About us
Fund Raising
Since 2002 the trustees have raised funds in a variety of ways. As detailed in the annual reports below, corporate sponsorship has proven to be one rewarding method and we continue to seek other business sponsors for our projects. This is in line with our long term policy to concentrate on a few higher-value events rather than many lower-value events.
We hold walking weekends usually once a year based at Youth Hostels throughout the UK. These events raise funds and provide the trustees with an opportunity to talk to many supporters and to give an annual report of the charity’s affairs.
Another major event was held in 2008 and 2009 at Castle Howard in Yorkshire. We received sponsorship from S Harrison Developments Ltd and held a fun day for families involving a choice of 3 walks in and around the grounds of Castle Howard. These events raised substantial funds and is to be repeated in 2010. We plan to make this an annual fund raising event in our calendar.
Our most successful fund raising event to date also took place in 2008. This was our charity trek to Nepal. 20 supporters and trustees took part in a six day trek through the Himalayas raising over £40,000 for the charity. The organisation of the event took 2 years and involved 2 trustees, a valued long term supporter of the charity and a team in Nepal. It was a wonderful experience for all involved and we hope to repeat it in years to come.
On a more personal note- three trustees have run and successfully completed the London Marathon. They and others have completed many physical challenges to raise sponsored funds. Trustees have spoken at all kinds of events, both large and small, and tirelessly spread the word at every opportunity.
However, we could not operate without the unstinting help also offered by many supporters and volunteers. They help with our marketing, our organisation and our administration. They hold many different sorts of fund raising events and it is through their efforts and those of our sponsors and our trustees that we have achieved such amazing results in the last 6 years.
Our achievements to date are as follows :-
2002/2003
Our first project was to provide aid to an orphanage known as ‘The Hope Centre’ in Kathmandu, which was being run by Nepali volunteers. The Hope Centre was home to thirteen disabled and orphaned children and 2 disabled adults. Learning of its precarious financial position in 2002, we decided to help rather than see the home close and the children be forced to take their chances on the street. We raised funds in the UK to pay off the arrears of rent, enrol the children at schools and provide them with regular nutritious meals.
As our support grew we were able to focus on other areas of hardship and deprivation in Nepal. In 2003 we funded the employment of a full-time general manager for the Hope Centre. We have also appointed a Regional Director in Nepal to oversee the charity’s work and ensure that our funds are spent as intended and we are getting value for money.
In 2003 we were also able to make some real differences to the lives of certain individual disabled children by forming an association with the John Grooms charity and funding some medical operations. We raised funds to pay for the restoration of one little girl's eyesight and improved mobility for two more children.
2004/2005
In 2004 New Futures Nepal started its first major construction project, named The Smith Project - after our generous benefactor. Our aim was to build a purpose built home for disadvantaged and orphaned children. The cost of the project was around £100,000. Thanks to Mr Smith’s generous donation and our fundraising, we were able to buy a parcel of land in a good area of the Kathmandu Valley with a clean water supply and close proximity to hospitals and schools. The home was finished in 2005 and the 13 children, 2 disabled adults and their carers moved in immediately. The children are secure and happy in their new family environment and we have increased the number of full-time carers at the home to 4. Many of the children in the home are disabled and we assess their needs on a regular basis and fund medical help whenever necessary.
During the year 2004/2005 we were fortunate to gain the patronage of the actress Jayne Seymour and her husband James Keech. Our website was re-launched and a new promotional DVD produced. We also targeted our fund raising towards corporate sponsors as well as individuals.
As a result of our increased fund raising we were able to equip the Hope Centre with sewing machines, a computer, musical instruments and more books and toys for the children. The children also received extra skills training after school and during the holidays.
During the year 2005 we were able to reach out to hundreds of needy children in Kathmandu. We received an application for funds from another UK charity with aims similar to our own. Two of their projects in Kathmandu were visited and assessed by us. A small grant was made to Street Children during the year specifically for the two projects identified. These inspiring projects provide food, shelter, education and healthcare for hundreds of street children in Kathmandu. We named this our Lifelines Project.
2006/2007
During 2006 the trustees worked to enlarge the number of regular donors to the charity and succeeded in achieving an increase of 37%. This year also saw us receive generous corporate sponsorship from Hornbeam Ivy Limited, a tap manufacturing company based in the UK, who wished to celebrate their 21 years in business by helping disadvantaged communities in the Himalayas. This laid the foundations for us to start another major project in northern India.
At The Hope Centre in Kathmandu we gradually increased the number of children in our care to 20 and the outbuildings and vegetable/fruit gardens were finished. We funded the salaries of 5 support workers who, in turn, support their own families and educate many more. We continued to fund the education of all the children and we saw the benefit of their secure environment and good diet reflected in their consistently good exam results.
We continued to fund medical care for the children and adults. 2006/2007 saw one of the disabled adults fitted with a prosthesis allowing her to discard her crutches and move freely without support.
One of the children at the home left our care in early 2007 to be re-united with her mother. This allowed us to bring in another, younger girl, named Anita, with severe disabilities. We are funding her medical care and will continue to do so for the long term.
Three of the older girls moved into their own first floor apartment within the Hope Centre early in 2007. This will increase their self sufficiency and help them to grow towards independent adult lives.
The Smith Project was successfully completed during 2007. The trustees conducted research into the best way of constructing a driveway down to the Hope Centre building from the land above. The track is very steep and is prone to serious erosion in the monsoon rain. With the voluntary help of designers in the UK we drew up plans to construct a concrete driveway and this was built in the summer of 2007. This concluded our first major building project, on budget and on time.
2006/2007 also saw the start and finish of a one off project to provide transport for our team in Kathmandu. All public transport is subject to regular disruption in Kathmandu and taxis are expensive and hard to find. Our support staff were spending hours in travelling to and from the Hope Centre and felt the lack of an immediate and reliable form of transport. We received two generous donations specifically for transport and were able to fund the purchase of a four wheel drive vehicle plus a motor bike for use by the general manager of the Hope Centre. These gifts have transformed daily communications and reduced the vulnerability of the residents of the Hope Centre.
Again we made a small grant under our Lifelines Project to Street Children of Nepal.
In 2006/2007 our generous sponsorship from Hornbeam Ivy allowed us to start two new projects in northern India The trustees had identified a need for help in the Kalimpong region of Bengal which has a high infant mortality rate and we identified a need for clean water supplies in the surrounding remote villages
This area used to be part of Nepal and the inhabitants of the region are 90% Nepali. The terrorist problems in rural regions of Nepal over the previous 10 years had produced many refugees, mostly children. These children fled across the border into Bengal seeking refuge with villagers in the hills around Kalimpong. This area of India is desperately poor with vulnerable children facing the same dangers as in Kathmandu.
Our first project – Hornbeam House. Building on our experience gained in Kathmandu and with Hornbeam Ivy’s initial funding, we planned to open another home for disadvantaged children of Nepali origin in Kalimpong. In 2007 we put in place the due diligence procedures and feasibility studies. Our director in Nepal worked with us to set up a local charity with whom we work in partnership. Our initial objectives were to find a suitable property and qualified care assistants to live in and manage the home.
We achieved our initial objectives in the autumn of 2007 and in December 2007 we opened Hornbeam House with a resident family of 10 children. The home is rented for twelve months and is in good repair. The children are cared for by an educated experienced couple who live in the home with their son.
The 10 children (four girls and six boys) are all from very deprived backgrounds in remote parts of the Himalayas and all are of Nepali origin. Their ages range from 2 years to 12 years. One child is disabled. All of the children have been medically assessed and examined and we are confident we can provide them with long term care in a loving home environment.
All of the children attend the local school and have settled in well and are enjoying their new lives. They have formed strong relationships and bonds with their carers and the home has a warm family atmosphere.
Our second project - Hornbeam Water was completed in 2008.
2007/2008
This year saw an increase of 20% in net income and an increase in the number of our corporate sponsors. Again during the year we received generous sponsorship from Hornbeam Ivy Limited and for the first time from Yorkshire company S Harrison Developments Ltd. S Harrison Developments sponsored a major fund raising event held at Castle Howard in Yorkshire. The family event included participation from the Ghurka regiment based in York.
In 2007 power cuts in Kathmandu were averaging 8 hours each day and we had to look at ways of providing alternative energy sources for the Hope Centre. We were fortunate to receive a generous donation to purchase generators and 2 were installed during the year. In 2008 we funded the provision of a new wheelchair for Bal, one of the disabled adults at The Hope Centre, enabling him to be more mobile and independent. Our other adult, Manamaya, was fitted with an artificial limb which has radically improved her life.
We continued to provide funds for six year old Anita to receive reconstructive surgery for her damaged limbs and she now walks with the aid of a bamboo zimmer frame and a special boot fitted to her right leg stump. Several of the children received physiotherapy on a voluntary basis from a visiting physiotherapist from the UK. This treatment proved to be so beneficial that we are using the services of a local Nepali physiotherapist and include it as part of a weekly programme for the disabled children. We will not be able to rely upon voluntary help for this and so will seek a sponsor or sponsors. We will also teach the helpers and staff how to encourage and support the children in their exercise regime.
We have continued to fund the education of all the children and have seen them achieve consistently good results in their exams. 2008 is an important year for the two oldest girls Nirmala and Anita. They both take their school leaver’s certificate in April 2009 and are working hard towards achieving good grades. We are working with them and our team in Nepal to plan for their futures through professional or vocational training. We will need to start a separate fund raising programme to cater for this as the cost will be substantially higher than the cost of school fees.
Our second project in Kalimpong was to install clean water for the Deaurali Primary School in the mountain village of Bong Busty. The task here was to lay 1,000 metres of pipe-work from a clean water source down to the school. Having clean running water at the school has transformed both the health and hygiene of each of the children and the general facilities that can be offered as part of the school’s curriculum. It will also provide another source of clean water to the villagers of Bong Busty. The project cost was £3000 and it was completed in February 2008.
In 2008 we again made a small grant to another charity through our Lifelines Project.
The Future
We will continue to support our long term projects in Kathmandu and Kalimpong. Inflation in both Nepal and India is rising steadily and with the current financial downturn the poor will be hit the hardest. The day to day living conditions in Nepal remain challenging but we are working with our local team in Kathmandu looking for alternative solutions and ways in which to improve self sufficiency. We have recently funded the purchase of a bricket cooker to reduce the use of kerosene and in order to provide a more sustainable and environmentally friendly method of cooking. Rice is being grown in the grounds of the Hope Centre. Due to the frequent and lengthy power cuts, generators have been installed and we are looking at alternative energy sources for lighting.
We will continue with our fund raising in the UK and Europe and will consider applying to other sources, such as grant giving organisations, for financial help. We plan to target more companies and businesses by improving our website and by continually spreading the word at events, dinners and the like. As always, our lifeblood is the regular givers and we must increase the income we receive from this source if we are to protect and support more disadvantaged Nepali children.
We are conscious of the need to provide for the older children in their further education and we will start a separate sponsorship scheme for this during 2009. We also need to reserve for providing alternative accommodation in Kalimpong as Hornbeam House is currently rented on an annual basis. We also want to provide long-term regular physiotherapy for the children at the Hope Centre as the benefits from this have proved to be so important.
Fund raising events planned for 2010 include The Harrison Trek for Children in Nepal at Castle Howard on Sunday 20th June 2010. The Castle Howard event is again generously sponsored by S Harrison Developments Ltd.
We will continue to move forward with all of our projects, following our objectives and working in partnership with local charities.
L McCutcheon
Chairman