Back to a more normal kind of chaos…
Written by Declan on May 13th, 2010 Categories: Latest | there are 2 Comments »May-Day protests here in Kathmandu marked the beginning of a week-long Maoist enforced, country-wide strike which saw an already crippled country slip ever closer to oblivion. Thankfully, the week-long shut-down was considerably more peaceful than expected and was temporarily postponed by the end of the sixth day, allowing life here to return to its usual chaotic state for the time-being at least…
Maoist supporters flood the capital and bring life to a virtual standstill
While the strike certainly proved inconvenient (especially in terms of sky-rocketing food prices and worry that some of the older kids we work with could easily get sucked into the madness), day-to-day operations at just-one continued to the best of our ability. In fact, the third day of the strike saw a boy we had tried helping a couple of years ago come back into contact with us again. Sadly though, this time round 14 year-old Surya Limbu was somewhat worse for wear and was in the early stages of cultivating a very unhealthy liking for benzodiazepines. Surya’s story is scarily typical of so many young kids in Nepal – an abusive alcoholic father drove him to find refuge outside the home and saw him falling in with the wrong crowd. His unstable home environment, coupled a subsequent exploitative ‘friendship’ he was lured into by a regularly visiting European paedophile, clearly left Surya with many memories he felt were best forgotten…
Surya Limbu – doing his best to turn his back on destructive ways of old
One of the few silver linings of the recent Maoist strike was that the just-one team were left ample time to focus on helping this confused, angry and scared young boy to come to terms with his disturbing past and focus on creating a happier future for himself. Following an initial few hard and stressful days of weaning him off his chemical crutch, we were all pleasantly surprised to witness the emergence of the bright and happy kid that lay under his street-hardened exterior. It’s certainly early days for Surya but we’re quietly confident that we’ve managed to make an important connection with him and will be able to help him realise his full potential and, over the years ahead, assist him towards achieving it.
2 Responses to “Back to a more normal kind of chaos…”
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May 26th, 2010 18:22
Good luck to him!
September 6th, 2010 19:51
Good for you Surya Limbu – even though I dont know you I feel very very proud of you – you must have great strength inside (where it counts)