Happy Christmas and a Blessed New Year

At this time of year it is good to reflect on what has been achieved in our lives in the past year and look forward to what we will be doing in the coming year.
 
For us at Bridges Nepal UK Trust we are rejoicing in the impact of your support to communities and individuals in Nepal that have been relieved from the pressure to traffick family members.
 
We want to thank you for your ongoing support whether by:

• Upholding our work in prayer.
• Thoughts and words of encouragement.
• One off donations made direct via Stewardship
• Sponsorship of our Chair Person Neil Ambler as he tried to complete yet another Middle Distance Triathlon. He was shamed into finally running the Half Marathon leg on Boxing Day after abandoning the original event after the ride. If you’d like to top up this appeal please go to appeal

We and our partners vision continues to be to prevent the exploitation of vulnerable people (including, but not limited to Human Trafficking, Migrant Work, Child Marriage etc.)
 
We are supporting this aim by the following projects:

• Family Education Programme.
• Emergency Relief.
• Seminars.
• Village Infrastructure Investment.
• Economic Empowerment.

These bring hope and social transformation into individuals, families and communities for physical and spiritual restoration.

Family Education Programme

Sending children to school and keeping them in school (especially girls) dramatically reduces the chances of them being tricked into being trafficked and helps families stay together. Education also gives them skills which enables them to gain work as they get older and thus able to support their families.
 
Through the Family Education Programme the our partner works on an ongoing basis with families to provide them with the practical support needed to enable students to attend school.
 
Our partners visit families on a regular basis, they have noted:

• It is important as we share with parents/guardians, that they understand why an education is a good foundation for their children.
• Conversations about the value and purpose of a school education and helps parents/guardians to make good choices on behalf of their own children.
• The children are growing rapidly, and it is encouraging to see them studying, as well as laughing and having fun. They all appreciate the help they receive that enables them to be enrolled in school.
• We now have 31 children on the programme, which includes two new boys whose parents are not together. Their mother is working very hard to support them both, but struggling as they get older.
• Our partners are seeking to better to counsel the parents of the children. All of them are uneducated, suffer with anxiety and depression about their situation and the future. It’s likely they have also suffered traumas in their younger years, which heavily influence their decisions.

This is our main ongoing project, if you would like to commit to this project please consider making a monthly donation by standing order to:

• CAF Bank.
• Bridges Nepal UK Trust,
• 40-52-40
• 00032219

M***
This young lady has been part of Family Education Programme from the beginning. Last year she was studying in class 8 and just before her examinations she disappeared for a while, tricked by an unknown young man. Some of her relatives found her and brought her back to the village, but nobody knows what happened while she was away.
 
As our partners visited, they heard that she wanted to start again, and make a better effort. Our partners were able to take a to a place of safety in a family home in Kathmandu with the approval of her single parent father and the village leaders. She is now enrolled in a local school and is receiving a good education. This is the most tangible way they could work in prevention of Human Trafficking in her case.
 
Note: The FEP is continuing to meet the basic costs of education for M***.

Emergency Relief

Living on the edge of economic survival, the communities we are connected with are particularly vulnerable to trafficking whenever a crisis or disaster occurs.  This programme is established in readiness for any crisis that befalls any of the families or communities we work with.
 
Since our last update the crisis arising that have been communicated to BN UKT have been:

• Heavy rains and hail storms destroyed crops leading to tough economic times. All the hard labour preparing the land had to be re-done, crops re-planted and then a delayed harvest time.
• One family was simply unable to raise enough cash for family supplies, our partners were able to give a small grant to cover essentials.
• A family, who experienced a major landslide at their home this summer, where a felled tree landed on the crop polytunnels, destroying almost 80% of their vegetables which they needs to earn an income. Another grant was made to this family to ensure they could re establish their income generation.

Seminars

Our Trust Chair visited Salyintar with a few other of our partners friends, for a 3 day youth seminar. There were many wonderful opportunities to share with youth and encourage them as they look at their skills, dreams, goals and life plans etc. Many of them are not encouraged to think into the future, and so this training on life skills and learning about their strengths and desires was a very new concept.

During the visit our partners were able to identify additional communities that would benefit from further contact about the risks of trafficking, child marriage and migrant work.

Village Infrastructure: Water Pipeline

Establishing village and community life is essential to prevention of trafficking, our partners are committed to supporting communities in establishing community infrastructure.  Strong community bonds empower them to resist the traffickers’ intentions.
 
In our last Newsletter we noted that the Village Water Tank was operational using a temporary water supply.
 
Completion of the water supply project has now been completed with the installation of a permanent pipeline from a spring to the village tank. BN UKT partially funded this final phase with additional funds raised directly by our Partners in Nepal.
 
Thank you to our donors over several years for your solid support through this project for Bhadragaun.  This means the community now has much more time for family income generation as they no longer have to commit time to water collection.

Economic Empowerment: Tailoring Project

Income generation projects are targeted to develop secure income streams for families and communities as alternatives to trafficking.
 
Since our last update the tailoring project has been successfully floated as an independent income generation stream.
 
U*** and S***. are working well in the tailors shop they established with our partner’s support. They continue to learn skills as they receive on the job training and support from our partners.
 
They are so glad to be able to run the shop in the village and are looking forward to being able to help their own children from the money they will make.
 
They will be sewing the school uniforms for those children we support in the FEP from their village.