To give you an idea of how cold it can get in Ladakh in the winter: recently Leh recorded the lowest temperature of the season at minus 22.2 degrees Celsius. That’s bearable if you have central heating, and good insulation, but if you don’t, as you wouldn’t if you lived in Ladakh, then life gets very difficult. You have to wrap up indoors as if you were outdoors! Those that can leave and go south in the winter do.
Ananada Hall introduced music to her classes at the JN Memorial school during her assignment from mid-May to the second week of August this year. The children loved these lessons so much, they gladly attended Ananada’s classes during their summer holiday.
Here are a couple of pictures she sent us:
Identifying well-run orphanages to assist in Nepal is very problematic. People with no experience or training can set orphanages up with little supervision from the authorities.
HELP was briefly involved with Mukti Nepal in 2006. It appeared to be a well run orphanage and the children seemed to be well cared for. As a result, we sent a volunteer and some money. However, we withdrew when we saw some negative press reports about the falsification of children’s names.
The situation has obviously deteriorated badly since then. We have just been alerted by someone acting on behalf of Next Generation Nepal (which aims to re-unite so-called ‘orphans’ with their legitimate parents) to the terrible conditions that the children were being kept in in recent years. This is what she says:
“Unfortunately, trafficking for exploitation within children’s homes is a common practice here in Nepal and as part of that, it is also common for documents to be forged. So far it is clear that nearly all of the children’s first names were changed and some of them had their last names changed as well. The goal is not only to get money from the children’s parents in return for the promise of an education, nutritious food, and access to better health care, but also to get money from well-intentioned NGOs and volunteers. Further, the forging of documents allows children to be trafficked for international adoption, without the parent’s knowledge or consent. It is a very lucrative business.
It appears that at some point, the orphanage was moved from the relatively nice location that (we knew) to a place where all the children were kept in just a single room. It is also now clear that Goma’s beatings were so severe they likely were the cause of death for at least one child and some of the other children still bear visible scars from being beaten with an iron rod.
The children are now doing quite well. Of the 20 that were rescued, 14 have been permanently reunited with their families and 3 children are still in the process of reunification, however there are still 3 children for whom we do not have enough information as of yet. ”
This is a warning to all of us, with all our good intentions, to take extreme care in supporting Nepalese orphanages. They can put on a good show for the passing visitor. Our own experiences with orphanages have all been negative, which is why HELP no longer involves itself in this sector.
If you use a British SIM card, here is an easy and fun way to make a donation to HELP:
Just text EHLP19 plus the sum you want to doante and send it to 70070. So, for example, if you want to donate £10, all you have to do is to text EHLP19 £10, and £10 will wing its way to HELP.
(Please note that JustTextGiving only accepts 6 amounts from donors. These are £1, £2, £3, £4, £5, and £10. A donation of £4.50, £7 or £20 for example will not go through.)
The HELP representative in Gangtok has sent me the following update on the aftermath of the recent earthquake (I quote him verbatim):
“The earthquake was devastating in North Sikkim, where there are several Hydro power projects are coming up. It is believe that the destruction is due to the construction of tunnel boring across the hills to channelize the water for the project. There are reports that whole villages were swept away by the land slide as it was raining for 48 hours before getting the tremors. Yesterday two buildings were collapsed on the way to Zulu’s (his brother’s) place. This morning one Building collapsed near Singtam. People are scared and lost. Most family in North Sikkim are affected. Some places are cut off as kilometers of roads are washed up.”
We have now heard that the schools we support in Sikkim have suffered minor damage, but no-one was harmed. However, I am told that the press reports of the numbers killed greatly under-estimate the true numbers which could amount to thousands. Villages in the north have still not been reached by rescue parties.
The following report comes from the Zeenews Bureau:-
Sikkim Mangan/Gangtok: Sikkim Chief Minister Pawan Kumar Chamling on Wednesday said that the relief and rescue operation in the earthquake-affected parts of Sikkim will be completed in the next two to three days.
Addressing a press conference in the capital Gangtok, Chamling said, “The massive earthquake that his state and other regions in northeastern India and Nepal had caused great loss of life and property.”
“The estimated losses suffered due to the quake are at Rs one lakh crore,” Chamling said, adding, “A full estimate of the losses incurred due to the tremor will be made soon and a report in this regard will be sent to Centre seeking financial assistance.”
The Sikkim Chief Minister, while assuring that the relief and rescue operations are in full swing, confirmed the death of at least 68 people in his state alone.
He told reporters that at least 200 houses including government buildings have been severely damaged. At least nine villages in north Sikkim are still unreachable due to landslides and unpleasant weather conditions, he added.
He further told that at least 300 hundred people have been rescued by the rescue teams and treated at Army and government hospitals.
“Our rescue teams have saved at least 55 tourists and efforts are on to provide all sort of help to them,” he said.
The Sikkim leader concluded by thanking the Central government, various agencies and local administration involved in the relief and rescue operations there.
Earlier, thirty-five tourists, including two from Norway, were airlifted by the Army from Lachung village, one of the worst-hit quake areas in Sikkim.
Also airlifted were 16 people injured in the quake, Army sources said. The tourists, some of whom were wounded, were airlifted from Ringzim helipad here.
Paljor Lachungpa, who is coordinating the evacuation, said Lachen was still cut off and more tourists could be airlifted from Chungthang later in the day. The tourists were in a state of shock.
Army, NDRF and disaster management personnel walked to Tung, between quake epi-centre Mangan and worst-hit Chungthang and rescued the people in the bus last night, the sources said.
Rescue teams are yet to reach Chungthang which is in the mountains.
Villagers of Dikchu Valley were very worried in the absence of any communication from their menfolk who work in the Teesta project at Chungthang, which is about 12 km away, since the calamity struck.
A large number of houses had either collapsed or were badly damaged by Sunday’s temblor and at least 10 major cracks were seen on the Singtam-Dikchu road.
Most of the people in Dikchu are staying in open areas for fear of aftershocks.
The earthquake that centered on Sikkim a few days ago has killed around 50 people in Sikkim and another 30 or so in the adjacent Darjeeling district, and also Nepal.
Fortunately, we have had no reports of deaths or damage in the schools we support in the area.
The Himalayas are an earthquake zone, and most of the buildings are not earthquake proof.
Here are just a few of the delicious slogans painted onto the rocks on the side of the roads in the Indian Himalayas. They come courtesy of the Border Road Oragnisation (BRO), who presumably have a team of script-writers working hard to secure the safety and moral upliftment of drivers. (I have resisted the temptation to correct the English):
-Peep! Peep! Don’t sleep.
-If you are married to speed, divorce it!
-Drive like hell, and you’ll be there!
-Fast drive. Last drive.
-We are like you but not your speed (sic)
-Be soft on my curves.
-Safety bring cheers. Speed bring tears.
-Speed thrills but kills.
-This is a highway not a runway.
-Either drink or drive.
-If you are sleeping your family is weeping.
-The journey of life is long and the path unknown.
-No race. No rally. Enjoy the valley.
-Better to late than early to heaven (sic)
-Hug your children at home, but belt them in the car.
-Alert
Avoid
Accident
-The hills are barren, lovely and steep and I have ,miles to go before I sleep.
-Tell them when you go home
That we greened the hills today
For your tomorrow
And the best of all:
-Be mister late, not late mister.
We are still looking for volunteer teachers for schools in Leh, the capital of Ladakh, this summer!
Over the past 15 days there have been attacks on humans by wild animals in the Tehri area of Uttarakhand, and two incidents involved children being supported by the Serve and share Association which runs the SASA Academy - one of the schools we support.
The first incident involved one of the brothers of a sponsored child. As he went outside in order to go upstairs, a leopard attacked him. It held onto his thigh and was pulling him away, but the boy was fortunate enough to able to cling onto the solar panel rod outside his house. He shouted and people came out to rescue him.
The second child, a 3 year old girl, was not so fortunate. She was sitting and eating in the ground floor room in front of the open door when a leopard just walked in and pulled the girl away in full view of the mother and vanished into the night. The body was found next day half eaten.
On 27th Jan one of the SASA teachers was attacked by a wild boar while walking home. She was rushed to hospital and had 9 stitches in her arm and thigh.
The Forest Depertment managed to shoot a leopard, but it is not certain that this was the cuplrit.
All this reminds me of Briton called Jim Corbett who spent the inter-war years responding to requests from villagers to help them eliminate man-eating leopards and tigers. Whatever we might think nowadays of the rights or wrongs of killing wild animals, the villagers were very grateful to him and a national park which protects these wild animals has been established in his name. My wife and I have read his books and last year visited a museum dedicated to him. We even went on a safari in the park, and although we saw tiger pug marks, we were not lucky enough to see the elusive creatures.
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