Saturday Morning Fever

January is school holidays month for the Kathmandu refuge children in the care of The Esther Benjamins Trust. Every effort is made to keep the children fully occupied and it's a prime time to obtain the good services of visiting volunteers. This morning Dutch volunteer Els Horst and British volunteer Jo Lee looked on as the kids went through their moves in a dance competition that they've been rehearsing for during the past week.

It's always said that children should be given every opportunity to express themselves, and you can't argue with the wisdom of that. Especially when the children, like these, come from traumatic suppressive backgrounds. But from what I have seen at similar occasions in Nepal so often these events are laid on for the amusement of non-participatory adults, who sit there like stuffed shirts. This isn't the case with our activities. The children insisted on the staff joining in and this video shows staff members Anita and Anju (themselves girls who were once trafficked to the circuses) complying with the children's demands.