Missing the point

One of our partner NGOs in Nepal, the Nepal Child Welfare Foundation (NCWF), is based in Bhairahawa which is just 20km from the birthplace of the Buddha at Lumbini. The Lumbini Garden, which measures 7.7 square kilometres, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and has been developed over the years by the Lumbini Development Trust. It includes the spot where the Buddha was born in 623 B.C. and incorporate within its large area a number of temples that reflect the differing temple architecture of Buddhist nations around the world.

As part of my charity fundraising this year, I had planned to complete my fourth 10km run at a new event we'd set up ourselves as "The Lumbini 10km". The concept was to have an early morning run one Saturday in November that would take sponsored runners through the park area (away from dangerous Nepali traffic) with the event all over and done with by 9 a.m. This would raise badly-needed funds for the NCWF's ongoing childcare and allow me to hit my personal £40k fundraising target. Initial approaches to the Lumbini Development Trust (LDT) were encouraging and included discussions of possible routes with one Board member, Mr Hari Rai. However two days ago our team at last managed to arrange a meeting with Mr Parma Syangbo Sherpa, the Board Secretary. Dressed in his monk's yellow robes he flatly refused permission to allow the event to go ahead, saying that it would disturb the serenity of the place.

I have now written to the LDT, questioning Mr Sherpa's authority to take such a unilateral decision, that has such far reaching consequences, without consulting the Board. Moreover I have pointed out that his stance seems to be at variance with the remit of LDT to develop the site (sensitively and sustainably) as a national and international tourist site. We'll see what the Board says.

But sometimes I feel some of those who are central figures within organised religions are so immersed in their religious practices that they miss the point and forget the (almost universal) central calling to help the most needy members of society.

Donkeys

Much has been written in the Nepali press in recent weeks about how NGOs and INGOs may soon to be brought into line by the Government, with greater transparency and contribution towards the "national agenda". No one can challenge the desirability of NGOs showing clearly their sources of income and expenditure; many if not most don't measure up in this regard. I know of one or two NGOs out there who source their funds by withdrawing cash directly from their overseas' donor accounts through an ATM card that they've been given by their funder. That can scarcely be considered to be best practice. I do have problems though with any suggestion that NGO funds, non-governmental funds, might be harnessed towards the greater good as determined by a local governmental agency that might take precedence in decision-making over donor charity Boards and NGO committees. These suggestions - which seem to be strongest in "letters to the editor" sections of the papers - reflect an ignorance of the nature of public giving abroad and that any attempt to hijack funds that are given for a specific purpose, entrusted to Trustees, would undermine the ethos of charitable giving. It is the individual member of the public's right to give their own hard-earned cash towards whatever cause that is dear to their hearts, be it children, animals, the arts, medical research etc. If a donor country doesn't want to receive funds towards what might be seen as fringe issues then all that has by national government is to decline the charity's proposal. The funds can go to another country where the perceived need is as great or greater and where the contribution is welcome even if it doesn't go towards meeting development priorities.

Also, one of the tasks of a charity can be to identify and highlight something that isn't already on "the national agenda" but that most definitely should be. For example, six years ago when The Esther Benjamins Trust began working with the problem of trafficking of children to circuses no one knew anything about this particular problem. Had our modest resources been channelled into paying for other worthy things like providing rehabilitation and training facilities for trafficking survivors (this is high on the national agenda) then Nepali children would still be languishing, abused in the circuses. Instead we were able to get on with the challenge of sorting the problem out and now that child trafficking route is closed down.

Other causes like animal welfare seem to be of only academic interest to many of the decision makers within Nepalese society. Thank goodness for those few good people out there, Westerners and Nepalis, who have made stray dogs and working donkeys issues that need addressing and thank goodness for those overseas who give money that supports the animals' relief. I hope nothing is done in the future that will restrict the activities of such people who may be seen as "eccentric". It is such people that are the bedrock of charities.

Pictured right is a donkey that was rescued from a brick kiln last week by my friend Kit Spencer, Managing Director of the Summit Hotel.

10km musings

This morning was my first full ten kilometre early morning run in Kathmandu as I train for my competitive fundraising 10km events of this year. And I ran the course this morning in 53 minutes which is five minutes faster than when I competed in Hong Kong two months' ago. Extrapolation of this improving performance would indicate that in 20 months time I should be able to complete the distance in 3 minutes, which would surely be some kind of record?

En route at 6.30 a.m. I met a squad of Nepali armed police out on their own training run. Rather bizarrely they were running with rather than against the flow of traffic; maybe they know something that I don't. They were also running in their boots, a practice that is all good macho stuff, but one that was abandoned by the British Army about 25 years' ago. That followed the realisation that running in boots wrecks knee joints creating long term disabilities that were usually compounded by well-intentioned attempts by cack-handed military surgeons to repair the damage. Fit young soldiers were being turned into cripples. It is all very well running in boots (very quickly) when the bullets are flying, but the rest of the time it makes much more sense to wear trainers.

There are two sources of aerial pollution to contend with in early morning Kathmandu. The first is the clouds of dust that are swept into the air by Nepali women whose obsessional use of brooms seems to rival my current obsession for training. Given how common spitting is over here and the incidence of pulmonary TB this must constitute a major health hazard. The second pollution source is the smoke from the burning of rubbish which in Nepal tends to be done at the beginning or end of the day. One of my friends who is visiting at the moment deals with proper waste management back in the UK. He said to me that it would be so easy to use a modern incinerator to replace these bonfires, filtering out the toxins (apart from the CO2) and generate some badly-needed electricity for the city. That is something for me to chew upon - much like the free range cows of Kathmandu view the piles of combustible rubbish by the roadside.

Not so vital statistics

I have just measured myself up to provide baseline figures for the fitness drive I am going to embark upon in the lead up to my participation in the BUPA 10km run in London next year. The data are not impressive.

Height - 1.74m
Weight - 80kg
Waist - 99cm
Hips - 101 cm

Oh dear. Consultation with the BUPA website indicates that it's currently not looking good for my prospects of avoiding a heart attack. My Body Mass Index (BMI) which is calculated by dividing weight in kg by height in metres stands at 26.42; a figure of between 25-30 is considered "overweight". Encouraged by the recent medical evidence that BMI is a less reliable measure of risk than Waist to Hip ratio I calculated that one enthusiastically. My optimism was short lived. The ratio works out at 0.98 - a figure of greater than .90 takes me into the high risk zone.

Anyway, encouraged by a family member's contribution of £2k towards my sponsorship page this morning the fitness drive begins today. As I am nearing my first fundraising target of £1k for every km of the run I am going to set myself a real challenge. I am no athlete, decreasingly so as the years go on, and have little chance of realising my idle boast to friends of being first across the line. Instead I am going to try to set a record for the amount raised by an individual and maybe also by a charity running team in this particular event. I am awaiting information from the event organisers as to what the highest sponsorship has been in the past.

Guinness Book of Records here we come!

I hate mobile culture

It became a running joke with my friends that I didn't possess a mobile until I reluctantly accepted one a couple of years ago. And then only because one of them bought me one out of exasperation at being unable to reach me. My problem was not with the technology per se - I love communications and ease of accessibility, particularly when trying to run a UK charity from Kathmandu and to stay in touch with friends and supporters. Instead I was troubled by becoming part of mobile culture, within which those who own the confounded things feel compelled to use and answer them, however inappropriate, wherever they may be and whatever the occasion. Take a look at the picture I received this morning of former circus girl Maya who I have mentioned in a previous post as being a talented distance runner. She's just 15 but yesterday came 9th in a 3km run against national adult athletes. In the picture she's receiving a prize from the local MP but just look at the geezer in the background who is so subtley (not) concealing his use of his mobile.

I am considering bringing Maya over to London for a future running event if my Trust can find some sponsorship for her nearer the time. That would be the chance of a lifetime for her and well deserved.

On the subject of which, don't forget my online sponsorship form for the BUPA 10km run:

http://www.justgiving.com/philipholmesbupa

Sponsorship is developing nicely as is interest from fellow runners. Two of my London-based staff, Chris Kendrick and Nadia Kamel, will be joining me, as will six other supporters (so far). If you would like to come too, registration for the race opened yesterday:

http://www.london10000.co.uk/site/?pageID=200

Table Tennis

Yesterday I opened a mini youth club at the Trust's children's refuge at Godawari, Kathmandu and inaugurated the table tennis table. The facility isn't lavish - it's all we can afford - but it will mean a lot to the kids who are getting older and more energetic by the day. Afterwards I welcomed new volunteer Carole Swithern and bade farewell to outgoing volunteers Jane McKears and Olwyn Cupid. This has been a record year for the number of volunteers who have come to help us out and quantity has been matched by quality.

I now have seven runners (self included) pledged to take part in the BUPA 10km run for which online registration opens today. We are planning to do the run with clowns' (sad) faces with the message that the Indian circus is no laughing matter. I am those who have been very quick off the mark to sponsor me. I have been so encouraged that I have upped the fundraising target to £10,000, aiming to raise £1,000 for each kilometer that I run in the year of the Trust's 10th birthday. New runners and sponsors most welcome!

I am very proud of our new look website, which has had a total makeover and went live at the weekend.

A long time in charity

Former UK Prime Minister, the late Harold Wilson, once said that "a week is a long time in politics". After my fundraising experiences of the past week I am inclined to the view that it can also be a long time in the charitable sector. For at the start of the week I was quite bullish about our chances of being able to balance The Esther Benjamins Trust's books next year through a new raft of funding applications to grant making foundations that we have just issued. However last week we received rejection after rejection, including from traditionally generous historical funders. I can only infer that those foundations are as worried about donating as has become the general public in the present global financial crisis.

On Saturday I wrote to my Trustees to share my concerns and propose that we cast the fundraising net even wider than before in the coming year. One of the new initiatives that I have suggested is the Trust's participation in the annual BUPA 10km run in London on the 25th May next year. Online application will open on 28th October but the Trustees have agreed that we will purchase an additional 30 guaranteed places to ensure that we can field a good team. And I have decided to put my feet where my mouth is and join the run myself. I'll be inviting supporters to join me but if you can't do so please sponsor me through the online form that can be accessed through this blog.

Artistic creativity

At the start of this year when volunteer sculptor Rebecca Hawkins joined our art workshop for trafficking survivors she expressed interest in encouraging the girls (who have mostly been rescued from Indian circuses) to produce some items to their own design. I was deeply sceptical at the time as Nepal is very much a copycat society where "artists" have a tendency to copy the ideas of others or work from photographs. Indeed, when she prompted the students to design their own mirror frames in mosaic she found that they did so only under extremes of protest. But they produced results nonetheless and I was appropriately humbled.

Last week the latest volunteer sculptor from the UK, Denise Bryan (pictured right), was very proud to be able to show off to me little figurines that the girls had made in private after banning her from the studio for a couple of hours! These represent village women and each figure has its own identity reflecting the work of an individual artist - so the girls hadn't been copying from one another. I believe these figures can now be turned into very marketable ceramics that have a very ethnic, almost aboriginal, feel to them.

Reflecting on this surprising outcome, I can only attribute this to the success with which we have developed a relaxed "creative space" at the Godawari workshop and in how the girls have grown in self-confidence. The aims of the workshop have been achieved and I am sure much more success - and surprises - lies ahead.

Press report on our last circus rescue operation

In my post of 27th June I described how Sunday Times journalist Dean Nelson had visited Hetauda to meet the girls that we rescued from the Raj Mahal Circus on 13th June. During my holiday last month his report appeared in the Sunday Times:


http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article4364184.ece


I was very pleased with Dean's coverage even though it seems to have led to just one or two donations, although more journalistic interest has followed. But maybe someone out there was considering writing their Will around the time that they read the article. One never knows and you can only keep trying.

Interview of former circus girls

I returned to Kathmandu last evening after a sobering visit to our branch office in Hetauda in the central south of Nepal. I had been in the company of Dean Nelson, South Asia correspondent with the UK's largest Sunday newspaper, The Sunday Times. Dean wanted to interview five of the girls who had been released from The Raj Mahal Circus (see my post of 16th June) and were now back home in the vicinity of Hetauda. The girls were more relaxed than at the time of their rescue and were now speaking freely. One girl told how she'd gone to the circus at the age of 5 and had spent 12 years inside. After her years of imprisonment the rural poverty of home seemed like a wondrous world to her. Another girl told us how they only received pocket money in return for their arduous and dangerous working routine - she guessed she'd been given a total of about £8 in the ten years that she'd been trapped inside the circus. The girls talked of their performances, the most frightening of which was the act in which they have their hands tied behind their back to be spun around the inside of the big top holding on by their teeth to a piece of cloth at the end of a rope. One of the girls had fallen and was lucky to survive. This accident literally grounded her for three months.

Most sobering was the girls' descriptions of the deaths inside the circus. A girl had died from jaundice and her body had been buried somewhere. A few months later her mother turned up to see her daughter and was understandably distraught to learn of her daughter's fate. She refused to accept the circus' offer of financial "compensation". Two lads had died as a result of a trapeze fall. Their bodies were cremated and that was the end of them. They recounted how one boy had escaped from the circus to later return of his own volition. His punishment was a public beating (used as a deterrent for the rest of the troupe) that left his limbs broken. He was then removed from the circus. The girls believe he was left on a railway track.

The face of modern day slavery is ugly in the extreme. I hope we can continue to break the hold of the circuses over the children that they abuse and I look forward to our next rescue in August. The coverage in The Sunday Times (expected to be on 6 July) will hopefully help us to raise the funds that we so desperately need to continue our fight.

Returning home via Simra airport I was ready for some amusement after three hours' worth of very grim stories. There was some levity when I saw the garden outside the departure lounge. Tiny as it was, a huge and inappropriately-sited noticeboard proclaimed this (rather weed infested) garden's maintenance to be a joint venture between a soap manufacturer (Vatika) and the Civil Aviation Office. Obviously the scale of the task was too much for one of these to be able to fund it in isolation. And the ostentatious signboard guaranteed to undermine any aesthetic improvement that might have gained through the gardener's labours.

Truth and untruth in Nepal

Today my colleague Shailaja was telling me how a young lady that the Trust is about to assist has come up with three very differing stories regarding her background and predicament - no need to go into the details of her case and all the stories are probably rubbish anyway. I report this merely to illustrate how difficult it is to conduct field work in Nepal and get to the bottom of things.

You could unkindly label this as being a problem of endemic lying but never make the mistake of calling a Nepali a liar. That's not culturally acceptable even if the evidence to that effect is crystal clear. This apparently dishonest behaviour seems to be more a case of a question posed receiving a number of different answers to see which is most palatable to the inquirer. Or a process of testing which reply is most likely to be suitable to get someone out of a tight spot even if his or her range of answers undermines belief in any of them. I think this all illustrates a kind of emotional immaturity that seems to be commonplace within Nepalese society and which is reflected in a range of other behavioural patterns (e.g. the rampant teasing of animals and children).

Given this trend it is remarkable that anyone passes a school examination that requires straight answers to straight questions. But today I learn that 64% of Nepalese 16 year olds (ish) passed The School Leavers Certificate (SLC) examination that was sat in April. This examination is the passport to higher education; those who fail are condemned to a life of manual labour and low income jobs. Amongst their number this year was young Bina Paudel, the first of our refuge children to pass the examination, doing so at "second division" (passes are graded into four categories - distinction, first, second and third). Bina has been staying at our Bhairahawa refuge but in recognition of her success and through the generous support of an anonymous UK sponsor she'll now be transferring to Kathmandu to start college. Two years hence I expect she'll set an example to her younger brothers and sisters by progressing to university and the prospect of a profession. I am very proud of her indeed.

Raid on The Raj Mahal Circus

I have a confession and apology to make. In my posts of last week I wrote that I would be going to a circus rescue operation near Calcutta. This was a deliberate piece of misinformation, just in the (albeit unlikely) eventuality that someone with links to the Indian circus industry might be numbered amongst my readers. Instead the plan was to go to The Raj Mahal Circus which was playing at Akola, near Nagpur in central southern India. We wanted to be sure of total suprise so we didn't inform the child performers' families beforehand (often in the past someone from the families has tipped off the circus) and I decided to mislead through this Blog if I possibly could. Sorry about that...

We had a score to settle with this particular circus as a previous rescue attempt last year had failed (see my posts of 19th/20th August) due to indifference - and most likely the corruption - of the local authorities in the region in which it had been playing at the time. Moreover the Raj Mahal Circus is one of the four circuses owned by Fateh Khan who is the most exploitative of all the circus owners. His son, Raza, is currently facing rape charges for offences at one of his other circuses. Fateh Khan is a very dangerous man and recently he has further empowered himself by taking a leading role in North Indian politics.

I left on Thursday lunchtime, accompanied by journalist Pranaya Rana and photographer Min Ratna Bajracharya of the Nepali Times. We flew to Nagpur via Delhi, and in the end also via Hyderabad as monsoon weather in Nagpur prevented us from landing there initially. Eventually we got to Nagpur and drove through the night to join the rest of the team in Akola at 5.30 a.m. on Friday morning. Meeting Kelvin Symon of ChildLine India Foundation I was told that we would be going to the police at 6.30, one hour later; the police would raid the circus at 7.00 a.m. He was quietly confident of success, following the clear cooperation that the advance party had received from the authorities over the previous few days. Kelvin was already beaming with pleasure as he had been part of the team that had been rebuffed last August and revenge would be sweet.

The raid went like a dream with 20 performers being released without any resistance. Of these 17 were female. One of the males was 43 years old; he had gone to the circus to find work and they wouldn't let him leave again so we readily agreed that he could walk out through the gates with us as well. Of the 20 releasees, 13 were minors (under 18). Six releasees were from Nepal itself and the remainder were (mainly ethnic Nepali) Indian nationals from West Bengal.

Raids always throw up surprises in what one finds and this time a big surprise came in the form of the presence of two foreign female performers, one American the other Italian, who were on short contracts. When I chatted to them it was clear that they had no idea of what was going on around them. They were kept largely separate from the rest of the troupe and allowed to leave the circus to go into town. They didn't know of the rape and violence of the Kahn circuses and never heard of Fateh Khan. Nor did they realise that the other girls weren't being paid. One of them asked me what the attraction of Nepalese girls was and when I said it was their fair skin I could see the penny drop with her. A white girl in a leotard is a great crowd puller for all the wrong reasons.

A key element to the success of the operation was the presence of a barrister, Nandita Rao, on the team. She ensured that everything was done by the book and in accordance with Indian law which is crystal clear on the definition and management of child labour and bonded labour. All of the releasees were modern day slaves and now that the paperwork to that effect has been completed meticulously under Nandita's supervision I am quite confident that the circus owner, Fateh Khan, will go to prison for his crimes.

The circus had been taken entirely by surprise which is perhaps why the raid was so unopposed. But later on in the day one of Khan's brothers turned up on a motor bike outside the police station and threatened some of the team members. The feisty Nandita Rao chased him off telling him that he'd better leave quickly or she would report him to the police for attempting to interrupt a police investigation. For the remainder of the day circus people watched us from jeeps and motor bikes in a continued attempt to intimidate us. In their number was one guy whom my colleague Shailaja (who was on the August 2007 rescue) remembered as having threatened to kill her if she returned to the circus. In spite of all this posturing we knew that we were safe as the police were on our side. Instead we were rather amused that the circus had been so unsettled by our success and no doubt also by the prospect of criminal convictions.

This week all of the releasees will be returned home with a police escort the whole way to their final destination to prevent circus retaliation or abduction. Then we'll help them to rejoin the human race. One girl showed us the marks on her hands which followed cuts received from the trapeze act having been cauterised by the ringmaster using molten wax so that the show could go on. His sordid show is now doomed to close forever.

I feel very proud to have been part of this operation, especially seeing the dedication and commitment of my colleagues. Over those couple of days the team members ate little or no food and worked around the clock. I have an abiding memory of seeing Nandita sleeping in the open in the midst of all the girls in a police courtyard. She told me afterwards that she is immune to the mosquitoes that were devouring the rest of us. Below I publish some film that I shot of the girls leaving the circus for good. I will edit my film footage over the next few days and publish a fuller version towards the end of the week.

Farewell to Holly

Today I invited volunteer Holly Wheaton, who is due to leave the team on Friday, for a farewell lunch. Holly is a gap year student who has been taking a year out prior to going to Warwick University in the UK this September. Many gap year students elect to travel around the world enjoying a prolonged holiday after school. Personally though, I think that this crucial time is better spent in character-forming activities if appropriate challenges can be found. Holly has had just such an experience in that we placed her for several months in a remote part of Nepal (Bhairahawa) and asked her to help teach deaf school leavers mosaic art. She rose to that challenge and has been outstanding; she's enjoyed herself immensely as well.

Everyone will miss Holly over here and we look forward to her keeping her promise to come back to Nepal next Summer.

Land of the Tiger

The girls at our Himalayan Mosaics workshop are now producing smaller and more detailed mosaics. This makes these exquisite mosaics easier to sell to tourists, who might have limited packing space, and cheaper to export. The latest designs of Nepali flora and fauna by my wife Bev seem to have developed along a tiger theme. Pictured right (awaiting grouting) is a tiger orchid, a common tiger and plain tiger butterfly and, er, a tiger. All mosaics are a mere 18 cm by 15 cm. Most excitingly we are now producing our own hand made tiles which are cut up to make the mosaics. This will increase the range of colours that are available. If anyone would like to order a mosaic or mosaics (and give a survivor of child trafficking employment) then just drop me a line.

Recently a supporter in the UK tested what I consider to be a fairly unreliable postal service by sending us a modest consignment of clothes for the children at our refuges. Yesterday the clothes were received in Kathmandu and they were put straight away to good use by the boys in the picture below. This means so much to us as the quality of locally available clothes is poor and the need is great given the 170 kids that we are looking after at the moment. If you'd like to follow this supporter's example (and are prepared to risk the loss of second hand clothes that would be subsequently untraceable) then please post what you've got to:

The Esther Benjamins Memorial Foundation

PO Box 26050

Sundhara

Kathmandu

Nepal

Thanks!

Grey-backed shrike

I paid a long overdue visit to the arts rehabilitation centre today; sadly I have been distracted recently by working visits to India and the like. But it was good to find morale so high in both students and teachers. Ceramicist Alex Hunter has been replaced by local potter Hari Govinda Prajapati (Hari Potter?) who is a leading light within the Kathmandu ceramics scene, so that has been a good catch for us. Rebecca Hawkins remains full of enthusiasm a couple of months into her attachment and her regret at having to leave us at the end of the month is quite tangible. She has been really taken with the whole enterprise and told me today of how amazed she had been at the transformation in the students' demeanours even over a few weeks. To me this seems to be an infinitely more successful approach to managing troubled minds than bringing in a troop of counsellors.

I took this photograph this morning of a Grey-backed shrike sitting in the bush outside my office window. It's not uncommon in this part of Nepal but it's a quite beautiful bird, often heard (it has a distinctive shreek) before it is seen. It's beautiful enough for us to have translated it into mosaic in the past.

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.

Hatti Trading

Just over three years ago we had a tremendous volunteer in Nepal called Emma Triplett. Emma had seen an interview with me in The Kathmandu Post and immediately volunteered her services to help with trafficking victims that we had retrieved from the Indian circuses. In a life changing experience she went to work at our "Kathmandu Training Centre" teaching English to girls in between their learning cutting and stitching skills. After a few months she went back to UK and decided to set up "Hatti Trading" (http://www.hattitrading.co.uk/), providing an outlet for bags and designer items that were being made by the girls she left behind in Kathmandu. Emma is a great leader and the business took off, with her selling her merchandise through party agents. The initiative is now providing work to 18 former circus girls in Kathmandu; this is what the trafficking survivors most need - jobs.

Yesterday I addressed her 25 agents and told them how they were actually in the frontline with us in the fight against human trafficking. Unless there is something for the girls to return to our circus rescue programme can fail very badly and out of sheer desperation girls may return to the circus. The talk went very well, even though my PowerPoint presentation wouldn't open and I had to present for one hour unscripted and without imagery.

There is currently an epidemic of "winter vomiting virus" sweeping the UK:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=TT1A1IOQXOAMTQFIQMFSFFWAVCBQ0IV0?xml=/news/2008/01/04/nnoro604.xml

This morning at 8 a.m. I joined the victims. Explosively so.

Girl trafficker's travels over

The female trafficking agent who was sent to us by ChildLine India at the start of this week has had charges registered against her in spite of her threats against all and sundry. She is not eligible for bail so can now expect to remain behind bars for up to a year until the case comes to court. So that should keep her out of further mischief. If she is convicted she'll face a sentence of up to 20 years and a fine of up to 200,000 rupees (£1600).

We are already looking after the children of imprisoned traffickers (as part of our programme for help to prisoners' children). It would be ironic if through our determined efforts to get this woman convicted we end up caring for her children, if she has any.

Relief sculpture

I popped into the Arts Rehabilitation Centre this afternoon to see how our volunteer sculptor, Rebecca Hawkins, was getting along. I had always thought of sculpture in terms of figurative items, statues and busts. But there's also relief sculpture and for the first time in Nepal it's being taught to (very enthusiastic) students. And more exciting is that the students are all trafficking victims, girls that we have rescued from the Indian circuses.

I am so proud of the quality of our work and that includes a huge admiration for students and tutors alike.