Spot the New Year resolution

Oh yes, I am back after a short silence. I abandoned this blog in late 2009 as the pressure of work had become just too intense for me to continue to write this and still enjoy it. I don't believe the workload is going to be any less this year but it seems likely that it will become more focussed on Nepal and India and I'll feel that bit less stretched. It feels great to be writing this journal again - I have really missed it.

I have a number of goals for this year, some personal, some public. One of the latter is to run the London Marathon on the 17th April. This will be my first marathon event, my greatest previous competitive distance being 10km. At 51 I am aiming to be more of a tortoise rather than a hare but I am sure I will complete the course even if lasting the full 26.2 miles is a matter of pride mentally or through resort to hands and knees physically. Training is well underway and today I passed the psychological barrier of running for over two hours for the first time when I ran two hours two minutes around the Bhaisepati planning area on the outskirts of Kathmandu. This is a perfect training area as it is flat, has clean(ish) air and very little traffic to contend with. The only downside is to reflect upon how Mother Nature is losing out to the "planning" with fields surrendering almost by the day to new - and rather grotesque - buildings that seem to be sprouting up everywhere. In just a few years time this last little patch of green just outside the ring road will have gone for ever.

The running effort will be all worthwhile though as I am now half way (when gift aid is included) towards achieving my fundraising goal of raising £20k in sponsorship for the charity I founded in 1999, The Esther Benjamins Trust. You can add to my total with ease through my online sponsorship form. Thanks for that in anticipation.

I wonder how long my New Year resolution will last for?

Kusum

In my post of 24th February, "Raw Poverty", I described my visit to a trafficking-prone community in Makwanpur District which had left me profoundly shaken. This followed my seeing a little four year old girl, Kusum, hiding under a quilt inside a grubby hut. Her mother had died three months previously and she was refusing to speak and hiding from all visitors. We had the dilemma of what to do with this acutely traumatised child. Many aid organisations would maintain that this child should be supported within her community and kept close to her remaining family. That's easier said than done in a Nepalese rural community. On top of that her father had little time to dedicate to his daughter; he had to labour during the day and Kusum was keeping company with a young couple who had their own children to look after.

We decided, with her father's blessing, to bring Kusum and her ten year old sister Anisha to our Kathmandu refuge and I saw her there on Friday, the day after she arrived. She's still not speaking but is in the loving care of the refuge staff, surrounded by curious and exuberant refuge children. This is the first traumatised child we've admitted to the refuge in a long time and her rehabilitation is going to be a challenge; my daughter Alisha is looking forward to doing her bit and plans to buy her a teddy before going to see her again on Monday. Within a month Kusum will be a totally different child. The cost of care for the two girls will be £1080 per year but that's a small price to pay.

Any sponsors out there?

Dhanyabad

Around thirty of the children that The Esther Benjamins Trust is caring for at its refuges in Kathmandu and Bhairahawa in the southwest are the dependents of prisoners. I prefer to call our facilities "refuges" rather than "homes" as, in the ideal, they provide full time care only on a temporary basis. In the case of prisoners' children this is pending their parents' release. It's important to keep tabs on the prisoners as, in spite of what they agree at the time we admit their children, it is common for them to vanish into the ether after they are freed in the expectation that we will continue to care for their offspring. For our part we are proactive in reuniting the children with parents as soon as they have found work and can provide a family home but we give the releasees a little leeway after release to sort themselves out. Moreover we are happy to help with some short term financial support (e.g. for educational costs) to smooth the reunification path. This approach is in the best interests of the children and ensures that our refuge facilities can be extended to other, more needy, children.

Two brothers, Raju and Rajesh, came to us back in 2001 after their father was jailed in Tulsipur prison in the far west of Nepal. They have been staying at our Bhairahawa refuge ever since. Towards the end of last year the father was released and it was easy to see how keen the boys were to go home and resume family life. However, this had to be delayed as he needed to find work. Two days ago one of our field staff went with the older brother, Raju, to trace the father. On arrival in his village it transpired that he had remarried and was building a house. He was not at all keen to take the boys back - prisoners enjoy the prospect of a totally fresh start - and would have been more than happy for us to continue to look after the boys to a standard that's better than he could ever afford. But he will take them back; as I see it if he's sufficiently well off to build a house then his finances are good enough to fend for the children.

One of the disappointing things that I see about the parents that we have to deal with is a lack of responsibility (often fuelled by alcohol abuse) and an unwillingness to take ownership of their children. We have to be careful not to indulge these unhealthy sentiments. But the other thing that gets me is the lack of appreciation. Purely in monetary terms, the cost of daily care for Raju and Rajesh over the years has probably been in the region of £8.5k but dear old dad will never say thanks. Instead he clearly expects more off us. This thanklessness is not unique to him by any means. The word "dhanyabad" ("thank you") is a fairly recent addition to the Nepali language. This grates a bit but then you have to remind yourself that what we do we do for the children, not for the parents.

Shailaja has just phoned me to say that gymnast Aman Tamang, who was one of our two refuge children taking part in the National Games last week, has been named as one of the top nine athletes from the games. This means he has won a purse of 25,000 rupees (£210) which equates to six months' salary at the national minimum wage.

Good Friday in Nepal

Yesterday I attended a children's picnic for the 100 kids who are at our Kathmandu refuge. A picnic consists of a trip to a park in the surrounding hills, music, dancing, games and of course (copious) amounts of food. Meanwhile eleven older children from our Bhairahawa refuge in the south were rounding off a five day trek in the Annapurnas, north of Pokhara (for those who know the area this included Ghorepani, Chisopani, Pun Hill, Tadopani, Ghandruk). This is a super challenge for the kids and all part of our overall aim of not just providing for children's basic needs but, quite literally, going an extra mile or two.

These kinds of activities are funded through our "recreation sponsorship" where we invite sponsors to contribute £5 per month for a named child; I can't think of a better way of spending 17 pence a day. We also invite supporters who have a little more cash at their disposal to consider an educational sponsorship of £15 per month or a general sponsorship of £25 per month. To commit to one or more of our children in this way please visit our website.

Holi in Bhairahawa

In my post of 9th March I wrote how the Hindu festival of Holi was my least favourite of the year with anyone being liable to find themselves sprayed by revellers with water or with coloured dye, whether they like it or not. A picture I received today indicates that our UK volunteers in Bhairhawa seemed to enter into the spirit of it with more enthusiasm than I could muster.

The Esther Benjamins Trust newsletter

One of my charity tasks is to assemble a six monthly newsletter. Following my efforts, complimented by design and editorial support from our London office, the Spring edition has just been published and you can see the online version here:

http://www.ebtrust.org.uk/images/newsletter/Newsletter_spring_A4.pdf

The slums of Butwal

Last month our volunteer photographer Jonny Cochrane recorded a visit by some of our Bhairahawa refuge children to their home area in the slums of Butwal, which is half an hour's drive away. It proved to be a very bleak visit and I have now uploaded Jonny's pictures to Flickr.

We are now researching how we might provide support to the children who are in the midst of this urban poverty which is every bit as grim at the rural poverty of Makwanpur District. We're aiming to launch a new project in Butwal in the middle of this year.

Colour at The White House

The Esther Benjamins Trust's first children's refuge, the so called "White House", was set up in Bhairahawa southwest Nepal in 2000. It is currently providing a temporary home for 30 schoolgoing children. Most are children of prisoners but there are also some former street children and conflict affected children in their number. Over the last couple of months the refuge has received the support of eight gap year students. Volunteer photographer Jonny Cochrane visited the refuge last month and I have just uploaded his striking images to Flickr.

Childcare at the refuge costs in total £45 per month and we need sponsors to help us meet this cost. Sponsorship can be at three levels; £25 per month to cover general care costs, £15 per month for educational costs or £5 per month as a recreational sponsorship. Let me know if you can help.

Iron gate

The School Leaving Certificate (SLC) examinations have just started in Nepal, which equates to the GCSE examinations in the UK. It should in theory be taken by students when they're around 16 but older candidates present themselves who are re-sitting the exam or who have missed out on education for whatever reason. This year quite a few "People's Liberation Army" (PLA) personnel who are veterans of the recently-ended conflict are taking the exam. SLC is a critical qualification and is known as the "iron gate" for without it there can be no progression to higher education, to decent vocational training or much of a chance of finding a good job. In this very poor country there's always a great deal of hype around SLC and each year there is usually the tragedy of a few suicides that follow exam failures.

We had a very different experience of an iron gate last week. My mosaic art workshop "Himalayan Mosaics" moved out of its old premises in Godawari, just outside Kathmandu. It transferred just a mile or so up the road and is now sited in purpose-built rooms on the roof of my partner Director Shailaja's new home. The problem was that two of our dogs had to move with the workers and Shailaja's compound had to be suitably secure to prevent these former street dogs from exploring their roots. That meant a gate had to be fitted and we took a chance and allowed local staff to install this for us. The outcome was the placing of an expensive monstrosity of a metal gate that looks quite incongruous and ostentatious in the midst of a rather poor hillside village. Fitting the gate took a long time as the chap who was supervising the work didn't think to measure the available space so they ended up having to cut away a lot of adjacent bank to make room for this expanse of metalwork. Shailaja, who is currently in India, is blissfully unaware of these goings on and will have a fit when she gets back.

I have seen this behaviour pattern many times over my years of being in Nepal - something I call "catastrophic decision making". Local workers can come up with the most bizarre solutions to problems the thought processes behind which just defy comprehension. Recounting the gate saga to a friend of mine the other evening she put it another way, referring to the "I" and "J" words. These stand for initiative and judgement and to her mind the two do not go hand in hand in Nepal. It takes quite an effort for a show of initiative to be displayed by a local worker, but one's delight at this is shortlived as it is rarely balanced with good judgement.

In my own display of folly this week I have registered for The Third World Run in Belfast on the 31st May, taking me back home to Northern Ireland for the first time in 13 years. This will be my fourth 10km run for my charity, The Esther Benjamins Trust, in its 10th birthday year. I have increased my sponsorship target to £40,000 and with £26,660 raised so far I am sure I can get there. If you'd like to support me either join me on one of my runs. Or, if you are blessed with better judgement than to do that, please visit my online sponsorship page.

I won!

Yes, I managed to beat the clock and get out of bed at 3.30 a.m. this morning. I was then placed fourth in getting to the start line at a ridiculously early time; I'm like that with timekeeping. I felt rather bewildered to be in the "warm up" zone, given that there was a healthy breeze blowing in off Causeway Bay. Then I saw others adopting pre-race contortions that I couldn't possibly emulate and the penny dropped.

Of course with the 5.15 a.m. start time that meant we would be running in the dark. But at least the fireworks which were set off as the race began worked to their best effect. Within 300 metres I realised that I was highly unlikely to win this race as scores were already racing away ahead of me. I was gratified to note though that one participant was already walking, so I certainly wasn't going to come last either. The route was a good one, following the eastern corridor motorway 5km out and 5km back; the organisers having had the good sense to ban traffic for a few hours. There were a few undulations to be dealt with but the marvellous views of Hong Kong were a welcome distraction during the run.

My (unofficial) time was 58 minutes and I was pleased to complete my first ever 10km event inside one hour. Now I have a target to beat at the BUPA 10km run in London in May. If I shed a little more weight I am sure that I can improve upon today's effort.

I believe I can probably claim one other victory. I would be surprised if any other runner this morning had the backing of £18,834 in sponsorship. If you played a part in helping me reach this amount, thanks very much! If you didn't you're still not too late to contribute. See:

www.justgiving.com/philipholmesbupa

The Esther Benjamins Trust is offering guaranteed places for the BUPA run. Drop me a line please if you are interested.

Flickr

I have just embraced "Flickr" which allows me to share Trust photographs through an online album and that automatically places pictures onto this blog, Facebook and to my charity run fundraising page (hint, hint). I have uploaded a few pictures from our circus rescue in June, but I would recommend that you have a look at the trekking collection that I have uploaded this morning. Essentially the older refuge children who are taking part in the International Award scheme become involved in a range of activities from community work to adventurous training that develops them as well-rounded citizens, even the leaders tomorrow. Thanks to the Body Shop Foundation we were able to purchase trekking and camping equipment which has allowed the children to go off on regular trips with their carers and with guides.

The images of the happy children in the trekking collection belie the grim backgrounds that they've all come from. It is so common for our work to attract comment about "institutionalisation". Do these children look institutionalised to you?

Feet of clay

I have just returned from Saturday lunch with the children at the refuge. It's a lovely sunny day in Kathmandu and I was pleased to see upon arrival at the refuge that Shailaja, typically, was not lazing in the sun. Instead she had put the sun to work for her with two solar ovens up and running, baking bread for the children's lunch. And very good it was too. We are working towards using the larger, trailer mounted, solar oven commercially as it bakes more bread than even our voracious children can eat. That could provide a handy income to the local organisation, albeit a modest one.

Next week will see the start of an external evaluation of our work and yesterday I was revisiting a previous evaluation from 2005 which needs to be taken into consideration by a different evaluator, Jason Hoke, who will be conducting a more in-depth review. The evaluator at that time was very naive, surprisingly so since he'd lived for 20 years in Nepal and spoke the language, taking pretty well everything that the (then) local staff said to him at face value. Much of his report still grates with me. But one particularly unfair comment that was made was that by teaching children independent living and how to fend for themselves we were erroneously bringing them up in a Western way. In Nepali culture there is a great deal of interdependence within the family and the community. These links are reinforced through religious practice and festivals like the ones we've just had, Dashain and Tihar, when parent/child and sibling/sibling relationships are re-affirmed. Undoubtedly these practices can add a great deal of strength to family life, an inherent strength that we could indeed learn from in the West.

However that which can lead to intrinsic strength can also foster the weakness of dependence. And what happens when these social and family bonds fail and children end up sent to prison because there is no one prepared to bear the stigma of caring for the children of prisoners (even if they are relatives) or when children get sold and are trafficked into modern day slavery in the Indian circuses? Usually this represents an irretrievable breakdown of those bonds as families dissolve around the trafficking victims. The only answer surely is to "empower" (a grossly overused word within the development sector) the survivors and prepare children and young people to face the adult life in a tough country without being solely reliant upon support that may well be founded upon feet of clay.

Jane and Olwyn go to Hetauda

During their volunteer attachment with The Esther Benjamins Trust in Nepal, Jane McKears (pictured right with Programme Coordinator Binod Bhujel) went with Olwyn Cupid to assist at our branch office in Hetauda. Hetauda is the principal town in Makwanpur District which before our work had its positive impact was the main child trafficking area to the Indian circuses. This is what Jane wrote about her time there:

"Olwyn and I came to Nepal to do five weeks voluntary work over the Desai holiday period. Both of us are widely travelled, and Olwyn in particular has seen most of the world.

We were drawn to the project by a number of things. I had briefly visited the project at Bhairahawa and was attracted to the positive and optimistic attitude at the centre. It quickly became clear to me that this really is a charity which is here for the benefit of the children and not the Directors. With my having a background in Health Visiting and Child Protection, and Olwyn being an Inspector of schools, we soon recognized the project as being totally child-centred. Our first few days were spent at Godawari, which is five miles outside of Kathmandu. In this gentle oasis, we picked oranges from the trees in our garden [I wondered where those had gone to...] and enjoyed views from our rooftop towards Everest. Outside in the road, goats and hens wandered amongst brightly painted lorries.

After a couple of frustrating days when we did not even know where the children were, we were able to join them at last. It was such fun, teaching them to play "What's the time Mr. Wolf" and other games. They actually screamed with excitement. It was only later that we discovered some of the "children" were 19 years old, but having had their childhood destroyed, they were learning to play. I gave an impromptu First Aid Course with an almost empty First Aid box, but the children appreciated practicing covering an open wound.

The following week we were transferred to Hetauda. Nothing in our previous travels prepared us for the ten hour bus journey there. Cramped into the small back seat which we shared with 2 men, we could not move our legs at all, but felt more fortunate than those sitting on the roof…especially when the late monsoon flooded our road. The 14 seater bus conveyed 26 of us along, not counting those sitting on the roof. It was stifling hot, and the pot-holed road was emphasized by the lack of suspension. Bouncing along as though we were horse-riding, I was once bounced up so high I banged my head on the ceiling of the bus. Respite came with a loo stop. Looking out through the large hole, which replaced a window, I was able to enjoy beautiful rural views whilst having a wee. Naturally when we unpacked our cases, which had been strapped to the roof throughout the downpour, the entire contents were soaking!

So why did the morning find us relaxed and contented? Nepali people are amongst the friendliest in the world. And the children at our project were welcoming and helpful. By lunch time I had had my toe nails and left hand finger nails painted scarlet by the children, and Olwyn had enjoyed showing them how to use her camera. Plentiful meals of dhal bhat were provided, which were delicious but mountainous! We had great fun singing English and Nepali songs together, and then had ball games which reminded me how much fun childhood can be. It wasn't all fun of course. The regular water and electricity cuts were frustrating, but we followed the lead of the children who took it all in due course. Neither did we like the mosquitoes which seemed particularly attracted to us.

Highlights for me included, taking a pregnant girl to hospital for a check up, where it was interesting to see the ante-natal check up. We both loved visiting the families of circus returnees to see if the girls had settled well back at home. Seeing families live in 2 roomed mud huts was not a new experience for us, but gaining insight into the social causes of child trafficking was an eye-opener. It is not just simply illiteracy that leads families to believe their children will be transformed into film stars, but a simplicity which is associated with the geographical limits of their lifestyles. One family we visited, were of the Chepang tribe. They are the poorest tribe in Nepal and live their entire lives in the jungle, eating only what can be found there. They live in houses of mud and branches, and never leave the area. Imagine how tragically simple it would be to fool them that their daughter was about to be given a great future in the circus. As Hetaudu is prone to child trafficking, the staff have been out with loudspeakers , conducting awareness campaigns. Let's hope this reduces the incidence.

Our time at Hetauda was also used to conduct a research project to find the current state of the circuses in India,. This will inform the future direction of the work of the Trust.. most of what the circus returnees, and ex-circus managers told us, only reinforced knowledge already available to the Trust. It was extremely painful for us to hear the girls describe their treatment, but this just served to strengthen our commitment to supporting the work of the Esther Benjamins Trust.

If you are thinking of coming here as a volunteer, please bring with you an open mind. Nepali culture is complex and diverse. Would I recommend that you come here as a volunteer? Well, yes – if you have the skills and knowledge which are useful to the Esther Benjamins Trust. Remember that the volunteer experience is primarily to benefit the children, and our own enjoyment is secondary. For both of us this has been a wonderful experience, peppered with a great sadness at suffering which we cannot erase."

Goose-a-laying

My charity's Christmas cards are now available for purchase. The cover shows a mosaic entitled "Goose-a-laying" (as per the 12 Days of Christmas carol) that was made by Kumari, a former circus girl who is a graduate of the art workshop that we've been running in Kathmandu this year. The cards sell at £3.99 for a pack of 8, with postage and packing costs of:

Up to 4 packs - £1.65
Up to 6 packs - £1.75
Up to 8 packs - £2.00
Up to 10 packs - £2.55


Once again, through the kind sponsorship of leading London-based engineering company Ramboll Whitbybird, 100% of the purchase price represents a donation to The Esther Benjamins Trust (EBT). Recipients of the card will be able to order an original of the mosaic - which is from a limited edition - that will ensure trafficking survivors are kept in work making them well into January. So beat that for a charity Christmas card offer!

You can place your order by contacting EBT through e mail - info@ebtrust.org.uk - by telephone - 020 7600 5654 or through placing an order via the Trust's website - www.ebtrust.org.uk/site/home.htm

Vijaya Dashain

Today was Vijaya Dashain, the tenth and main day of the festival of Dashain. Normally it's when young people visit family homesteads to receive a blessing and "tika" mark on the forehead from the family elders. Also included in the package is a few barley shoots tucked behind the right ear of the recipient of the blessing and a gift, that usually involves a small amount of money.

I went to our children's refuge this morning to act as the "family elder" for about 50 children who had nowhere to go to this Dashain. They included children who were HIV positive that had been rejected by their families but probably also a few of our older boys and girls who had given up on their natural families and preferred their friends' company rather than attending a shallow family celebration. Often these same family members had trafficked them to the circuses or wrecked their lives through alcohol abuse and various misdemeanours that had led to prison sentences.

The occasion went well and it was as moving for me as ever. For the first time five of the older boys (aged 16-18) after receiving my blessing (which is of rather dubious merit) bent down and touched my feet with their heads as a mark of respect. This leaves you feeling very awkward but it brought home to me just how much these kids realised what had been done for them, not just by me but by the charity as a whole - trustees, staff, volunteers and supporters. At times I rant about the trials and tribulations of working in this very difficult society - including in this blog - but today all the effort felt very worthwhile.

Pollution and protest

Faced with a growing fuel crisis in Nepal the Government has allowed the State-owned Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) to increase the price of petroleum products - petrol, diesel and kerosene - as of yesterday. The price hikes have been substantial, with increases of up to 28%. However so heavily have the prices been capped by the Government in the past (well below the import price) these increases are still not going to be enough to allow the debt-ridden NOC to even come close to breaking even. The problem is that in the past when prices have been raised street protests have erupted compelling the Government has had to back down and reverse the decision. I think this time around the Government is hoping to increase the cost by stages and hope that no one will notice.

There were protests in Kathmandu yesterday but fairly minor ones and I suspect these will soon blow over as everyone knows that prices can't be held so artificially low. The problem of course is that there is a huge knock-on effect in terms of general price rises which will be felt acutely in a country that is already so poor. The only consolation I can see is that in the UK where there have also been huge price rises at the pumps and long queues apparently petrol sales have dropped by 20% as people make less use of their cars. That has to have a huge benefit for the environment and polluted Kathmandu would certainly benefit from fewer vehicles on the road.

The Maoists as the leading party in the country have always said that they will turn Nepal into a prosperous nation. They have to be given the benefit of the doubt over this pledge, as this is their first time in power and every other party in the past has failed the nation. However these soaring costs of fuel won't help them to achieve their goals. That's but one of the challenges. The major one is to somehow engineer a sea change in people's attitudes to reform society along a healthy socialist agenda. To show concern for others many in the Nepali public have to escape from a "compound wall" mentality where so commonly people keep the confines of the compound wall that surrounds their house neat and tidy, while happily throwing rubbish over the other side. A reflection of this is the pollution of the "sacred" Bagmati river that runs through Kathmandu. Crossing the Bagmati bridge yesterday (I had to abandon my vehicle which had been caught in a traffic jam because of street protests) I took the picture on the right of the rubbish that is blatantly tipped into the stinking river. The Maoist leader, Prachanda, has said that he will clean up the Bagmati but this is a Herculean task which reflects in microcosm the difficulties his party will experience throughout Nepal purely as a result of people's inconsiderate attitudes.

It's not just the Nepalis who need to get real about our obligations to save the planet. Recently I saw a grant application form from a UK Trust that invites applicant charities to state what they are doing to reduce their carbon footprint. Immediately I could think of how The Esther Benjamins Trust has established a biogas facility at the school for deaf children in Bhairahawa and how we are embracing Skype technology (webcam-based internet communication) that may allow us to hold Trustee meetings without travelling from home or my having to return from Nepal. Not all organisations within the sector are giving a due amount of thought to such issues. I was impressed to read that the Absolute Return for Kids (ARK) charity held a fundraising gala dinner in London at the weekend that raised £25 million. Then upon further reading I noted that one of the auction prizes was a private jet flight to a vineyard in France to pick up some cases of wine. There's something worthy of protest.

Saturday in Kathmandu

Yesterday morning Bev and I decided to do some shopping in Kathmandu for books and posters for the children at our refuge, in advance of paying them a surprise visit in the afternoon. En route to the refuge we stopped for lunch at The Godavari Village Resort. It does a super lunch at the minute with locally-farmed Godawari trout being a seasonal delicacy (I highly recommend the Tandoori version of the dish).

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 the 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 company. 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 looking 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.

Establishing identity

One of the first projects that we give new arrivals at the Esther Benjamins Trust art workshop in Kathmandu is for them to make their own names in mosaic. After having been rejected and sold by their families to subsequently spend years as non-persons inside the Indian circuses this is an important opportunity for the girls to re-assert their identity. This week I extended the idea by encouraging the workshop girls to visit the 24 residents (or as they are termed by their carers the "inmates") of the nearby Karuna Bhawan hostel for HIV infected infants and women (see my post of 11th April), establish relationships and make them name plates as well. The girls have enjoyed this immensely and it has the added benefit of giving real purpose to their training. This afternoon I visited the workshop and photographed the students, touchingly absorbed with their task. The next project will be to make a mosaic of a flower as a follow on gift. I spent some time yesterday photographing flowers in my garden to provide sufficient inspiration to ensure that each of the 24 mosaics will be different, again allowing an expression of individuality. I will publish some of the results on this blog next week.

On the way home I called in to see our refuge children in Godawari. I was thrilled to see seven year old Juna Titung again for the first time in two years, she being one of the four children that I mentioned in my post of 5th May. She was practically wriggling with delight at seeing me again and I felt strangely flattered, an emotion that I don't experience that often or for that matter have any time for. But after that I felt a lot better with myself for having taken the decision to reunite her and her siblings with their family two years ago, inadvertently causing them such hardship and distress.

Cinderella

When we first came to live and work in Nepal in late 2004 my wife Bev acted in close support to the “Blue House” children’s refuge in Bhairahawa, southwest Nepal. Bhairahawa was hot, sticky, mosquito-blown, snake-infested, remote, socially and professionally isolated, but notwithstanding all of this Bev found her Blue House experience quite electric and well worth any “sacrifice” that we might have made. For the children there were little boy and girl survivors whom The Esther Benjamins Trust had just freed that year from some very dangerous and vicious Indian circuses. The challenge she shared with the children’s prime carer, Shailaja, was to bring them back into the real world, showing them love and affection in the process. Bev would go there just about every day, take classes, play with them, develop and restore their interests and personalities. Some video footage, narrated by Bev, shot inside the Blue House at that time can be found on the EBT YouTube channel.

This morning as I was reading Cinderella to my little daughter Alisha, I commented to Bev that the subtleties of a “wicked stepmother” would surely be lost on our 21 month old. Interestingly Bev remarked that those children in the Blue House had been transfixed by the story, wanting her to read it to them again and again. For most of those children were themselves unwanted and unloved, and had known cruel stepfathers or, more likely, stepmothers. Marriages break up frequently in their communities, elopement or early death of a parent is commonplace. Children from first marriages are often not wanted within a family unit (especially when it’s a very poor one) and that’s how they ended up being sold into the circus. For them Cinderella was no fairy story but they can expect few fairy godmothers to come to their help.

The dangers of working against child trafficking

I am currently engaged in an exchange of correspondence with a U.S. based Foundation as I try desperately to raise the funds needed to fund our growing operation against cross border trafficking. Yesterday I was advised by that Foundation's Director that it was likely our dangerous rescue activities would not be eligible for their funding support as their Board would not be prepared to accept the associated liability.

This is an interesting point to reflect upon. There are charitable activities that carry no risk to life or limb at all - for example education or healthcare projects or work with orphaned or street children. That's fair enough and many organisations do wonderful worthy work in these fields. However, the difference with child trafficking projects as compared with the rest is that if you are to undertake work that is of any significance you will automatically be getting in the way of the livelihoods of criminal elements. That inevitably carries risk which in this part of the world where life is so cheap can have fatal consequences. The alternative (and one that some organisations follow) is to just pick up the pieces, say for example helping HIV infected girls who have been sent home as they have outlived their usefulness in the international sex trade or providing counselling to trafficking survivors. Useful as that is, it takes one into the realms of a kind of peaceful coexistence with the trade in human lives. If you are to genuinely "battle" (the word by the way used on this particular U.S. Foundation's website) human trafficking - and by implication win a victory - then you've got to be prepared to take the risks that go with battle.

My mind goes back to an Esther Benjamins Trust Board (Trustee) meeting in early 2003 that immediately followed the research that we had conducted on the abuse of trafficked Nepalese children inside Indian circuses. The question was "what now?". The Board was split down the middle, with one half thinking intervention was too risky and preferring us to confine ourselves to continuing to assist the dependent children of prisoners, disabled children and street children. The other half felt that we had to do something and take risks to rescue these desperate and abused children. The argument was won largely by the outspoken views of one Trustee (of Indian ethnicity) who pointed out that positive changes in the world had been effected by risk takers who stuck their necks out and risked their lives - like Gandhi and Mandela. She supported my view that we should get on with it and the decision was taken to proceed with raiding circuses in association with the Indian authorities. Afterwards I gave that Trustee a big hug for her support. I hadn't wanted the charity that bore my defiant late wife's name, she who had always been a fighter, to confine itself to addressing the symptoms of a problem.

That decision has led to over 300 children and teenagers being rescued from circuses; many had experienced rape and sexual abuse. We are pressing on to the next stage of the battle, firming up our relationship with ChildLine India, towards a final victory. All I need now is the money which doesn't seem too much to ask from those who are remote from the danger, money that will support those of our staff members who believe passionately in what they are doing and are prepared to risk their all.