that Nepal has ever seen, with appropriate representation of women, minority ethnic groups, and candidates who were disabled or from sexual minorities. And as a consequence Nepal now has its first openly gay parliamentarian, gay rights activist and chairman of the Blue Diamond Society, Sunil Pant. I have only ever heard positive comment on Sunil and must admire the courage of those who could dare to be themselves in such a discriminatory, conservative society. I wish him well in his political career and I am sure that he will have a valuable input to the drafting of the new constitution. I can't help wondering though what my commentator that I mentioned in my post of 17th April makes of this development. Perhaps it is just as well that I have disabled the comments facility on this blog.

Last evening I attended the wedding reception of the brother of my colleague, Bhaskar Karki. Bhaskar is the general manager of Himalayan Mosaics and I was touched that he had also invited the Himalayan Mosaics (former circus) girls to the evening. It is probably unheard of for these survivors of girl trafficking to attend a gathering that included in its number the commander of the Nepalese army. Bhaskar probably has done more for the girls' self-esteem and sense of acceptance than the Trust could ever do.