Nepalese child trafficking victims learn to rock and roll

In August 2007 dance choreographer Sue Way came from the UK to volunteer for a month in Nepal with the Trust. She only had a couple of weeks to teach the children in the Trust's care some fancy footwork. However the kids enjoyed being introduced to a new dance form that was very different from traditional Nepali dancing. Don't look at the feet - look at the enjoyment on the faces of these children. This is remarkable given that they have all been rescued by the Trust from extreme abuse inside Indian circuses after being trafficked there by their parents and villainous agents. Part of the children's rehabilitation involves giving them a chance to express themselves and to have fun. What better way than through lively dance?

Tomorrow I will upload the third piece of footage of Sue's work.

Contemporary dance in Nepal by victims of girl trafficking

In my post of 26th August 2007 I mentioned the amazing contribution that had been made by British volunteers Sue Way (dance choreographer) and Nic Discombe (director and playwright) both of Northcott Theatre Group, Exeter. Their visit to Nepal led to the staging of a show for children from other orphanages. At long last I have managed to convert the footage that was shot of the performance into YouTube material. This is the piece of contemporary dance entitled "Capture and Release" that Sue produced with the girls.

Dance is a powerful therapy in its own right but doubly so when it allows the girls to address directly the trauma they experienced.

More uploads from that show are to follow...

Fair and Lovely

When we returned to Kathmandu the day before yesterday I asked my driver, Shyam, if Alisha looked much different. I expected a comment about her size, weight, or demeanour but instead he chose to remark on her having lighter skin. He then called her a "Gori" (a not entirely flattering nickname for a white person) and had a good cackle to himself.



Skin colour is high on the agenda in Nepal in inter-personal relationships, with light skin being seen as more beautiful or denoting higher status. That is one reason why light-skinned Nepali girls are sought after as exhibits inside the Indian circuses. It is also why there is such a plethora of cosmetic skin-lightening products available on the market going by very sad and antiquated names such as "Fair and Lovely". And it explains the delight of one of our children who we transferred a couple of years ago from one of our children's refuges in the south of Nepal (where it is hot and sunny) to our refuge in Kathmandu; within a few months her skin colour had lightened by a couple of shades and she had become less vulnerable to teasing and snide remarks about her complexion.



As per other things I expect it will take quite some time for attitudes to skin colour in Nepal to catch up with those in the developed world. When the significance of skin colour and for that matter genetically acquired status are consigned to become part of the nation's "darker" history, the country will be so much the better for it.

A critical time

It is quite difficult to read the situation in Nepal from here in UK, but to me it seems that the next day or two will be critical in determining whether or not successful elections to a new national constituent assembly (already twice postponed) can be held on schedule in April. The parties which represent the ethnic Indian (Madhesi) population in the south of the country have been insisting upon their rights and aspirations (which include autonomy and a right to self-determination) being recognised as a prerequisite to their participation. On the other hand the Prime Minister is saying that he will not countenance any political developments that could lead to a break up of the nation. The Madhesi have upped the ante by calling an indefinite strike in the south that has now entered its tenth day, preventing imports from India and led to the worst shortages - especially of petrol, diesel, kerosene and cooking gas - since 1990. Even the dead are disadvantaged by a strike which is preventing the import of cremation pyre wood to Kathmandu temples. The Madhesi parties have also ignored Wednesday's deadline to register their candidates with the Election Commission; everyone knows that if they don't participate in the elections they will be fundamentally flawed.

Now the deadline for electoral registration has been extended until Sunday and meantime, we are told, intense discussions are going on behind the scenes to reach some compromise in meeting the Madhesi demands. If these discussions fail it will represent disaster for the country.

As ever, we have to carry on working and managing as best we can under increasingly difficult circumstances. Just today we have agreed to take into our Bhairahawa refuge two more children of a prisoner held in the local jail. And I am working hard to raise the funds to purchase our new arts rehabilitation centre in Godwari, Kathmandu. This process got off to a good start this week following news that we had received a pledge of £50,000 towards the estimated £250,000 budget, courtesy of our regular funder, The Sylvia Adams Charitable Trust (see my post of 31st January). If another application that I have made to another Foundation comes through we'll be half way there.

Now all that the living need is for common sense and peace to prevail in Nepal. As for the dead, they can settle for the rekindling of the open air cremation fires along the sacred Bagmati river in Kathmandu, generating their strangely familiar aroma once again.

Mosaic Matters

This evening I picked up this article written by me that has just been published on the "Mosaic Matters" online magazine for mosaic artists:

http://www.mosaicmatters.co.uk/features/ester_benjamins_trust.html

I was delighted to note from the final picture that my colleague at the London office, Chris(topher) Kendrick, has had some cosmetic treatment. Those who knew him beforehand will agree that this represents a major improvement.

A UK charity that helps deaf and disabled Nepalese children

During my current "holiday" in the UK I am spending quite some time editing and uploading EBT videos to YouTube. Here's the latest one that introduces our work with deaf and other disabled children in Nepal.

In Esther's Name

In 2001 I was invited by the UK national TV programme, “That’s Esther” (presented by Esther Rantzen) to take a camera to Nepal and film myself for an item on their programme. The story revolved around the tragic background to The Esther Benjamins Trust and how Esther’s death had inspired me to free innocent children from a life behind bars in Nepal. The piece worked remarkably well - in spite of the cameraman’s limitations - and was shown a second time as the “best of” the series at the end of the year. The producers kindly allowed me to use the footage after the show and here it is, featuring a very-young-looking me.

I am very pleased to post this video on the day that my little Nepali daughter Alisha is being christened in Crondall, Surrey.

South China Morning Post (again)

In my post of 3rd February I mentioned that day's South China Morning Post Sunday magazine's coverage of our work against child trafficking in Nepal. The magazine has kindly allowed us to reproduce the article and here is what was written:

http://www.ebtrust.org.uk/site/assets/pdf/morningpost2008.pdf

The International Award

Before Christmas we applied to our great friends at The Body Shop Foundation for grant funding towards the set up and year one programme costs that would allow us to offer the children in our care in Nepal the chance to participate for the first time in the International Award:

http://www.intaward.org

The concept is that our teenage children should have the opportunity to take part in sport, recreation (including camping and treks), the arts, and service towards achieving the Award. The aim is to help these children develop further their self esteem and to turn them from being dependent into the leaders of tomorrow. Inter alia proposed setting up a Scout troop and a youth club, with facilities available for the younger children who are not yet eligible for the Award.

And today we were thrilled to learn that The Body Shop Foundation has agreed, awarding the Trust £10,000, actually £19 more than we had asked for. Now my Programme Coordinator in Kathmandu, Nick Sankey, has the delightful task of making it all happen. Many nights under the stars now beckon.

Time to dream

One of my great discoveries last year, apart from the joys of Blogging, was the fascinating content of YouTube. There's some great stuff in there, not least The Esther Benjamins Trust playlist (see right for all of our video footage). This morning I dipped into the generally available material relating to circuses and found this film which is fairly representative of the terribly dated performance that one can expect to see when the Indian circus comes to town:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoYL5NO8IF0

And of course, as I have written in so many of my previous posts, the audiences have little idea of the scale of violence, abuse and exploitation that trafficked Nepalese child and teenage performers have to endure on a daily basis during their de facto imprisonment within the circus.

Moving on from that I found another circus performance by The Dreamtime Circus that couldn't contrast more with the Indian "show":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTH3lZ1n_l0

This San Francisco based organisation (www.dreamtimecircus.org) lays on free performances around the world. Their mission, as per the website states:

"The Dreamtime Circus is a troupe of fire fairies, clowns musicians, and all types of other magical and fantastical creatures who travel far and wide to share the uplifting experience of the circus with the peoples of the world.

We seek to use fire and circus arts as mediums for fostering cross-cultural communication and open exchanges of cultural ideas and artistic expressions.

As offerings of good will and solidarity, we perform free circus performances for the communities we visit, focusing our efforts on serving those surviving natural disasters, dislocations, or military conflicts.

Wherever our travels take us...
~ We'll create a safe, magical, and inspiring space for kids and grown-up kids to play. create and become whatever their imaginatin allows them to be.
~ We'll cross cultural bridges, speaking the universal languages of art and laughter through our circus antics.
~ Instead of just the coins in our pockets, we'l offer free circus shows as a way of giving back to the communities we meet along the way.
~ We'll respect the people, cultures, and sacredness of the land.
~ We'll dream our lives, live our dreams, and encourage everyone aruound us to join in."

To my great interest, the circus is now on tour in India and I wrote to them immediately to see if they might be interested in helping our advocacy work against modern day slavery and child trafficking. I'd give my eye teeth to entice them across the border to lay on a show or shows in Nepal. Not only would this raise the profile of our cause but I think it would be very useful for our beneficiaries - for whom the circus represents only stigma and an enduring legacy of horrors - to see the status of the modern circus as a true art form.

A Room with a View

Bev, Alisha and I have spent the last three nights staying in a delightful National Trust holiday cottage. The holiday cottage in question, Coastguard Cottage, lies on the Suffolk coast and adjacent to one of the top bird reserves in the UK, Minsmere. It's a wonderful place for nature lovers and walkers. However, the downside is that the cottage is also a stone's throw from a massive nuclear power station, Sizewell B. The picture on the right was taken from our bedroom window.

For Alisha, it was her first sight of the sea. Not many 18 month old Nepali girls have such an opportunity. She didn't know which way to turn on the beach; every pebble was a jewel. Even if they do glow in the dark.

Polluted cities

This visit to the UK has been very revealing. I realise how, although this "developed" nation is a great one, in so many respects (that could so readily be sorted out) it is very similar to the "undeveloped" Nepal.

If there is one thing that could drive me out of Nepal (a country that I love so much in spite of my frequent rants on this Blog), it wouldn't be the corruption, the endemic ineptitude, the lack of basic amenities (the nation is now experiencing 48 hours of power cuts per week), the growing violence or a feeling of general ennui; it would be the pollution. It is bad enough that Kathmandu is rendered disgusting through traffic fumes, brick kiln smoke and uncontrolled effluent into the "holy" Bagmati river; worst of all is the apparent indifference to the problem in a land where people superficially claim to love their nation so much. The ease with which the silence of those who should be regulating such problems is bought through bribes condemns them, us and, worst still, the next generation to residing in a planet that seems to be fast spiralling into a polluted oblivion.

Then I read today (to my surprise) that one and a half million Londoners are living with air quality that is below acceptable levels for pollutants and the prevalence of asthma is on the increase. In response most of the city has today been declared a "Low Emission Zone". This means that vehicles that pollute will be charged £200 to enter the zone or face a £1,000 fine. Some small companies are up in arms saying that they can't afford this and that it will drive them into liquidation. As far as I am concerned, with the future of our children at stake, these arguments - which are entirely money-driven - are just not valid. Sad to say, these businesses will have to be able to afford to move with the times, or go under.

Tomorrow Bev, Alisha and I go off to the Suffolk coast to enjoy three nights in a National Trust cottage. That will give Alisha her first sight of the sea. Never mind her, how exciting that will be for me! I will send this Blog a picture from what will no doubt be a very windswept beach. But at least the air will be clean.

South China Morning Post

I understand that following journalist Ivan Broadhead's visit to Nepal a couple of weeks' ago a feature about cross border trafficking was due to appear in today's South China Morning Post (Hong Kong's largest English daily). I gather that it was expected to be cover story in the Sunday magazine which, if this is the case, would echo what happened almost seven years ago when the Trust's work received identical coverage. At that time it gave us a dream start as a charity for the story moved sideways, being syndicated to the UK's largest broadsheet, the Daily Telegraph, where it became cover story in the weekend section (see the link below "My Interview with the Daily Telegraph"). The mailbag after that was published was phenomenal and many of those who wrote to me at that time are still with us today as loyal supporters.

I am hoping to be given permission to publish today's article as a transcript on our website as it is powerfully written. The story opens with Ivan recounting the experience of one young man who went to India as a teenager to end up tricked into the Bombay sex trade. Before he managed to escape he was sodomised by an estimated 30,000 men. Stories of such violence are not unusual in our beneficiaries either. Nor is the final insult - rejection upon return home. When this young man finally made it back to Nepal he was beaten up by his brothers for bringing shame onto the family. Circus returnees can also expect at best little sympathy from friends and family.

I am reminded of how Esther told me that when she was a social worker her Dutch Jewish clients would tell how upon returning from the concentration camps would be greeted by their neighbours with comments like "I thought Hitler had finished you off".