Sue and Bill Thornton

Sue and Bill Thornton were two excellent and very popular volunteers at our Bhairahawa art workshop in November/December. Between them they extended the range of the tuition to incorporate lessons in IT (Bill's area of expertise), English lessons and "Iris folding", a craft technique favoured by Sue. I write belatedly about them as I have just found a film that they shot during their time there:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3-BQ2LZuoU

I found this through Sue's fundraising page (hint, hint) as she and family members will be joining me on the BUPA 10km run in London on May 25th. Visit:

http://www.justgiving.com/susanthornton1

By the look of Bill's chin he must have had to leave us in December to carry out duties elsewhere as Santa.

Film of an English lesson in Bhairahawa

Last week I filmed an English lesson at our art workshop in Bhairahawa. This would be nothing special were it not for the fact that the workshop - and the class - is an integrated one with some students being deaf and others able-bodied trafficking (circus) survivors. Normally I can post my film directly from YouTube to this blog but there seems to be some kind of a glitch preventing me from doing so. This being the case, here's the link:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOzWnkGR-7I&feature=channel_page

The integrated mosaic workshop

I returned last evening from an overnight visit to our project centre in Bhairahawa in the southwest of Nepal. Bhairahawa is a mere stone's throw from the Indian border and a slightly longer chuck from Lumbini, which is the birthplace of Buddha. In December we collocated our two mosaic workshops, transferring the child trafficking survivors at the Kathmandu workshop to join the deaf school leavers at the Bhairahawa workshop. This has proven to be quite fascinating and highly successful as disabled young people and able-bodied girls work side by side in an integrated workshop. The girls have all learned sign language and joining in their party games on Tuesday evening I really had to remind myself that most of the group was deaf. I found it lovely to witness the joy of it all.


A large part of the magical atmosphere of the place stems from the volunteers, past and present, who have given so much of themselves in inspiring and training the students. The workshop is currently managed by American artist Carol Hummel (http://www.carolhummel.com/om/) whose good humour and sense of fun is quite infectious. She has just recently been joined by a second artist, Hazel Fullerton, and the group is complemented by two gap year students over from Cyprus, Alex and Jade. The scope of the training has mushroomed - literally - with training in mosaics being complemented with English and IT classes and, er, growing of oyster mushrooms in a shed at the back.


With its proximity to Buddha's birthplace we hope that we can find a market for appropriate mosaics that can be offered to tourists who pass through the area. These are now being made in a range of dimensions from life size (that would work well in a local building) to small portraits that can be squeezed into a rucksack. My Presbyterian roots mean that I am not a particular fan of religious imagery (such things are banned from the kirk!) but if this theme gives jobs to marginalised young people I am all for it.

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.

The Sundhara Project

Since March this year we have been training deaf school leavers in Bhairahawa, southwest Nepal, in mosaic art techniques. This initiative was profiled in an article, "Silent Beauty", in the Nepali Times of 21st March. The trainees have been learning the basics in advance of our major mosaic project at a cafe in Sundhara, Kathmandu. The link is that this is one of the Nanglos "bakery cafe" chain that is distinctive in its favouring the employment of deaf and other disabled staff. The plan is to place a large mosaic in each of ten wall panels that surround the open air atrium that serves as the cafe's dining and function area.

Sculptor Rebecca Hawkins, who earlier this year was a volunteer art tutor at our workshops for child trafficking survivors, is designing the artwork, using as a theme the wildlife of the Terai (the southern strip of Nepal). This morning she sent me her design for the first of the panels (see right). She'll now have an input from my friend British professional mosaic artist Jo Letchford and then the young deaf artists can get started on those tiles. The project will be part funded by the cafe and by two schools, Sha Tin College in Hong Kong and Kingston Grammar in the UK.

Rebecca (wearing black) is shown in the video below measuring up the panels at the cafe, assisted by Esther Benjamins Trust staff member, Camilla Kinchin, who is coordinating the project.

I hope this will be the first of many such projects in Nepal that will raise the profile of disabled and other stigmatised groups within society.

Sundhara

A very distinctive and attractive feature of the Kathmandu skyline is the Dharara tower in the district of Sundhara. I have a lovely view of it from my office window and I photographed it this morning from here looking resplendent in the Spring sunshine. Fashioned in a Mughal style it is much newer than it might look. It was originally built by a Nepalese Prime Minister back in 1825, perhaps as a symbol to any visitor, friendly or unfriendly, of the nation's wealth or power. However Mother Nature had something to say about that and it took a tumble in the great earthquake of 1934 having to be rebuilt from the two storey stump that remained.

Not far from the base of the tower lies the Sundhara Bakery Cafe, a branch of Nanglos. Inside the cafe you can find not only a rather nice plaque explaining the history of the tower (right) but enjoy one of the best smoothies in town. As per some of the other bakery cafes it employs disabled staff members who would not find employment anywhere else. The reason for my visit last Thursday was to investigate the possibility of mosaicing a wall at the cafe at the invitation of Nanglos, with the mosaics to be made by our deaf school leavers in Bhairahawa. It is going to be a massive undertaking but a challenge that everyone can rise to, not only artistically but also in finding the funds to complete the task. I look forward to filming progress by stages later on in the year.

The Nepali Times

On my post of 15th March I mentioned a visit by Nepali Times reporter, Pranaya Rana, to the Trust's mosaic course for deaf school leavers in Bhairahawa. Here is what Pranaya wrote in this week's edition:

http://www.nepalitimes.com/issue/392/Nation/14617