Shailaja's birthday

Today is Shailaja's birthday and a fitting opportunity for me to pay tribute to this lady who has given herself over so fully to beneficence.

Shailaja is the Director of our local partner organisation, Esther Benjamins Memorial Foundation (EBMF), based here in Kathmandu. I know her very well by now and have to admire her stamina in the midst of an ongoing huge workload and at times open hostility. Anyone who is good at their job and at heart will inevitably have their detractors in Nepal and Shailaja has been no exception. Indeed, when I first came to live in Nepal I was horrified to discover that she was being actively discriminated against by her (male) employers; not only was she more committed than they, but she had the wrong ingredients of being both an Indian and a woman. There is a widespread mutual antipathy between Indian and Nepali and no shortage of misogynists in Nepal. Now her pathetic narrow-minded persecutors from that time have all gone and Shailaja has taken the leading position that was her destiny.

A few weeks ago I recommended Shailaja for an international humanitarian award. Here is an extract from my pen picture:

"....Once again she has thrown herself into this task, building EBMF from nothing into a leading player in the fight against child trafficking within the course of a year. She has traveled widely within the trafficking prone areas of Nepal, motivating field staff and interacting with the communities and their children. She is a “people person” and never more comfortable than when operating in this kind of role. Shailaja has shown typical courage, herself going on rescue missions where “no” is never taken for an answer. She has been directly involved in the counseling of teenage girls who have been intercepted on the trafficking routes and has managed to convince them to give evidence against the traffickers (no small undertaking). As a consequence agents are now behind bars. And just a couple of weeks ago she was the one who personally confronted a lady at her Kathmandu home in a bid to rescue a ten year old girl from domestic slavery. The lady tried to intimidate Shailaja by telling her how important she was; Shailaja responded by filing a case with the police which is ongoing.

Shailaja now lives in the midst of 120 children, mainly trafficking victims and their “at risk” siblings at the EBMF refuge in Godawari to the southeast of Kathmandu. It is hard to overstate how fatiguing this must be, day in, day out, with little time taken by Shailaja for holiday. However she manages with her ready grin. Go to most Kathmandu orphanages and you’ll find grim Dickensian facilities, and idle staff. Visit the EBMF one and you will see the model of how things should be. I called in there last week, totally unannounced, and found a volleyball competition underway with Shailaja in the middle of the cheering children, dressed in her Manchester United strip.

I venture to suggest that you will find within this part of Asia few examples of commitment to social service and child welfare as strong as Shailaja. On the back of her motorbike she has a sticker reading “Catch me if you can”. I expect that few ever will."

Happy birthday Shailaja.

Terror on the Terai

In my post of 1st February I referred to the cover up over the pogrom that had taken place in Kapilvastu, south Nepal, last September. In what was a clear case of ethnic cleansing, extremists from the ethnic Indian (Madhesi) population had committed atrocities against the immigrant Nepali hill people (Pahadi) who have been living on Nepal's southern plains for the last couple of generations. The inquiry into the violence passed this off as just having been caused by criminal elements with no recognition of it having been inter communal strife. Today, as Nepal celebrates the declaration of a republic, I regret to have to write that this ethnic cleansing continues largely unreported.

The Esther Benjamins Trust has a major project activity in Bhairahawa, Rupendehi District, which is one along from Kapilvastu. I am reliably informed by a local contact in Rupendehi that Madhesi terrorist activities are being intensified there. Over the past week or two four Pahadis were killed in Rupandehi and over a dozen abducted, to be released only after payment of substantial ransoms. On 24th May the newly elected president of Bhairahawa's Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Mr. Mahendra Kumar Shrestha (a Pahadi) received a letter from one Madhesi faction (JTMM) demanding almost £20,000 as a "Terai Tax". It was mentioned in the letter that Shrestha should pay the amount within 72 hours as a tax for running business and owning property in the Terai. According to the letter every Pahadi who wishes to remain in the Terai should pay a Terai Tax or expect physical punishment or death. The letter has been followed up with phone calls to Shrestha, threatening his life if he didn't pay immediately.

This is a huge challenge to the new Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, with Madhesi rebel outfits demanding their own Pahadi-free province running right along Nepal's southern plains. This would cut across possible future federal boundaries that might run north south in an attempt to delineate Nepal's farrago of other ethnic groups. And whoever controls that southern strip can put a stranglehold on the country given imports from India must cross this troubled territory.

Happy Holiday

A few months ago Bev and I were lounging on the grass outside a government building in Kathmandu waiting for some civil servants, who were in the midst of an interminable tea break, to sign some of Alisha's adoption paperwork. The young Nepali lad who was with us (as staff at Alisha's source orphanage) said to us "The problem with my people is that we are lazy". We of course vigorously rejected his comment politely and vigorously. You only have to see Nepali women labouring in the fields while their menfolk expend equal amounts of energy playing cards to realise the invalidity of his generalisation. Seriously though, I think there is actually an extremely strong innate work ethic in the Nepali people and those who are living abroad reap rich rewards from their industry. The problem is the bizarre domestic culture of holiday taking that is forced upon the nation by others, a culture that drains initiative and cripples industry and risks condemning Nepal to remain an economic backwater and its people impecunious. It is a growing problem, especially now that the more inclusive "New Nepal" recognises many more public holidays in deference to minority cultures and religions. This development flagged up in a typically insightful article in the Nepali Times in April this year.

Tomorrow the new national Constituent Assembly will meet for the first time and is expected to pass a resolution that will turn Nepal into a Republic. No longer will tourist brochures be able to trumpet Nepal as being "the world's only Hindu kingdom". Hopefully the king will have the good sense to capitulate and leave the royal palace with dignity; the plan is that the palace will thereafter become a national museum but heaven alone knows what that is going to exhibit. I have nothing personal against the king but I am pleased as a republican to see the Nepalese head of state becoming a president. For dynasties hold no monopoly over good genes (even if as in this particular royal family there has been a historical claim to be an incarnation of a deity) and I feel it must always be the preserve of the people to elect the national leader.

The interim government just yesterday called a three day public holiday to recognise this auspicious occasion.

Disastrous education

So much attention, both nationally and internationally, is paid to the importance of education in Nepal. Yet even the most superficial analysis reveals what a raw deal the children are receiving in reality. I have written previously about the flaws of the chronically under-resourced government school system that sees so very few pupils (who are drawn from the lowest social classes) lasting the course to age 16 to take successfully the School Leaver's Certificate (SLC) examination. I have commented on the rote learning that bedevils both the government and private school methods of instruction, with examinations serving as tests of inculcation and memory rather than of education. I could write about the corporal punishment which is endemic in the schools and is just as vicious and sadistic as that which I knew as a boy in Ireland. However today I write about the latest news of the Ministry of Education deciding to close all government schools until the 10th of June. This is as a result of a lack of text books that over the weekend led to street disturbances at several locations across the country. The shortage is entirely due to the recent election when the national printing effort was directed towards producing ballot papers instead of the books that were necessary for the start of the academic year (April). So today's politicians have been elected to the disadvantage of tomorrow's citizens, who already have the cards so stacked against them. And those most disadvantaged kids whom we are trying to help will spend the next couple of weeks at the refuge providing a recreational and educational challenge to our already over-stretched staff. Brilliant.

Yesterday I visited our Arts Rehabilitation Centre in Godawari. It was lovely to witness our new art tutor, Jolanda Aucott, at work teaching the girls the basics of colour. The girls seem to thrive not just on the artistic input but on the attention that they receive from our enthusiastic volunteers. And the standard of mosaic work is soaring, with these becoming all the time smaller and more intricate, reducing shipping costs and making them more desirable to the tourist who might be limited by luggage space. The bee eater mosaic (published right) was designed by my wife Bev and based upon a photo I took at Bardia National Park (see my post of 4th April). It is just 12 cm by 16 cm and takes a girl around one week to make. Not bad for £60.

This morning's ornithological treat in my garden was a hoopoe which I spotted grazing on the lawn. It was a little distance away so please excuse the quality of the image. There's a mosaic in there somewhere...

"As big as bleedin' cats...."

Such were the rats in the Quartermaster's store, according to the old British Army song. The rats in Kathmandu also reach a healthy proportion in this very unhealthy environment as per this fine specimen which met its nemesis in my garden this morning in the form of my dog Bryher. Bev rushed out in the hope that it might yet be saved (she cares for all animals) but Bryher doesn't do anything by half.

Most days I drive past this billboard advertising a school that purports to offer a "New Vision in Education". As I do so I muse upon how beautiful the hills are in the background and how they have been spoilt by something resembling an internment camp. Sadly this is all too typical of the modern day ugly "pile them high, sell them quick" Nepali style of building that pays no respect to the country's rich architectural heritage. I suppose in defence of local advertising standards, this ad doesn't suggest for one moment that this is any kind of a heavenly vision - just a new one.

A felicitation

Yesterday was the fourth birthday party of the Kathmandu Animal Treatment Centre, a super little NGO which is now supported by its own UK registered charity. This is the one of the few other charities that I choose to support apart from of course The Esther Benjamins Trust. In spite of its acronym, KAT exists mainly for the welfare of dogs and the humane control of the Kathmandu stray dog population. Historically this problem has been "managed" (by others) through the widespread indiscriminate poisoning of dogs but this cruel practice achieves only a temporary reduction in the population. The KAT approach has been to pick up bitches off the streets and spay them, an approach that has had a documented long term benefit in other centres. Yesterday a spokesman for KAT said that they had over their first four years spayed 5,733 dogs preventing the birth of an estimated 55,000 puppies. That represents a real impact. KAT helps other animals on modest scale, including most recently one donkey (see my earlier post on "The Working Donkeys of Kathmandu", 9th April 2008) and has introduced pet therapy to a major children's home (our facilities don't need that kind of support as the refuges are already crawling with rescue dogs that my wife Bev has picked up off the street).

Yesterday's occasion turned into a "felicitation" for the organisation's delightful founder, artist Jan Salter who hails from the West Country in the UK. This rather quaint, antiquated term refers to an exercise in the erection of a gawdy tent and in fawning, lofty speeches that are usually rounded off with the presentation of a "token of love". The latter is usually a gimcrack of a statuette or picture of some description. A felicitation tends to be launched as an ambush on the unsuspecting recipient. I have been caught like this a couple of times and there is no escape from the onslaught. You just have to sit there with a fixed smile and curled toes while you take the compliments; on one occasion I was even referred to in a speech as "God's Wondrous Creation". The truth of the matter is that God's Wondrous Creation would rather run a mile than be part of such a ceremony. I am bemused by those who mis-read me so much to think that I might get any kind of a buzz from such public acknowledgement. Not only am I inherently quite shy, but the buzz that I get comes from making the Trust's whole operation work for the kids - and to find the funding for it to be sustained. That's quite enough for me.

Anyway, the event went as well as these things ever can do. It was rather a paradox though to have heard animal welfare speeches being made to the background chorus of howling dogs that were indignant at being put in their cages for an occasion that was being held in their usual exercise compound. Two of the longer speeches in Nepali were really useful for me as during these I managed at last to read a really interesting article on podcasting, this being my latest interest for improving the Trust's communication strategy.

As for Jan, she took the whole process in her stride even if she did fluff her acknowledgement speech in her uniquely dotty way. Bev and I are proud to be supporters of KAT and to have Jan as such a colourful friend in drab old Kathmandu.

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.