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.

Heroes

Each year the U.S. Department of State Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (G/TIP) publishes the TIP report giving an overview of the measures being taken against people trafficking in 150 countries. In the 2008 report the Nepal section will include a profile of "heroes" who are in the frontline, the heroes in question being the Esther Benjamins Trust's circus rescue team. Yesterday I forwarded a picture (right) of the team members for inclusion in the report. They are from left to right, Kumar Giri, Ganesh Shrestha and Bhim Lama. Ganesh and Bhim are former circus ringmasters, poachers turned gamekeepers.

I hope the accolade that these brave guys receive in the report leads to some funding being forthcoming (see yesterday's post on our desperate need). Otherwise they'll need to be stood down - I don't relish the prospect of telling them that - and girl victims of trafficking will have to remain trapped inside the India circuses. If that happens the 2008 TIP report will create the impression that something significant and positive is ongoing when in reality it may have already been terminated.

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.

Failed family reunifications

Around five years ago we took in four siblings who had been languishing inside Bhimpedi jail in central Nepal. Two boys and two girls, their mother and father were serving life sentences for murder. The children were popular additions to our Bhairahawa refuge and they did very well at school. Then in February 2006 out of the blue there was an amnesty and the parents were released, with the mother coming to Bhairahawa soon afterwards to retrieve her children. We persuaded her to wait for another couple of months until the end of the school year (April) to avoid disrupting her children's education. The children were duly reunited with their parents two months' later along with 15 other refuge children whose parents had been freed from jail or whose domestic circumstances seemed to have improved sufficiently to allow them to care for their children. The reunifications were handled very sensitively by us with the children being given photograph albums as mementoes of their time and of their friends at the refuge, while parents were given our financial support to help with their future education.

Last week one of our field visits to this family found that the father was being conspicuous by his absence from the family "home" in the depths of the jungle while the mother would be away all day tending livestock. The children were malnourished, in poor health and now attending school irregularly. They pleaded to be allowed to return to the refuge and I agreed immediately. They are likely to be with us now until they come of age bringing to 169 the number of mouths that my cash-strapped Trust has to find the funding to feed.

I hate the "children's home" concept with a passion, as children belong in proper family units. It is very necessary though to have such facilities that serve as a vital safety net where there is no state provision for genuinely needy children. Our impetus remains to try to get children back to families, however of the 19 children that we reunited in April 2006 eight have since come back to us. I suppose that remains a success for the other eleven but it reflects the bleak social milieu within which we have to operate in Nepal.

I was very dismayed though to learn that these latest children were last week blaming me for sending them back to their poverty two years' ago. They can of course be forgiven for the child's analysis of the decision that sadly led to their experiencing such grinding hardship. At the time I felt that I was acting in the children's best interests and if I had to do it again (as I do each April) I would make exactly the same choice. Nonetheless their bitterness towards me can't help but hurt after so much of my personal involvement in their welfare which stands in stark juxtaposition to the neglect and indifference of their parents.

Inclusion

This election was unquestionably the most inclusive that Nepal has ever seen, with appropriate representation of women, minority ethnic groups, and candidates who were disabled or from sexual minorities. And as a consequence Nepal now has its first openly gay parliamentarian, gay rights activist and chairman of the Blue Diamond Society, Sunil Pant. I have only ever heard positive comment on Sunil and must admire the courage of those who could dare to be themselves in such a discriminatory, conservative society. I wish him well in his political career and I am sure that he will have a valuable input to the drafting of the new constitution. I can't help wondering though what my commentator that I mentioned in my post of 17th April makes of this development. Perhaps it is just as well that I have disabled the comments facility on this blog.

Last evening I attended the wedding reception of the brother of my colleague, Bhaskar Karki. Bhaskar is the general manager of Himalayan Mosaics and I was touched that he had also invited the Himalayan Mosaics (former circus) girls to the evening. It is probably unheard of for these survivors of girl trafficking to attend a gathering that included in its number the commander of the Nepalese army. Bhaskar probably has done more for the girls' self-esteem and sense of acceptance than the Trust could ever do.