Gurkhas.com Gives Back all Raised Revenues Into Good Causes Back in Nepal

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Posted by: santosh, on 8/3/2010, in category "Gurkhas-related articles"
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Gurkhas.com Gives Back all Raised Revenues Into Good Causes Back in Nepal

The founders of Gurkhas.com i.e. Nina (Editor; daughter and wife of ex-Gurkha soldiers), Santosh (Admin; son of ex-Gurkha soldier) had decided unanimously right from the website’s inception period that if the website were to gain popularity and generate any revenues via advertisements, news and events promotion, then all money raised would be invested in projects aimed at improving the lives of underprivileged women back in NEPAL, particularly those burdened with familial responsibilities. Milan Tamu (son of ex-Gurkha and himself an ex-Gurkha soldier) who later volunteered as events photographer, backed our vision with much needed vigour and commitment.

It was envisaged that through providing training to learn necessary skills and through giving a small financial push and appropriate guidance to start their own small-scale businesses, we could not only help rebuild the women’s confidence, but also their families’ livelihood and desire to live dignified, self-sufficient lives.  All we asked of the ladies was: enthusiasm and commitment.

It is in this context that Gurkhas.com is proud to share the news with our dear visitors, kind supporters and generous advertisers that we have only recently helped two very enthusiastic and committed ladies (who have families reliant on them) complete their vocational trainings in saree and materials embroidery, as this means possible good business currently, back in Nepal. We are now in the process of setting up their own shop (yes, we did bear in mind the business mantra – Location! Location! Location!).

Grateful for the support, the ladies have pledged that if the shop runs successfully, they will start providing mentoring role through passing on their skills and knowledge to two other ladies by next year, who may be equally enthusiastic but in need of just such opportunities and support. In such case, Gurkhas.com hopes to be able to support training and setting up of similar viable entrepreneurial ventures so that they too can be enabled to earn their own livelihood, and thereby rebuild their destiny. (As regular visitors to Gurkhas.com may already be aware, our website sometimes shuts down due to sheer volume of traffic but our investment focus has so far remained on ensuring initiation of this project. In due time we do plan to upgrade the website to tackle this problem; until then, please bear with us).

Hence, to our dear visitors, we anticipate nothing but your continued encouragement, moral and practical support (e.g. by contributing/exchanging relevant, informative articles). To our valuable business, community-related and individual advertisers, we only have one thing to reiterate: this project (and perhaps others to follow in future) would have been impossible without your belief in us and for that, we are grateful to you and wish you every success and support from the wider Gurkha community that you so deserve.

To the two high-profile advertisers who did not pay their advertisement fees as agreed (for four and five months consecutively) despite us sending you a number of reminders and requests, we are still glad to have helped launch your respective ventures and hope you will do well.

Last but of course not least, we are immensely grateful to Mr. Hem B. Gurung of Independent Living Centre Project (Pokhara) for his invaluable guidance and sharing of indepth knowledge on sustainable entrepreneurial initiatives for women in Nepal. Indeed, without his guidance, our passion alone may not have been enough to bear these very meaningful outcomes. As a disabled son of an ex-Gurkha now leading an admirable self-help project for disabled people in Nepal, Mr. Gurung is a fine example to us all able-bodied ones that physical disability is no barrier when it comes to enabling and helping improve the life of oneself and others.  His contribution to the wider Gurkha community may also necessitate reminding as he was one of the few who came forward to volunteer time and skill through helping translate into Nepali language some valuable information on accessing key services in UK (mainly for the benefit of returning Gurkha veterans, their families and wider Nepalese residing in UK). The information can be easily accessed on this website by following this link : http://gurkhas.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=835

(please share the link with others if you feel that it may benefit them from understanding the information in Nepalese; the other translated documents are all easily accessible by following this link and scrolling down to the relevant articles: http://gurkhas.com/BrowseArticles.aspx?CatID=28).

 And of course, to the two bahinis Angela Tamang and Sita Bishwakarma, tapai haru ko koshish ani aatmabishwas ko hami thulo kadar gardachaun. Yes naya kadam ma tapaiharuko  harek athot haru safaltama parinat huna sakun bhani hami bhagwan sita prarthana gardai, dherai dherai shubhakamana vyakta garna chahanchaun.

Nina, Santosh & Milan

 Ps: If anyone from the wider Gurkha community would like to help initiate similar projects back in Motherland Nepal, Mr. Hem Gurung and ourselves are more than willing to share our own experiences and ideas so please feel free to get in touch with us.

Embroidery Shop and Training Centre