Friday 27 February 2009

Burning bright

For the past few months our students at the Bhairahawa art workshop - a mixed group of deaf school leavers and girl trafficking survivors from the Indian circuses - have been working on a large mosaic of a jungle scene with a sinister tiger. It measures 5 feet by 8 feet and the original design was by our volunteer art teacher from this time last year, Rebecca Hawkins. The work has just been completed and now it is on its way to an appreciative wall in Kathmandu. We hope this beautiful piece with spark some orders from discerning customers in Nepal.

Thursday 26 February 2009

A good day in the courts

Three years ago our field staff were directly involved in the arrest of leading child trafficker Kajiman Shrestha (pictured right). He was responsible for the trafficking of scores of Nepalese children into the oblivion of the Indian circus industry, condemning them to a miserable existence of abuse and de facto imprisonment. He has been in jail ever since he was picked up. Yesterday he was convicted and sentenced to a further 15 years imprisonment.

Meanwhile in a court in India yesterday it was the fourth hearing in the trial of Indian circus owner Lakhan Chaudhary. Once more we provided a witness (one of his victims) for the prosecution. We expect there to be one more hearing next month and then hopefully justice will be done.

Tuesday 24 February 2009

Raw poverty

My two day visit to Hetauda left me profoundly moved and with an image that I will never forget.

The aim of the journey was to accompany one of the charity's Trustees, Chris Haworth, on a factfinding trip to the rural areas around Hetauda which have been the main source of trafficked children to the Indian circuses (and elsewhere). On top of that I would be able to catch up on the circumstances of some of our beneficiaries' families through being guided by Shailaja, my partner Director in Nepal. And photographer Jonny Cochrane was with us, tasked with documenting the poverty.

Yesterday I went to visit the homes of several girls, including that of the girl who has just given evidence against the circus owner who (allegedly) raped her before we intervened to secure her release from The New Raj Kamal Circus in January 2007. She is one of eight children and we met the latest arrival to this very dysfunctional family - a babe in arms. The family home, pictured right with two of this girl's younger siblings, wasn't even made from wood; a lot of it seemed to consist of bark held together with mud. This and other village abodes, although sad to see, didn't shake me as much as one might imagine. I have seen this kind of hut many times before in Nepal and in other parts of the world.

This morning though I was taken unawares. We went to a very different kind of community where families were living in regimented brick-built cottages that had been constructed for them by a major international aid agency. We wanted to meet Basante and Hari, a couple whom we had freed from a circus in April 2004 (two of 29 releasees) who had subsequently got married and are now parents to two little girls. On the way to their cottage I was impressed with the layout of the buildings and their adjoining gardens and when we got there, the cottage looked fine as well. Then we went inside. It was then that I realised that we were still in the midst of raw poverty; it was only the walls and roof that surrounded it which were different from yesterday's experience. Somehow the juxtaposition of solid walls with the emptiness and grime within seemed to accentuate the hardship that the two families who were sharing the premises were having to endure. Indeed, the solidity of the walls even made it feel like a prison. A baby girl lay on the bed, with flies crawling around her eyelids. She was unresponsive to my attempts to connect with her.

Then came the haunting, surreal image. Shailaja beckoned to me to look inside one of the back rooms. There she indicated a lump on the bed. The lump was Basante and Hari's older child, a four year old girl, sitting upright, who had hidden herself under a quilt, something that she does for all visitors. It reminded me of the game that I play with my two and a half year old daughter - "Where's Alisha", as she hides in really obvious locations. But this wasn't a joke. The child was clearly traumatised by her environment, and harboured a terror that had been exacerbated by the death of one of the young women in the house a month ago. Another woman who was sharing the cottage told us how her brother had taken his own life by hanging a few months previously, an occurrence that was quite common within this desperate community. Eventually we coaxed the girl out from under the quilt and she posed with her parents for the picture on the right (the girl with the red collar). She was but one of a handful of similarly aged children who were just loitering at home, totally unstimulated.

Afterwards we visited a local school and discussed with the Headteacher how we might provide some community upliftment through broadening the educational provision available for the local children. This currently goes to only Class 5 (9-11 year olds). We discussed the possibility of introducing a creche for the kind of children that we had just seen and how education could be extended into Class 6 and beyond. He was very receptive and I believe something useful and positive has emerged from that meeting.

Nonetheless I came away from the village deeply saddened and wishing that those toddlers could be just scooped up out of there and given an infinitely better chance in life in the developed world. I am sorry, that's not very politically correct and quite naiive but that's how I felt.

Aid International

I've just returned from a two day visit to the rural areas of Hetauda and will reflect on my findings overnight before posting on that subject tomorrow. It was sobering stuff though - a bleak contrast to the insobriety that I witnessed in some parents of our beneficiaries.

On Sunday an article appeared in The Kathmandu Post entitled "Aid International" the content of which echoed some comments that I have made in previous posts. In it the author "S. Gurung" mocks the world of the International Non Governmental Organisation, its sycophant locally-recruited staff (of which she claims to be one) and its disconnection from the needs of communities in the impoverished rural areas of Nepal:

"Aid International (Al) is a non­profit, non-political, non-sectari­an, humanitarian organisation that provides handsome salaries, perks, trainings and foreign exposure to a massive crew of personnel. Its target ben­eficiaries are the poor and marginalised, but its real beneficiaries are the staff who run the organisation: Head Office staff in a faraway continent, country staff in Kathmandu, partner NGOs in program districts, and the dazzling array of local and globe-trotting consultants. Its benefi­ciaries also include the luxury hotels, resorts, travel agencies and airlines it patronises.

Like their nineteenth-century prede­cessors, most Head Office staff think all developing countries are the same. Donors are busy people burdened with alleviating poverty, managing conflict, fighting HIV/AIDS, raising gender aware­ness and setting Millennium Development Goals across the globe. So they imagine the world in templates and measure progress with global indicators. For them, the strategy for developing a village in east Africa will also fix the prob­lems of eastern Tarai [south Nepal], and vice versa.


Al’s primary concern is to amass more and more money for, well, helping people. As soon as a major donor announces funding for, say, ‘community empower­ment project in the Mid West’, Al hires a consultant to write a ‘strong’ proposal. The proposal must prove that Al is the most eligible and fund-worthy organisa­tion for implementing the project. Beneath the heap of pseudoscientific jar­gon, the message of the proposal runs to this effect: “The community in the Mid West needs empowerment because you say so. You may never have set foot there, nor read a thing about its people, but you have the funds so you know better. So just give us the dollars; we will follow all your guidelines, achieve all your targets, and meet all your deadlines.”

Al has global solutions for the most localised problems. Say, Som Kumar in Shripur, Saptari quit school and went to lay bricks in town because his father can’t work (he was hit by a bus while pulling his rickshaw) and his mother just had a baby. How will Al help him? It will send Som Kumar, along with all other beneficiaries in his village, to participate in its Multimillion Transnational Awareness Raising Programme. Al’s strategy is not to respond, but to ‘implement’ pre-made, pre-packaged, mass-produced solutions to specific, evolving, complex problems.

Under its Operational Plan, say, Al decides to provide iron tablets to all its beneficiaries in the Far Western region. Then, in a village in Achham, Gita is suddenly taken ill with typhoid. Al’s partner NGO in the region can do nothing but give her iron tablet; for typhoid medicine is not in their Operational Plan. While Gita’s condition worsens and her parents borrow money for her treatment, an NGO staff sits in his office and composes a success story about the miraculous effects of iron tablets on Gita’s life. This, along with a smiling photo of Gita, will be included in the annual report for donors who can then pat themselves on their backs - and get more money for bigger projects.

The chain of command in Al is so glaring that its pet terminologies - ‘bottom-up’, ‘local partnership’, ‘commu­nity-based’, etc. sound like self-irony. All Head Office staff are bosses to the Kathmandu staff, who in turn are bosses to the NGO staff. Every interaction and corre­spondence between them reinforces this hierarchy. As for their ‘target beneficiaries’, in whose name the show runs, their job is to listen, accept, smile in front of the camera and provide information for reports and success stories.

For all their weaknesses, district-based NGOs have one solid advantage over Kathmandu and Head Office staff: physical and cultural proximity to the local community. If Al were truly commit­ted to its professed aim, its top brass would ensure that these local NGOs voiced, defended and engaged with the community’s real interests at all cost. But at every ‘capacity building’ training of NGOs, Kathmandu staff hammers the same message into the heads of NGO staff: the donors’ command is unquestion­able, inviolable.

Behind the backs of their Kathmandu bosses, NGO staff often admit how useless and at times damag­ing Al has been for its ‘beneficiaries’. But at meetings and conferences, amid smart, English-speaking Kathmandu colleagues and white experts, these dis­trict-based people feel so insignificant that they are reduced to head~nodding dummies. Yes, the project has failed miserably, they think, but we must do as we are told. We can’t mess with the hand that feeds us.

The Kathmandu staff, of course, could have changed this reality if they really willed it. They could at least speak out, reject readymade tools and solu­tions, decide where the funds would be spent and how, and refuse to endorse the donors’ misconceptions. But they will do none of this because we don’t want to risk anything - not our salary, not our com­fort, nor our chances for promotion and international travel. Which leads me to confess that, yes, I am a staff member of Aid International. As an ordinary mid­dle-class woman in Kathmandu, I realised sometime ago that the surest means to secure my financial independ­ence, live comfortably and give my children the best education is to work in an INGO. Besides, I belong to a nation whose leaders bow to the wisdom of donors where even principled citi­zens are forced to reap the harvest of dol­lar kheti [dollar girl] every now and then. How, then, could an average person like me, with average dreams and desires, resist its pull? I have thus sold myself to Aid International. I, like many others, have surrendered to the inescapable power of aidocracy."

S.Gurung fails to understand how projects are funded but broadly speaking I found most of her comments entirely valid. I wish more would speak out against the racket that I see going on around me.

I do love The Kathmandu Post. In today's edition it advises us that tonight is the night to witness Comet Lulin. After informing readers that the Comet follows a parabolic course through the universe that takes 50 million years the journalist - without the slightest hint of irony - says that it won't be visible again for "the foreseeable future".

Saturday 21 February 2009

My running hero

It's not an Olympic athlete like my namesake Dame Kelly Holmes. It's Trust supporter Cliff Simm, pictured right at our Kathmandu refuge on a visit to our Kathmandu refuge last month. Cliff runs every day and races once a week, with a 10km running time of 56 minutes. That's two minutes faster than my run in Hong Kong. The thing is, Cliff is 78 and an inspiration to all of us. I am sure I'll beat his time at my next 10km event in London on the 25th May. I am training hard and shedding weight rapidly. The first five days of my fat-burning diet this week led to a loss of 2.3 kg which I won't miss.

A greatly overused word in Nepal is "hearty". You see it a lot in banners bidding visitors "hearty welcome" or in newspaper ads that say "hearty congratulations" on a certain individual's achievement. It conjures up quaint images of bonhomie and back-slapping. It didn't work in one newspaper ad that I saw this week where a family was offered "hearty condolence" on the loss of a loved one. Perhaps they meant heartfelt.

Wednesday 18 February 2009

Sophie's choice

The Trust attracts all kinds of volunteers for its work in Nepal - varying in age, experience and nationality. Last year was a bumper year in both quality and quantity with more volunteers than ever helping us out. 2009 has got off to a similar start with no fewer than 12 volunteers in country. These workers usually come to us well in advance but sometimes they just stumble upon us, an example being Tasmanian Sophie Shugg who volunteered at our art workshop in Kathmandu last year. Sophie has just described her experience in "The Advocate" magazine:

http://www.theadvocate.com.au/news/local/news/news-features/mapping-out-a-future/1437006.aspx

We very much look forward to Sophie's return later on this year when we can hopefully make even better use of her services as the programme evolves.

Tuesday 17 February 2009

Ohio is on the up

Today marked my six monthly pilgrimage to the Indian embassy in Kathmandu to renew my visa. It takes nerves of steel to join the smoking hobos at 7.30 in the morning to queue for two hours in the cold before the office even opens. A survival ploy is to take a book and I thought Andrew Marr's (outstanding) History of Modern Britain would be as good a shield as any. No such luck. I found myself fourth in the queue behind an American girl who was in the company of a couple of geeky German kids. The girl's incessant chatter - interspersed every fifth or sixth word with "like" (one of my pet hates) - ensured that I was prevented from making any significant inroads into the social history of Britain in the 1960s. At one point she was asked where she came from and she confided that originally she was from "boring" Ohio. I reckon that Ohio must be less worthy of this slur now that she is over here.

OK, OK, I'm feeling a bit grumpy today and that's all down to my latest strategy to improve my 10km running performance. That involves the fat burning diet and at the end of day two of cabbage and onion soup and nothing bar water to drink the novelty has already worn off. Only five days left to burn, and this morning I'd lost 200g through day one's efforts.

Last week I reported on how the rescue team had gone to Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh to free three boys from domestic slavery. The team took along the boys' two sisters (former circus girls) to try and identify them in the bustling Moslem district of town. This was potentially quite dangerous but the girls were provided with a method of concealing their identity. See the picture on the right.

Sunday 15 February 2009

Failed veterinary care

I read in this morning's paper that the rhino which had its horn removed by poachers a couple of weeks ago died on Friday evening in spite of "round the clock" medical care. And a very sombre Bev has just returned from the vet's to tell me that the owl has died too. Injured animals such as these must go through such stress and pain and I know from experience of living here how the smallest of wounds becomes readily infected.

A new hardline Maoist party has just formed in Nepal based around prominent revolutionary Matrika Yadav who left the main party accusing its leaders of nepotism and of being revisionist. Over the weekend many have deserted the mainstream Maoists to join his party. It seems that there is a great deal of discontent in the rural areas, some of it ethnic but some also arising because those who fought in "The People's War" feel overlooked and betrayed by their former leaders who are now in power. This is but another problem to add to those that are besetting the new republic and it echoes the difficulty that has arisen with the peace process back in my home country, Northern Ireland. There too we are now witnessing renewed attacks on the police and security forces from diehards and the biggest obstacle to resolving residual disquiet seems to be time.

Saturday 14 February 2009

Jonny Cochrane

Photographer Jonny Cochrane (http://www.jonnycochrane.com/) joined the team yesterday, after volunteering his photographic services for the coming 2-3 weeks. I took him up to the Godawari refuge this morning where we challenged his photographic skills through inviting him to snap our two resident gymnasts, Aman and Bijay. Both these boys learned some of their gymnastics inside the circus. After we rescued them they continued to develop their techniques through training at the National Stadium in Kathmandu. They attend the Stadium every morning before school. Pictured right is Aman in flight.

Hopefully Jonny's images can be incorporated not only into our literature but also into exhibitions that we'll run later on this year. Tomorrow he heads to Bhairahawa, then Hetauda and then will undertake an assignment for us in India.

Further to my post of 11th November - "Not so vital statistics" - I reckoned it was time today for another weigh-in. I am now down to 76.7 kg and a 96 cm waist which gives me a BMI of 25.33 (only just in the "overweight" category) and a waist/hip ratio of 0.96 which is still above the desired ratio of .90. But I am getting there...

Friday 13 February 2009

The very wealthy Dr Thapa

Dr Thapa of Lalitpur, Kathmandu is undoubtedly the wealthiest vet in the whole of Nepal if not in Asia. I am quite convinced of this for I know just how much of our personal money my beloved wife Bev gives him in the cause of street dog rescue, relief and rehabilitation. I went with Bev this morning to see the latest two puppies that she’s scooped off the mean streets of Kathmandu. They’re doing well and Dr Thapa’s eyes glinted as he told us of how one of them had got the day off to the best of starts by passing worms this morning. Nice.

The reason for my visit though was to see a bird that he is currently treating. Someone had picked up a barn owl with a broken wing and brought it to Dr Thapa who, aside from being ridiculously wealthy, is, I suspect, quite clever. He has managed to splint the broken bone with a steel rod and he told me that when he removes the rod in a month’s time the bird will fly once again. Meantime he’s lovingly forcing meat down the bird’s gullet to ensure it lasts the course.

Afterwards I consulted the internet to find out the lifespan of a barn owl. In the wild they live for 1-5 years whereas in a more sheltered environment like an owl sanctuary they can last for 20-25 years (I noted in the papers this week that the converse applies to zoo animals). But I also found out that barn owls largely hunt by hearing, not by sight; apparently their hearing is so acute that they can pick up a mouse’s heartbeat in a 30 square foot room. Just imagine how this morning’s owl must have been deafened by Dr Thapa’s pounding heart as Miss Moneypenny arrived at his practice.

Yesterday I met up with my partner Director, Shailaja, in Bhairahawa. She was fresh back from India with the three boys that she and her Deputy Dilu Tamang had rescued on Tuesday evening from domestic slavery in Varanasi. She was in buoyant mood as she told me that circus owner Lakhan Chaudhary, the defendant in Wednesday’s court hearing in Gorakhpur, had placed a 50,000 rupee (£700) price on retrieving our key witness against him. Shailaja said that this girl, who alleges that she was raped by him, gave a perfectly clear – and brave – statement in court as Chaudhary yelled at the Judge to listen to his voice as well as to hers. He was also screaming at his relatives and unsavoury friends in court for having let him down – presumably in part through failing to find this girl.

They didn’t find her because she’s been safely in our care ever since the rescue in January 2007.

Wednesday 11 February 2009

Child rescue

I was actually quietly kicking myself at being in Hong Kong over the weekend as it prevented my taking part in a child rescue operation that occurred in Varanasi, north India last evening. The date of the Standard Chartered 10km event was inflexible as was that of a court hearing today in India that the rescue was linked to. In essence the story started with a circus rescue in January 2007 at the New Raj Kamal Circus in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh which was reported on by Tom Bell:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTs1NQOS9_I

The only inaccuracy in Tom's otherwise excellent report is that it turned out subsequently that we had found all of the girls who were at the circus. And the circus owner, Lakhan Chaudhary, went to jail where he has been ever since, pending trial. The trial started last month and the third hearing is due today. At that hearing we wanted to present two girls as witnesses, including the one who was interviewed at the start of Tom's film. The snag was that the girls were unwilling to speak as they each had one brother still in India in a bonded labour situation and potentially at risk from Chaudhary were they to give evidence. Last evening these boys and another one were rescued in a joint operation with ChildLine India and other partners. My colleagues Shailaja and Dilu, who were on the operation, are attending court with the girls later on today.

This is a big case for us as, if convicted, Chaudhary will be the first Indian circus owner to be sentenced. I will report in a future post on the details of what happened yesterday (once I have them) and how the legal case is progressing.

On a more mundane level, my official time on Sunday was 58 minutes and 22 seconds placing me at 1702 out of around 35,000 runners. I am thrilled to be so close now to my £20k target with the sponsorship now at £19,385. If you'd like to congratulate Shailaja and Dilu by adding to that total you can do so through:

www.justgiving.com/philipholmesbupa

Thanks....

Tuesday 10 February 2009

Sue and Bill Thornton

Sue and Bill Thornton were two excellent and very popular volunteers at our Bhairahawa art workshop in November/December. Between them they extended the range of the tuition to incorporate lessons in IT (Bill's area of expertise), English lessons and "Iris folding", a craft technique favoured by Sue. I write belatedly about them as I have just found a film that they shot during their time there:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3-BQ2LZuoU

I found this through Sue's fundraising page (hint, hint) as she and family members will be joining me on the BUPA 10km run in London on May 25th. Visit:

http://www.justgiving.com/susanthornton1

By the look of Bill's chin he must have had to leave us in December to carry out duties elsewhere as Santa.

Sunday 8 February 2009

Film of an English lesson in Bhairahawa

Last week I filmed an English lesson at our art workshop in Bhairahawa. This would be nothing special were it not for the fact that the workshop - and the class - is an integrated one with some students being deaf and others able-bodied trafficking (circus) survivors. Normally I can post my film directly from YouTube to this blog but there seems to be some kind of a glitch preventing me from doing so. This being the case, here's the link:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOzWnkGR-7I&feature=channel_page

I won!

Yes, I managed to beat the clock and get out of bed at 3.30 a.m. this morning. I was then placed fourth in getting to the start line at a ridiculously early time; I'm like that with timekeeping. I felt rather bewildered to be in the "warm up" zone, given that there was a healthy breeze blowing in off Causeway Bay. Then I saw others adopting pre-race contortions that I couldn't possibly emulate and the penny dropped.

Of course with the 5.15 a.m. start time that meant we would be running in the dark. But at least the fireworks which were set off as the race began worked to their best effect. Within 300 metres I realised that I was highly unlikely to win this race as scores were already racing away ahead of me. I was gratified to note though that one participant was already walking, so I certainly wasn't going to come last either. The route was a good one, following the eastern corridor motorway 5km out and 5km back; the organisers having had the good sense to ban traffic for a few hours. There were a few undulations to be dealt with but the marvellous views of Hong Kong were a welcome distraction during the run.

My (unofficial) time was 58 minutes and I was pleased to complete my first ever 10km event inside one hour. Now I have a target to beat at the BUPA 10km run in London in May. If I shed a little more weight I am sure that I can improve upon today's effort.

I believe I can probably claim one other victory. I would be surprised if any other runner this morning had the backing of £18,834 in sponsorship. If you played a part in helping me reach this amount, thanks very much! If you didn't you're still not too late to contribute. See:

www.justgiving.com/philipholmesbupa

The Esther Benjamins Trust is offering guaranteed places for the BUPA run. Drop me a line please if you are interested.

Saturday 7 February 2009

Things you didn't know about Hong Kong

Well, first off, it was where The Esther Benjamins Trust effectively took off back in 2000. That's all thanks to my friends Ronnie and Carol Ford who at that time were teachers at Sha Tin international school. Ronnie, who has since become an accomplished professional artist (http://www.ronnieford.com/), staged an art exhibition as a fundraiser for the Trust. That was reported on by The Hong Kong Standard newspaper with its report of the charity's origins and early work in Nepal being hijacked by the South China Morning Post. A press visit to Nepal led to a feature making cover story in The South China Morning Post Sunday magazine; the very powerful story that was written by journalist Fionnuala McHugh then moved sideways to the UK's Daily Telegraph and we had the initial publicity we needed to ensure that the Trust didn't go the way of so many other new charities and wither on the vine. So Hong Kong is a very special place for me and it feels good to be back.

Other interesting, but fairly useless, facts from Hong Kong:
  • Tomorrow's Marathon and associated running events will attract 54,272 runners.
  • Of these 32,907 will be joining me in the 10km event.
  • The record time for that event is 30 minutes 19 seconds, a target that has gone unbeaten since it was set in 2002.

I am not impressed with this time; I am sure that I can double that. That is if I can get out of bed early enough to be there for the 5.15 a.m. start.

There's still time to sponsor me and win a beautiful work of art from Nepal:

www.justgiving.com/philipholmesbupa

Friday 6 February 2009

I hate Twitter

Having tried it I empathise with this guy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfG2Em8SHk4&feature=dir

Twitter just seems to trivialise things and limit explanation potential. It's not right for my subject material and I am dropping the link from this blog.

So there.

Endangered species

This morning’s (normally excellent) Nepali Times cover story is based on the national tiger census that has been taking place over the last couple of months. The article claims that the tiger numbers are “bouncing back” however later in the piece I read that the number of tigers actually identified is about the same as in the last census of 2000.

In spite of this apparent good news it has been a bad week for Nepal’s endangered species. In Chitwan, for the first time ever, a rhino had its horn removed by poachers without them killing the animal. One shudders to contemplate the agony that this animal must have experienced and continues to suffer. The incident took place near one of the Nepal Army checkpoints that guards the National Park’s animals and many believe that this was an inside job.

Elsewhere there was short-lived excitement at three freshwater Gangetic Dolphins being rescued by Army personnel after they had become trapped in a pond adjacent to the Koshi river. The dolphins were returned to the mainstream but one has since died. It seems that brainless locals got there first and put poison into the pond. And they got there first because conservation officers who should have conducted the rescue operation were off attending a meaningless “bird festival” somewhere.

When I read of all of this I am struck by how Nepal’s beautiful and fragile wildlife is so at the mercy of wicked, heartless people and hostage to the ineptitude or indifference of those who should be its protectors. Just like Nepal’s children.

Thursday 5 February 2009

The integrated mosaic workshop

I returned last evening from an overnight visit to our project centre in Bhairahawa in the southwest of Nepal. Bhairahawa is a mere stone's throw from the Indian border and a slightly longer chuck from Lumbini, which is the birthplace of Buddha. In December we collocated our two mosaic workshops, transferring the child trafficking survivors at the Kathmandu workshop to join the deaf school leavers at the Bhairahawa workshop. This has proven to be quite fascinating and highly successful as disabled young people and able-bodied girls work side by side in an integrated workshop. The girls have all learned sign language and joining in their party games on Tuesday evening I really had to remind myself that most of the group was deaf. I found it lovely to witness the joy of it all.


A large part of the magical atmosphere of the place stems from the volunteers, past and present, who have given so much of themselves in inspiring and training the students. The workshop is currently managed by American artist Carol Hummel (http://www.carolhummel.com/om/) whose good humour and sense of fun is quite infectious. She has just recently been joined by a second artist, Hazel Fullerton, and the group is complemented by two gap year students over from Cyprus, Alex and Jade. The scope of the training has mushroomed - literally - with training in mosaics being complemented with English and IT classes and, er, growing of oyster mushrooms in a shed at the back.


With its proximity to Buddha's birthplace we hope that we can find a market for appropriate mosaics that can be offered to tourists who pass through the area. These are now being made in a range of dimensions from life size (that would work well in a local building) to small portraits that can be squeezed into a rucksack. My Presbyterian roots mean that I am not a particular fan of religious imagery (such things are banned from the kirk!) but if this theme gives jobs to marginalised young people I am all for it.

Tuesday 3 February 2009

Vulnerability

Four and a half years ago we rescued Anita (name changed) from The Great Roman Circus which was playing in Lucknow. She was one of seven minors who were hidden away by the circus at the time of the rescue and were only retrieved through court action and habeas corpus. Anita came to our refuge in Bhairahawa, southwest Nepal, delighted to be free. My wife Bev, who was working for the Trust at that time, became very close to Anita and those other little children. She remembers how Anita would touch her own skin and say "naramro" (bad) and then Bev's and say "ramro" (good). The lighter your skin in Nepal the higher your status or caste. Anita came from the untouchable (dalit) caste and their skins can be very dark as an ethnic group.

Two years later Anita moved to live at the Kathmandu refuge with many of the other children who had been in Bhairahawa. A few months later she was excitedly pointing out how her skin colour had lightened a couple of shades by the move to the cooler north. Anita wasn't an academic girl but had a lovely extroverted personality and this translated into dance which had become a passion for her.

Anita's family background was very poor. The family lived in a wooden hut by the side of the road just outside Hetauda in the central south of Nepal. Like many of the rural poor, alcohol abuse dominated the family's day to day existence. At one point the father was found to be dismantling his hut to sell the wood to buy alcohol. Anita had become very concerned about her younger sister and brother who were at high risk of being trafficked and with the father's consent we took them into our Kathmandu refuge as well.

Last year Anita's father died and Anita, like many of the refuge children, went home for a few days around the festival of Dashain in October (this is the main Hindu festival and a time for family get togethers). It is also a time when the families who messed the children's lives up by trafficking them in the first place get a chance to spoil their lives yet again. But we are supposed to encourage reintegration to family and community and although Dashain scares the living daylights out of me we still comply with the children's and families wishes to be together for the festival. After a week or so at home Anita announced that she wanted to stay on with her mother and not return to the refuge. This was her decision and as a 16 year old there is very little that can be done to make someone change their mind. Shortly afterwards I was disappointed to hear that she had become married and that would be the last we'd probably see of this lovely girl.

Yesterday I heard that it seems her uncle has in fact trafficked her to India and Anita is now in Mumbai (the epicentre of the sex trade) or possibly even in Saudi Arabia. Once a girl goes down this route she becomes almost untraceable. We will find the uncle though and see what can be done.

This sad story reflects just how vulnerable trafficking survivors are, not least because their yearning to be back with kith and kin and have a sense of belonging puts them in such a high risk situation. It is also a stark reminder to us as to how little we can do to protect girls who can be whisked away so quickly down a path to an existence that is beyond our comprehension.

Sunday 1 February 2009

Local journalism

Hmmm. I have tried Twitter and I am not convinced it's my style. But I'll give it a chance.

I couldn't resist posting this photograph that appeared in today's Himalayan Times. Interesting isn't it?

Back again - sort of...

Regular readers will have noticed that my Nepal blog has fallen by the wayside; this is entirely a feature of having been just too busy over the last couple of months with business planning and desperate fundraising to try and beat the recession. Finding time when I felt sufficiently relaxed to write - and enjoy the activity - became almost impossible. Blogging came to feel like a chore. So I stopped.

Now I have restarted through using Twitter (see the link on the right) which allows me to still stay in touch with friends and charity supporters through short, more manageable, bursts. These will complement blog posts that will perhaps be a little less frequent than before.

Now off to do some twittering....