Given that the journey began ‘way back in October (while I was too simply too busy dealing with the unfortunate combination of my annual fund-raising trip to Ireland and a family crisis of mammoth proportions to even contemplate trying to blog about it here) most of you will be forgiven knowing little or nothing about travel4more or the current trans-global adventure they’re undertaking – through which they’re also very kindly raising valuable funds for just-one‘s ongoing work in Nepal.

The story began when Tom (a Liverpudlian friend who had come to know of just-one while he was sharing his legal expertise with a human-rights organisation in Nepal which he voluntarily worked with a few years ago) teamed up with Sina, Janne and Patrice (3 young Germans who shared his passion for travel) and together they decided to embark upon a 30,000km overland adventure from Melbourne, Australia to the small Bavarian town of Mömlingen that the German trio hail from.

While the primary objective of the travel4more project is to provide a real-time critique of the varying impacts of global tourism with a particular focus on responsible travel, they also wisely included a socially conscious angle to the trip by offering to raise both awareness of and valuable funds for just-one. Far from being a mere afterthought, their decision stemmed from their strong belief that the trip was not only a valuable opportunity to highlight the positive and negative effects tourism has on the regions and countries they’ll be passing through, but was also an equally valuable opportunity to raise some much needed funds for an organisation tackling some of the negative effects of tourism. This is where Tom’s time in Kathmandu became extremely fortuitous for all at just-one as, having witnessed the unwittingly central role that well-intentioned travellers often play in the sad phenomenon of street-children, it was decided that just-one was to be the lucky organisation to benefit from their novel initiative.

And benefit we have! I’m absolutely thrilled to report that today saw the latest donation, made via travel4more‘s fund-raising page on our site, push the running-total €10 over their initial target of €3,000! We’re obviously delighted to receive such a significant boost to our funding (bearing in mind that €3,000 isn’t a whole lot less than 10% of the current annual budget for our proudly no-frills operation in Nepal) and even happier to know that the travel4more team intend to continue raising money in aid of our work for the duration of their journey! It goes without saying that this money, along with all other funds we graciously receive, is HUGELY appreciated by all at just-one, will be put to the very best use by our incredible team of local staff in Kathmandu and is nothing less than central to the continuing success of our work in Nepal.

Hailing, as I do, from the small coastal town of Clonakilty in Ireland (home to, amongst many other fantastic events, the sporadically annual ‘just-one weekend’ which will have a whole blog to itself in due course…), I was also very happy to learn (as I did recently in an email from a kind donor to travel4more‘s fund-raising drive) that just-one has also become “a little bit famous” around the small Bavarian town of Mömlingen. I think it’s fair to say that, to date, ‘small’ has been the beauty, and indeed the success, of all that just-one is! We know that we’ll never change the whole world nor address all its problems, but we’re happy to simply brighten the world of each of the children we work with by tackling their individual problems one by one. Our entire operation is small enough to allow our staff to personally know each of the children we support and to be considered a close friend and confidant by each of them and their respective families who often struggle against unfathomable odds. Our overall financial requirements are small enough to allow ordinary people like you to become hugely significant contributors to our on-going and important efforts in Nepal.

You don’t have to be a Sina, Tom, Janne or Patrice and contend with the perilous task of traversing the globe to raise much needed funds for us. Their fantastic endeavour is most certainly greatly appreciated (and, needless to say, we are always delighted to hear that someone or other has decided to hold a coffee morning/table quiz/head shave/parachute jump/cake sale/marathon run/dinner party/etc in aid of our work ;o), but it shouldn’t be forgotten that the ultimate success of a fund-raising event like this starts at a much more basic level – with the fantastic support that people like you give so freely. I can assure you that it all adds up and I can doubly assure you that there is no such thing as a donation too small to be of benefit to just-one.

To reiterate that particular point I want to quickly share a random instance that took place in my local supermarket on Christmas Eve just gone. As I queued at the check-out, a boy tapped me on the shoulder and, handing me some money, simply said “That’s for the kids in Nepal.” Turning around to thank him, I saw that he was there with a couple of his friends (one wearing a very cool black trilby hat ;o) buying chocolate and I just thought how wonderful it was that he was willing to share what little he may have had for the benefit of the less fortunate children he hears me taking about when I’ve visit his school every year. I don’t know the boy personally but do want to thank him here again – not only for his incredibly kind contribution towards just-one‘s work, but also for perhaps providing the potential inspiration for you to kindly consider if you might also be able to make a donation of your own and get a head-start on a truly meaningful resolution for 2012! Thanks Oisín – as long as there are people like you and Tom and Sena and countless others in the world, I’ve got no doubt that, economic recession or not, just-one will be able to continue doing all it does and the world will be that much brighter.

The words, to be fair, come relatively easily – it’s finding the time to actually sit down and put them all in the right order which I find mostly problematic… With what I hope to be a sufficient amount of this ever-elusive time on my hands then, I’d best get cracking and weave for you a colourful tale of beautiful smiles, happiness, laughter and splodges of brightly coloured paint!

It was an unusually dry and sunny Saturday in the middle of a monsoon now past when 20 Nepali artists, who had kindly volunteered their time and creative skills, were introduced to 20 of the children supported by just-one and a wonderful art-filled afternoon was enjoyed by all at a shaded palace courtyard in the heart of old Kathmandu. Blank canvases were transformed by the thoughtful strokes of countless brushes and by the end of the humid afternoon, dozens of unique masterpieces stood drying in the shade. Some of the children had patiently posed for some of the artists, while other artists had collaborated with their young apprentices and more again simply provided occasional passing guidance to a few of the more confident prodigies.

Aside from the numerous happy memories imprinted and a few seeds of ambition undoubtedly sown, the next most significant outcome of this artistic gathering was the considerable collection of work which has since made the trans-global journey to my native Clonakilty – which from today is awash with copies of a pretty funky poster! Enjoyable, engaging and educational activity aside, you see, there were more layers to this workshop than rickshaws in Durbar Square at the height of trekking season. While the participating artisans on the day had the valuable opportunity to contemplate the intertwined phenomena of poverty, child labour, street kids and deprivation that are all scarily commonplace in their capital city and also see first-hand the dramatically positive effect opportunity can have on the life of a child who previously lacked it; so too now do the people of West Cork have the prospect of pondering upon similar thoughts and deciding if they too would care to help out in whatever way they can.

Shades of Kathmandu, as the exhibition has been billed, is due preview at An Teach Beag in Clonakilty from 6pm on Wednesday next (December 7th) and will be officially launched (I believe that ‘officially’ means that there’ll be wine! ;o) at 7.30pm the same evening. The collection of over 30 beautiful paintings (including one by none other than the internationally renowned Nepali artist, Mr. Shashi Shah) will show there again from 10am to 6pm on the following day, before relocating to Astna Square for a weekend of life-changing sales. I say ‘life-changing’ here, not because the lucky buyers of any of these unique works of art will experience untold improvements in virtually all aspects of their personal lives (although they probably will… ;o), but rather to simple highlight the fact that, thanks to the generosity of ALL involved in making this event what we hope it will be, 100% of the proceeds it raises will go directly to supporting just-one’s life changing work in Nepal with some truly inspirational children who deserve so much more than the crappy hand they’ve been dealt in life.

As the poster says “a warm and open invitation for all to attend” so, unless you’d need to take a long-haul flight to actually get here, I look forward to seeing you at what promises to be a great event. If, however, you are one of our international friends who, in the time honoured fashion of all great and glitzy events, “unfortunately can’t make it on the evening”, fear not! As soon as some kind Santa out there gifts us a Pro account on Flickr, I’ll happily jam my bandwidth to upload plenty more photographs of the aforementioned workshop, all of the stunning artworks it saw created and, of course, choice highlights of the resulting dual-venue exhibition too! Perhaps then we’d have all the required components to consider attempting our first on-line auction… Hmmm, now there’s a great big scary light bulb of an idea that I’d rather not get like this – at the wrong side of midnight! Excuse me while I go off and think that one over…

Those sane and rational amongst you (which I believe to be all 5 of you) would be so easily forgiven for thinking that just-one had simply ceased to exist or that my three typing fingers had been horribly mangled in an unfortunate encounter with a rusty juicing machine… Thankfully, I can report that neither are, in fact, the case! It will, however, be somewhat more difficult for me to explain the utterly shameful 50-week silence that’s seen an embarrassing layer of Kathmandu’s finest dust settle on this here sad excuse for a blog… Even taking account of my poor blogging record thus far, such an extended breakdown in regular communication with our valued donors and all others interested in our on-going work, is nothing short of indefensible… As honest and all as it may well be, I don’t feel my often used “not enough hours in the day, nor days in the week” tag-line fits the bill here and hope that a sincere “Sorry!” will be sufficient for now, as I try to pick up where I left off all that time ago…

Wow! Where does one start? So much has happened… So much has changed… And strangely so much is still the same… The biggest change we’ve gone through since I last wrote was what I think we should refer to as “The Great Move of 2010″ which, thanks partially to a newly arrived (but both persistent and persuasive, with regard to our landlord) not-in-my-backyard neighbour, saw just-one‘s entire humble operation loaded onto the back of a couple of battered old pick-up trucks late last October and relocated from our leafy suburban home of three years to our new home on the dusty streets of Khusibu just in time to celebrate the festival of light. Proximity to the endless combination of smells from the nearby river, cremation ghat and buffalo abattoir aside, our new base is, in fact, far more homely and much better suited to the actual needs of our Transit Home. I imagine if we manage to persuade to our lovely landlord (a somewhat rare breed of property owner who recognised the value of our work and kindly agreed to a more than fair rental price) to help us address our current water problems (a frustrating combination of hidden leaks, stubborn damp-patches and an on-going chronic shortages), we may well have found a place to call home for many years to come!

just-one's new residential transit home located in Khusibu, Kathmandu.

Though not officially marked by any means (and yet to be declared a national holiday in any country of the world ;o) the 7th anniversary of our existence was appropriately celebrated with the wonderful news that each of the four students we supported through their School Leaving Certificate at the beginning of the year passed through, what is referred to in Nepal as, the Iron Gate with flying colours – one with Distinction and the other three in the 1st Division! Perhaps somewhat indicative of just some of the problems facing Nepal’s education system that one of these young scholars has already managed to secure a full-time teaching job at a primary school in his locality! We are proud too to be supporting the remaining three students to further their studies in their individual areas of interest – Education, Science and Humanities. I’ll be the first to admit that it’s instances such as this which makes much of the incredible hardship, stress and sadness we face day after day seem so absolutely worthwhile. The proud smile on the face of the once 11 year old domestic servant boy, when he dropped by the office to say hello after his first day at college a few weeks ago, is something that each and every individual who has ever supported our work, has every right to enjoy the glowing warmth of.

Though the midnight oil is burning low here and load-shedding threatens to see the electricity go off at the stroke of the hour, I feel after such a long absence of news I should also include brief updates on a couple of the kids I wrote about in some of the previous blog entries last year.

Surya Limbu is now happily living at home with his family and is so dramatically changed from the strung-out and gaunt figure who stumbled into our office last year, that it’s his own strength of character which must take a bow for the transformation he’s gone through, over any particular aspect of our intervention and assistance. He’s still not too keen on returning to formal education (although facebook chat has been surprisingly useful in at least sparking his interest in becoming more literate) and currently working as a cycle delivery boy while we await a hair-stylist training course he’s signed up for to start after the Hindu festivals of Dashain and Tihar end in a couple of months. While Surya certainly still has ‘his moments‘ (which, at ’15 going on 36′, are not to be unexpected), he does seem to have made the important realisation that the making or breaking of his future lies primarily with him – something which we try (with varying levels of success) to help all of the children we support to understand – and, thankfully, he’s currently operating mostly in ‘making’ mode!

We also managed to make some progress with Bijay over last monsoon but, sadly, it wasn’t to last and, with his brothel buddies caring for him about as much as you’d expect, he was back on a downward spiral on the streets by the time Winter kicked in and apparently surviving on a diet consisting mostly of chemical cocktails. We had lost all contact with him until about 6 weeks ago, when one of the staff got an unexpected phone call from him asking if he could come to visit… He came by our office with his brother-in-law, his young rehab-mentor and the updated story that, thankfully, by the time Spring was setting in, his exasperated family had forcefully admitted him to a secure rehabilitation centre in the hills north of the city where he has remained since. Aside from a completely characteristic jail-break at the end of his first month there (which reminded us of the night he locked himself into a toilet at just-one and made a daring exit via a scarily flimsy 3rd floor drain pipe…), which he returned from with two new tattoos that “he needed to get before he became good”, he is now over 4 months into a 1 year programme and had come to ask if just-one could help him once he’d completed that. It’s certainly early days in Bijay’s story too, but we did allow ourselves to take a certain amount of pride in the fact that, of all the organisations he could have asked for this future support, he chose to ask us. Perhaps it was simply that our senior field-working social worker’s phone number was the only one he knew off by heart; or maybe he just foolishly dreams of the freedom offered by our toilet window (though, even with a pickaxe and goggles, at our new place he’d be escaping into our neighbour’s living room ;o); but there’s a chance too that he’s recognised our sincerity in offering to help him in whatever way we can to be the beautiful person that he is… Let’s see, eh?

Anyway, it’s already past silly o’clock here and Kathmandu’s dawn chorus will be keeping me from my required sanity-sleep if I don’t head in that direction sometime soon… Apologies again for such a ridiculously long silence here – I think the cascade of words above probably show that it’s certainly not from want of things to write about! How about I promise to work on my time-management and prioritisation skills and, in return, you take a quick look at this page and consider becoming one of the unsung heroes who occasionally get to drop by here and know that (despite my failure so far to make this website as good as it should be…) they are an absolutely crucial part of something very, very special.