The joys of living in a country that rations electricity. I couldn’t sleep so got up at 5am to write the second half of my blog (by torchlight – no electricity!) but somehow I wrote it and lost my work (which may be down to my incompetence at saving my work)..and in the meantime an Australian staying at this guesthouse came down to reception to complain about no hot water, no TV etc. For 2 nights. Although the staff here are uncharacteristically grumpy it wasn’t actually their fault – electricity is rationed here and last night it was supposed to come on at 11 for a couple of hours but it only came on for 5 minutes! So, none of our equipment is charged, no hot water, no TV.
But that was a little traveller’s anecdote. The blog post I lost was explaining the work of CWISH – our local partner in Nepal (Children, Women in Social Services & Human Rights). I was just about to use the word ‘synergy’ in explaining the connection Jonathan and I felt when discussing future collaboration between CWISH and Children Unite...so I’ll start from there and work backwards. I guess what I was looking for in my trip here was a personal and professional connection with the people at CWISH and we found it today. Professionally, Jonathan and I are very impressed with the work of CWISH, they take an honest, learning approach to their work – explaining to us the mistakes they made and how they learned and changed their practice. CWISH work in partnership with local government and communities – rather than providing completely separate services for child domestic workers as many NGOs do (particularly in countries where the national government is unsupportive of social work). For example in their work with employers of child domestic workers CWISH staff don’t approach employers themselves (employers are the gatekeepers of child domestic workers – it is almost impossible to work with child domestic workers without working with their employers) they work through the community police (whom they have trained) who approach employers as ‘guardians’ of children. The police are able to take a dual approach with employers – on the one hand talking to them as guardians about their responsibility towards the children in their care – in particular their responsibility to give children access to schooling of some sort. On the other hand, the police also remind employers that it is illegal to employ children under 14 in domestic work or to abuse or exploit children in their ‘care’.
On a personal level too, Jonathan and I get on with the husband and wife team running CWISH (they only got married last month and met at CWISH). There is a growing feeling of solidarity between us - perhaps in part and much as I hate to admit it, because of our similarities in being a 'couple' involved in the same organisation. Here, Jonathan and I call each other husband and wife (I cringe to write it I have to admit), in the UK we are 'partners'...but here being a couple seems to be an advantage - we joke about it and it breaks the ice a bit. In the UK I tend to hide the fact that we're a couple, I like the obscurity of the word 'partner'.
Now we're off to an evaluation meeting for most of the day and are trying to change hotels to try and get a view of the Himalayas - tantalizingly out of sight most of the time (due to the haze of pollution I think).
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