Things you didn't know about Hong Kong

Well, first off, it was where The Esther Benjamins Trust effectively took off back in 2000. That's all thanks to my friends Ronnie and Carol Ford who at that time were teachers at Sha Tin international school. Ronnie, who has since become an accomplished professional artist (http://www.ronnieford.com/), staged an art exhibition as a fundraiser for the Trust. That was reported on by The Hong Kong Standard newspaper with its report of the charity's origins and early work in Nepal being hijacked by the South China Morning Post. A press visit to Nepal led to a feature making cover story in The South China Morning Post Sunday magazine; the very powerful story that was written by journalist Fionnuala McHugh then moved sideways to the UK's Daily Telegraph and we had the initial publicity we needed to ensure that the Trust didn't go the way of so many other new charities and wither on the vine. So Hong Kong is a very special place for me and it feels good to be back.

Other interesting, but fairly useless, facts from Hong Kong:

• Tomorrow's Marathon and associated running events will attract 54,272 runners.
• Of these 32,907 will be joining me in the 10km event.
• The record time for that event is 30 minutes 19 seconds, a target that has gone unbeaten since it was set in 2002.

I am not impressed with this time; I am sure that I can double that. That is if I can get out of bed early enough to be there for the 5.15 a.m. start.

There's still time to sponsor me and win a beautiful work of art from Nepal:

www.justgiving.com/philipholmesbupa

I hate Twitter

Having tried it I empathise with this guy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfG2Em8SHk4&feature=dir

Twitter just seems to trivialise things and limit explanation potential. It's not right for my subject material and I am dropping the link from this blog.

So there.

Endangered species

This morning’s (normally excellent) Nepali Times cover story is based on the national tiger census that has been taking place over the last couple of months. The article claims that the tiger numbers are “bouncing back” however later in the piece I read that the number of tigers actually identified is about the same as in the last census of 2000.

In spite of this apparent good news it has been a bad week for Nepal’s endangered species. In Chitwan, for the first time ever, a rhino had its horn removed by poachers without them killing the animal. One shudders to contemplate the agony that this animal must have experienced and continues to suffer. The incident took place near one of the Nepal Army checkpoints that guards the National Park’s animals and many believe that this was an inside job.

Elsewhere there was short-lived excitement at three freshwater Gangetic Dolphins being rescued by Army personnel after they had become trapped in a pond adjacent to the Koshi river. The dolphins were returned to the mainstream but one has since died. It seems that brainless locals got there first and put poison into the pond. And they got there first because conservation officers who should have conducted the rescue operation were off attending a meaningless “bird festival” somewhere.

When I read of all of this I am struck by how Nepal’s beautiful and fragile wildlife is so at the mercy of wicked, heartless people and hostage to the ineptitude or indifference of those who should be its protectors. Just like Nepal’s children.

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.

Vulnerability

Four and a half years ago we rescued Anita (name changed) from The Great Roman Circus which was playing in Lucknow. She was one of seven minors who were hidden away by the circus at the time of the rescue and were only retrieved through court action and habeas corpus. Anita came to our refuge in Bhairahawa, southwest Nepal, delighted to be free. My wife Bev, who was working for the Trust at that time, became very close to Anita and those other little children. She remembers how Anita would touch her own skin and say "naramro" (bad) and then Bev's and say "ramro" (good). The lighter your skin in Nepal the higher your status or caste. Anita came from the untouchable (dalit) caste and their skins can be very dark as an ethnic group.

Two years later Anita moved to live at the Kathmandu refuge with many of the other children who had been in Bhairahawa. A few months later she was excitedly pointing out how her skin colour had lightened a couple of shades by the move to the cooler north. Anita wasn't an academic girl but had a lovely extroverted personality and this translated into dance which had become a passion for her.

Anita's family background was very poor. The family lived in a wooden hut by the side of the road just outside Hetauda in the central south of Nepal. Like many of the rural poor, alcohol abuse dominated the family's day to day existence. At one point the father was found to be dismantling his hut to sell the wood to buy alcohol. Anita had become very concerned about her younger sister and brother who were at high risk of being trafficked and with the father's consent we took them into our Kathmandu refuge as well.

Last year Anita's father died and Anita, like many of the refuge children, went home for a few days around the festival of Dashain in October (this is the main Hindu festival and a time for family get togethers). It is also a time when the families who messed the children's lives up by trafficking them in the first place get a chance to spoil their lives yet again. But we are supposed to encourage reintegration to family and community and although Dashain scares the living daylights out of me we still comply with the children's and families wishes to be together for the festival. After a week or so at home Anita announced that she wanted to stay on with her mother and not return to the refuge. This was her decision and as a 16 year old there is very little that can be done to make someone change their mind. Shortly afterwards I was disappointed to hear that she had become married and that would be the last we'd probably see of this lovely girl.

Yesterday I heard that it seems her uncle has in fact trafficked her to India and Anita is now in Mumbai (the epicentre of the sex trade) or possibly even in Saudi Arabia. Once a girl goes down this route she becomes almost untraceable. We will find the uncle though and see what can be done.

This sad story reflects just how vulnerable trafficking survivors are, not least because their yearning to be back with kith and kin and have a sense of belonging puts them in such a high risk situation. It is also a stark reminder to us as to how little we can do to protect girls who can be whisked away so quickly down a path to an existence that is beyond our comprehension.

Local journalism

Hmmm. I have tried Twitter and I am not convinced it's my style. But I'll give it a chance.

I couldn't resist posting this photograph that appeared in today's Himalayan Times. Interesting isn't it?

Back again - sort of...

Regular readers will have noticed that my Nepal blog has fallen by the wayside; this is entirely a feature of having been just too busy over the last couple of months with business planning and desperate fundraising to try and beat the recession. Finding time when I felt sufficiently relaxed to write - and enjoy the activity - became almost impossible. Blogging came to feel like a chore. So I stopped.

Now I have restarted through using Twitter (see the link on the right) which allows me to still stay in touch with friends and charity supporters through short, more manageable, bursts. These will complement blog posts that will perhaps be a little less frequent than before.

Now off to do some twittering....