GAN Newsletter - Sept 2004

Features

GAN patron Charlotte Uhlenbroek, the well-known BBC Wildlife Presenter, was recently in Nepal, and whilst there she visited some of GAN’s project sites. Here she writes about what she saw…

Charlotte Uhlenbroek meets Saibu Children’s Club

Having been brought up in Nepal between the ages of 5 and 13, and had close contact with the country and its people ever since that time, it’s always a joy to go back there and reacquaint myself with the old sights, smells and noises. And although my work takes me to many countries around the world, it’s always wonderful to come back to this place which I have so many fond memories of.

As luck would have it, I was invited to become patron of GAN during my most recent trip to Nepal in June of this year, and as such I was able to go and see some of the fantastic project work going on in the Kathmandu Valley. I was astonished to see the range of work that GAN is involved with – from teacher-training to sanitation projects to infrastructure development, and the energy and conviction of the project beneficiaries and GAN’s staff.

Charlotte Uhlenbroek with GAN Country Director BK Shrestha

One of the most amazing parts of my visit was to see GAN’s children’s clubs in action. I met lots of children, some as young as six or seven, talking about issues as diverse as gender, HIV/AIDS, education and health. The creativity of these children was remarkable – something which is so important in young children. Education is much more than what is learnt from the fixed school curriculum – life skills, imagination and the arts are just as important, but in Nepal they are so often undervalued. Although it’s a cliché, it really is true that children are the future of a country, and so it is fundamentally important that they are not ignored in development work. I think the way in which GAN helps schools in such a number of different ways is really important. It was also particularly reassuring to see the really positive response from parents as well.

Nepal is a place which has always fascinated me, and it’s pleasure to be involved with an organisation such as GAN who are doing so much to try and address these important issues. I look forward to working with GAN both in the UK and in Nepal in the future.

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