Today we had two very different visitors. The first of the day was Ivan Broadhead, journalist with Hong Kong's largest English daily, The South China Morn
ing Post. Ivan has been researching cross border trafficking from Nepal into India and his enquiries inevitably led to us. I took him to see the arts centre which is now the main focus of our rehabilitation work with circus returnees. He seemed impressed and I was equally impressed with the sensitivity with which he interviewed a couple of the girls. My mind did go back though to a similar visit from The South China Morning Post in March 2000 that led to cover story in its Sunday magazine the following May. That in turn was syndicated to the UK's Daily Telegraph (see "My interview with the Daily Telegraph" in the link below) and it was that article that more than anything else launched the charity. One never knows what can become of good - and sensitive - journalism.
ing Post. Ivan has been researching cross border trafficking from Nepal into India and his enquiries inevitably led to us. I took him to see the arts centre which is now the main focus of our rehabilitation work with circus returnees. He seemed impressed and I was equally impressed with the sensitivity with which he interviewed a couple of the girls. My mind did go back though to a similar visit from The South China Morning Post in March 2000 that led to cover story in its Sunday magazine the following May. That in turn was syndicated to the UK's Daily Telegraph (see "My interview with the Daily Telegraph" in the link below) and it was that article that more than anything else launched the charity. One never knows what can become of good - and sensitive - journalism.The second visitor was Carla Bachechi, a political and economic officer at the U.S. Embassy in Kathmandu. Timely, as this week I have been working on an application for U.S. State Department grant funding for our arts centre for a three year period starting in September. The application, which includes an element towards purchasing the premises, comes to just over US$300,000, and the deadline is tomorrow. That is when the application has to fall on, er, Carla's desk. But before one gets too excited at funding prospects, it should be noted that a similar application last year was turned down and once more we had to rely on the good old general public to keep our heads above water. So if anyone out there has a few spare dollars, do let us know.
