Prosperity in Nepal

Last night was a noisy one, with drums and singing going on in the village above our house until daylight (and even a bit beyond). All of this was on the eve of today being the main day of the Tihar festival and no doubt the rumpus represented a final drive to encourage a visit from Laxmi, the goddess of prosperity. Having a goddess of prosperity seems a bit of an odd concept within a religion. It certainly goes totally against the drift of other main religions, like Christianity and Buddhism, that postively eschew wealth (at least in their teachings if not in practice). It also strikes me as being rather simplistic to assess prosperity in terms of rupees; a nation's true prosperity lies in its values and how it manages those at the bottom end of society. From what I have seen here this nation is very poor in that regard. It also seems that it is optimistic in the extreme to expect a goddess to arrive and deliver "prosperity" in whatever form one wishes to intepret that term. Prosperity, be it financial or social, has to be worked for and in respect of the latter a sea change in attitudes within society is an absolute prerequisite.

This was Remembrance Sunday and the occasion was marked at The British Embassy in Kathmandu in spite of the general disinterest of The British Ambassador who, as anticipated, was absent from the ceremony. The service was held in the open air and I was delighted to see extra chairs having to be brought in to accommodate the numbers that attended. The Gurkha officers and soldiers looked splendid in their Service Dress and slouch hats; they were displaying an admirable collection of medals, reflecting a huge amount of service to the Crown. And the padre spoke well, the criterion of that being that he kept my attention from drifting unduly on a day that in its nature lends itself to mind wandering.

That said, I did find myself thinking a lot about a lad called Gordon Turnbull, killed in 1943 at Anzio (south of Rome) while fighting with the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers at the age of 23. Gordon was my father's cousin and 24 years ago while on holiday in Italy I made a pilgrimage to his grave. That visit was particularly poignant as at the time I too was in uniform as a young Army captain, I was also 23 and I believe the first member of the family to pay respects at his grave in 40 years. At the time of his death Gordon was unmarried and I had thought that was the end of it all. That is until this year when I dipped into "Genes Reunited" on the internet and found a lady mentioning his name and seeking relatives. I responded and it emerged that Gordon had fathered a girl before joining up; that girl had been adopted out and forgotten about. She had lost her roots, a loss that must have seemed very final after her father's untimely death. She has suffered severe depression and is now in care back in Northern Ireland. However I have been very pleased to make indirect contact with this hitherto forgotten second cousin through her daughter and to start to broker links between her children and their cousins that I do know of from within the family. This all illustrates that a soldier's death sixty four years ago is not necessarily in the past and as well as remembering that sacrifice we must also remember the legacy of loss that so often continues to this day.

On a brighter note, the Kathmandu refuge children came to my house yesterday to perform song and dance ("Bhailo") as part of the Tihar festivities. Seventy of them - former street children, prison children and circus children - turned up along with a few of their carers. It is amazing and hugely rewarding to see how they have matured (some have been with us for almost seven years now) and exude confidence and joie de vivre. For me, that's what the charity is all about. Here's some of the footage that I recorded:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_h0CdZ_BWxA

A visit to our refuge children in Bhairahawa

Today I paid a flying visit to Bhairahawa in the southwest of Nepal, close to the Indian border. It's where our work started out eight years ago before it expanded to Kathmandu and Hetauda. It remains home to 28 school age children (rescued from prisons or life on the streets) at the so called "White House" refuge and another 25 former circus children in the "Blue House" and "Red House" who are a little older. This latter group are undertaking a fast track course that will take them from zilch education to joining class 8 (about age 14) in a couple of years, essentially joining school at a level more appropriate to their age.

At the White House I was pleased to meet our four latest arrivals - two girls who are sisters of a former street boy that we'd been caring for and a boy and a girl that we have just brought from inside Tulsipur jail in the far west of the country. Assisted by the Director of our partner organisation, ex British Army Gurkha Gunraj Gurung, I was able to mount five mosaics at the buildings, mosaics that had been made in by Godawari studio and commissioned by supporters in the UK (www.ebtrust.org.uk/site/commissionamosaic.htm). The kids were clearly thrilled by these.

The White House children were all of school today as this is Day Three of the Tihar Festival. Day One and Day Two involved worship of the crow and the dog respectively. Today it was the turn of the nation's cows to receive a tika on the forehead and a garland. And after dusk the goddess of wealth, Laxmi, is worshipped and Nepali houses are festooned with lights (fairy or candles) in an attempt to entice her inside their dwellings. Children go from door to door singing and dancing, the so called "Bhailo", for which they receive modest amounts of money from appreciative neighbours. The White House children were rehearsing this afternoon and are aiming to raise enough pocket money to pay for a picnic for themselves.

Special Olympics

For the last six or so years my Trust has been supporting a disabled daycare centre in Butwal, southwest Nepal. It's a great place - set up in 1995 by a group of parents of disabled children. These include former British Army Gurkha Captain Bishnu Shrestha, whose daughter Kalpana has cerebral palsy. Each year we provide 100% funding for the centre's home visit programme that provides outreach to those disabled children who are physically incapable of coming in to attend the centre on a daily basis.


Yesterday I heard that Chandra Prasad Pun, 20, (right) from the centre has been chosen as one of 14 people to represent Nepal in the forthcoming 2007 Special Olympics World Summer Games being held in Shanghai, China from 2-11 October 2007. Chandra has been selected for the 200 metre race and the relay event in China having won many medals and trophies in his preferred 200m and Shot Put at National Level events in Kathmandu over the last couple of years. Chandra now comes to the daycare centre every day, where he has learnt some English and how to make some money by making candles and envelopes. Other children also learn to sew whilst physiotherapy and speech therapy are also available for those that would benefit from them. Initially Chandra accessed these services through the home visit programme which we fund. This has been such fabulous news for us as the funder and I wish him every success at the the Games.