During 2006 the trustees worked to enlarge the number of regular donors to the charity and succeeded in achieving an increase of 37%. This year also saw us receive generous corporate sponsorship from Hornbeam Ivy Limited, a tap manufacturing company based in the UK, who wished to celebrate their 21 years in business by helping disadvantaged communities in the Himalayas. This laid the foundations for us to start another major project in northern India.
At The Hope Centre in Kathmandu we gradually increased the number of children in our care to 20 and the outbuildings and vegetable/fruit gardens were finished. We funded the salaries of 5 support workers who, in turn, support their own families and educate many more. We continued to fund the education of all the children and we saw the benefit of their secure environment and good diet reflected in their consistently good exam results.
We continued to fund medical care for the children and adults. 2006/2007 saw one of the disabled adults fitted with a prosthesis allowing her to discard her crutches and move freely without support.
One of the children at the home left our care in early 2007 to be re-united with her mother. This allowed us to bring in another, younger girl, named Anita, with severe disabilities. We are funding her medical care and will continue to do so for the long term.
Three of the older girls moved into their own first floor apartment within the Hope Centre early in 2007. This will increase their self sufficiency and help them to grow towards independent adult lives.
The Smith Project was successfully completed during 2007. The trustees conducted research into the best way of constructing a driveway down to the Hope Centre building from the land above. The track is very steep and is prone to serious erosion in the monsoon rain. With the voluntary help of designers in the UK we drew up plans to construct a concrete driveway and this was built in the summer of 2007. This concluded our first major building project, on budget and on time.
2006/2007 also saw the start and finish of a one off project to provide transport for our team in Kathmandu. All public transport is subject to regular disruption in Kathmandu and taxis are expensive and hard to find. Our support staff were spending hours in travelling to and from the Hope Centre and felt the lack of an immediate and reliable form of transport. We received two generous donations specifically for transport and were able to fund the purchase of a four wheel drive vehicle plus a motor bike for use by the general manager of the Hope Centre. These gifts have transformed daily communications and reduced the vulnerability of the residents of the Hope Centre.
Again we made a small grant under our Lifelines Project to Street Children of Nepal.
In 2006/2007 our generous sponsorship from Hornbeam Ivy allowed us to start two new projects in northern India The trustees had identified a need for help in the Kalimpong region of Bengal which has a high infant mortality rate and we identified a need for clean water supplies in the surrounding remote villages. This area used to be part of Nepal and the inhabitants of the region are 90% Nepali. The terrorist problems in rural regions of Nepal over the previous 10 years had produced many refugees, mostly children. These children fled across the border into Bengal seeking refuge with villagers in the hills around Kalimpong. This area of India is desperately poor with vulnerable children facing the same dangers as in Kathmandu.
Our first project – Hornbeam House. Building on our experience gained in Kathmandu and with Hornbeam Ivy’s initial funding, we planned to open another home for disadvantaged children of Nepali origin in Kalimpong. In 2007 we put in place the due diligence procedures and feasibility studies. Our director in Nepal worked with us to set up a local charity with whom we work in partnership. Our initial objectives were to find a suitable property and qualified care assistants to live in and manage the home.
We achieved our initial objectives in the autumn of 2007 and in December 2007 we opened Hornbeam House with a resident family of 10 children. The home is rented for twelve months and is in good repair. The children are cared for by an educated experienced couple who live in the home with their son.
The 10 children (four girls and six boys) are all from very deprived backgrounds in remote parts of the Himalayas and all are of Nepali origin. Their ages range from 2 years to 12 years. One child is disabled. All of the children have been medically assessed and examined and we are confident we can provide them with long term care in a loving home environment.
All of the children attend the local school and have settled in well and are enjoying their new lives. They have formed strong relationships and bonds with their carers and the home has a warm family atmosphere.
Our second project - Hornbeam Water was completed in 2008.