The Resort is an amazing place, massive in scale, traditional in style and very plush. One wonders at first sight how it manages to make ends meet, given that it must have huge overheads yet is around three quarters of an hour away from Kathmandu’s tourist attractions and nightlife. Its view over the brickfields and chimneys below can only hold attraction for but a few of its visitors. The reason why it seems not just to survive but to prosper is its being a popular venue for conferences, especially for those conducted by “development” organisations.
When we arrived at the Resort there was a banner welcoming the delegates to a refresher course on "Orchestrating Ownership and Sustainability" (whatever that might mean), under th
e auspices of two organisations with the unfortunate acronyms of NAAN and MDF. I had heard of neither of these before but googled NAAN (Netherlands Alumini Association of Nepal) when I returned home. From its website it really gives the impression of having primarily a huge social emphasis, with the site mentioning its last tangible benefit to anyone, apart from themselves, being a cardiac clinic way back in 2002. I was taken aback to see on the poster that the course runs from 11-23 May; that must cost someone somewhere (most likely not the privileged attendees) an arm and a leg. However custom like this must do wonders for the "sustainability" of the Godavari Village Resort.Conferences and seminars play a huge part in the daily life of the development sector over here and, in contrast to the edgy work that we are doing, seem to have no difficulty in attracting lavish funding support. Maybe the return from something like this is more predictable and funders are content to know that x number of participants attended for y days and studied such and such subjects. As for my Trust, we can only apply for funds stating in honesty that our plans are at times of necessity rather vague. For instance one of our rescue teams might go to an Indian circus, not knowing how many children are inside beforehand and (if the circus hasn’t moved in the meantime) whether or not they will come back empty handed or not. And as I wrote in my post of the other day liability considerations (given the risks involved) has scared off at least one potential grant maker this week from our very vital work. There's not much risk involved in attending a sustainability conference at the Godavari Village Resort, beyond sustaining wakefulness at the start of the afternoon session following a splendid lunch. The Resort is but one of a number of troughs used by those who purport to belong to the development sector in the racket of “conferences” and “networking”. Their contribution is an obscene squandering of scarce resources that are being frittered away slap bang in the middle of one of the world’s poorest nations where real need is so obvious and burgeoning.
After lunch we called at the refuge to be greeted by the refuge dog, a stray that Bev had picked up in really bad shape at the end of last year. The animal has gone from a having no fur and being mere skin and bone to becoming a picture of canine health and fitness. Before and after pictures are alongside. The kids gathered around us eagerly to study and savour the posters and to bask in a bit of loving adult co
mpany. The children’s main carer and local director, Shailaja, joined us and we spent some really quality time with the children, reminding ourselves once again of what this is all about.In the group were two small boys who just the week before last we transferred from our other children’s centre in Bhairahawa following their achieving top marks in the end of year school examinations. The schools in
Kathmandu are more challenging than those in the rural areas and we're going to stretch them to the limit of their abilities and give them the best chance possible in this very tough society. The boys know that their industry is being rewarded and they are over the moon to have been given this opportunity.We left the children happily colouring in work books that we had brought them, and lo
oking forward to Bev's return this week when she will be doing a library session with the youngest kids. Of course I am more than a little biased, but she's fantastic in this role and her rapport with these kids and their hypnotic response is a joy to behold.
