During this visit to UK I have been delighted to learn that the Canadian Revenue Agency has approved the establishment of an affiliated Trust in Canada (Esther Benjamins Trust - Canada) backdated to 1 January 2008. This new Trust will allow tax efficient donations from Canadian citizens and it is the initiative of Paul Richards, with whom I have been in correspondence for several years. Paul introduces himself:
I am a commissioned officer and Inspector with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Vancouver, British Columbia. I have been involved in Esther Benjamins Trust after working in Kosovo with Gurkhas and having a desire to help the people of Nepal. I worked again briefly with the Gurkhas in Afghanistan. The more I learned of EBT, the more I wanted to establish a Canadian Branch of the organization to assist the children as you outlined in your [my] message. My participation with EBT included purchasing commissioned art from one of the young people in Nepal.To establish EBTC under Canadian international charities law, I sought to establish EBTC as a way to provide educational scholarships and bursaries to children under EBT care. I think this is the best way to"pay forward" as they say, to the lives of these young children. Education can heal the past and create opportunities for fulfillment and growth. In this sense, the objective will be to raise money for scholarships/bursaries for candidates nominated by EBT and partner agencies in Nepal. After two to three years of working on getting approval, we are in the final stages and have been informed that we will receive charitable status under Canadian law and officially begin the work of EBTC. Once completed, we hope to report on successful fund raising in Canada and allocation of educational bursaries in Nepal to help the wonderful children and young people in their quest to re-establish themselves.
It's taken a couple of years of perserverance and vision to get this off the ground but as we know a Mountie is famous for always getting his man in the end. Well done Paul.
