I just love it when a town comes together!

Clonakilty… almost as strange a sounding place as Kathmandu, wouldn’t you say? Born and raised there as I was (Clonakilty that is, not Kathmandu), perhaps I was destined early on for a life in oddly named destinations…? Regardless, that is (as they might say back in my native West Cork) neither here nor there! Light years away from the random chaos of Kathmandu though it may be, this vibrant little seaside town perched on the south-west coast of Ireland shares a little-known but still very special link with the Himalayan capital from where I type these random words. A significant proportion (which I sincerely hope is the diplomatic way of saying almost all ;o) of just-one‘s funding just so happens to come directly from this very special place!

The beginning of the end of the 2010 'just-one weekend' in Clonakilty.

It’s funding that continues to come, as it has since 2004, from a truly incredible community of people whose fantastic support has been the life blood of just-one since our earliest beginnings. Sure, as our work in Nepal has evolved and grown, word of our existence has reached ever-further and our support base slowly spreads through more and more countries. Much-needed support for our work, whether it comes from Knockskeagh, Kilkenny or Kentucky, is always greatly appreciated… It’s just that this home-grown support somehow inspires and humbles me more than any other.

The weekend just gone, for example, saw my home town host an entire weekend of great gigs in support of just-one, which was kindly organised by a trio of young locals who had seen our work in Kathmandu first-hand and returned to Ireland determined to help. An amazing weekend, by all accounts, and an equally amazing feat of fund-raising which will allow us to do so much valuable work out here. To the organisers, the proprietors, the participants, the punters and all others who came together to make it all work, the growing family that is just-one sends its most sincere and grateful thanks.

It goes without saying that the same thanks goes to all others too who have supported us in the past and kindly continue to do so despite (and perhaps in spite of) the on-going economic difficulties back there – whether it’s the buckets of coppers collected by an ever-growing army of socially-conscious school students, or the family generously committed to a regular donation via standing order (our preferred donation method for Irish residents, as opposed to the on-line method best for international donors), or the pensioner who selflessly puts more than he or she can comfortably afford into a collection tin, or one of the better established local charities who kindly share their valuable funds with us, or the local company who willing donate their stock or services to help further our cause, or the brave young woman who’s prepared to jump out of a plane or run a marathon on our behalf, or the young lads willing to shave their trendy locks, or any one of countless other ways which various groups and individuals, be they from Clonakilty or far beyond, who have kindly helped us prove beyond reasonable doubt that it really doesn’t take much to make a difference.

Keep the support coming and we’ll keep doing what we do as best we can. Spread the word of just-one, help increase our support and we’ll endeavour to do even more!

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

A lot of inking, without much thinking…

At times, it seems that it’s the very nature of childhood which proves to be one of just-one‘s greatest obstacles in successfully achieving our overall goal of helping the children we work with to work towards creating brighter futures for themselves. Children, being children, tend not to see the bigger picture and, without much life experience to draw upon, generally have little understanding of the long-term consequences of many of the choices they so often make in haste. In that ever-elusive ‘ideal world‘, kids benefit from the genuine guidance and support of a caring network of family and friends who help steer them along the path towards a good life. Sadly, many of the children we work with here in Nepal don’t always have the luxury of such support and an innate innocent trust in their elders often sees them all too easily misled by the pseudo-friends and benefactors who rarely have little other than their own self-interest at heart…

Be it the gang leader’s conniving mentorship of the newly recruited 7 year old street-kid; or the shopkeeper who’d rather employ the inexpensive services of a 11 year old school drop-out; or the wealthy family who’ll proudly speak of how infinitely better their 9 year old servant’s life is since they ‘rescued‘ him or her from an impoverished rural existence; or the brothel owner who’s happily exploiting the 13 year old apprentice pimp with devious promises of future greatness; or any of the countless similar scenarios we face on a daily basis, just-one‘s small team of dedicated local staff often face the frustratingly difficult task of trying to counter any such misinformation with truths that the children themselves are too young to truly understand and, perhaps even more bizarrely, too trusting to believe…

A hasty decision which 13 year old Bijay will hopefully live to regret...

I’m not going to suggest that the approximately 5-inch-square upper-back tattoo pictured above is a good illustration by any means, but perhaps it will serve another purpose here and illustrate the somewhat abstract and obscure point I think I’m trying to make here… Sadly, this is only one of the ten tattoos which 13 year old Bijay has had etched on his arms, legs and back during his year-long ‘pimpternship’ at the Kathmandu brothel which he currently regards as home. Although much of his innocence is already long lost, just-one still recognises the potential he has to be whatever he chooses to be in life. Unfortunately, with almost 24/7 contact and a cruel willingness to encourage his childish longing for adulthood, his current colleagues hold far greater influence over this young boy’s future than we do and are heartlessly exploiting their strangle-like power of youthful kudos in leading him towards a much darker and more uncertain future…

We are, if nothing more, persistently stubborn at just-one and don’t easily give up a fight. Sure, the sad reality of the situation here amidst the chaos of Kathmandu sees us occasionally losing out and failing to help one or other of the children whom we strive to work for, but it’s early days yet in our contact with Bijay and we’re relatively confident that we’ve still got a decent chance of making a positive impact on his future. The impressive transformation we’ve witnessed Surya Limbu (the subject of my previous blog post, who has been drug free for over a month now and is currently trying to decide whether he wants to be a teacher or a DJ… ;o) go through, certainly boosts this confidence, as do the numerous stories (that I’ll make time to share some day soon…) of other children we’ve shared success with to date. Here’s hoping that some day in the not too distant future I’ll also have the pleasure of writing that we’ve managed to get through to Bijay and that he’s safe and well having finally accepted our offer of help… Fingers crossed, eh?

Well, the monsoon downpour that prompted this unplanned entry (always best to try being productive when stuck in the office – even if it is after dark ;o) has subsided at last and leaves me free to splash home through puddled streets outside – a journey which I’ll happily take  momentarily… Just not before expressing my most sincere thanks to every single one of our kind supporters – without whose generous assistance just-one‘s work here in Nepal would, quite simply, not be possible! I’m obviously more than slightly biased but would, nonetheless, contend that such valued support is something which each of our donors (little and large alike) can be rightly proud of. Go on – be proud… and tell a few friends while you’re at it about this small, no-frills organisation you support in Kathmandu who would really appreciate their support too!

Back to a more normal kind of chaos…

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…

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.