Dear Supporters......

We are delighted to announce that the Seeing Hands Nepal Massage Training Program officially began in April. The first four students are already making excellent progress with our specially-designed massage curriculum and we have finally been able to purchase much-needed equipment - thanks to the generous support we have received to date.

Meet the Students.....

Chiran Jeevi Poudel

Chiran is our most talkative student and is also fast becoming known for his legendary rice-eating abilities, (five plates of rice in one sitting!). He comes from a large family in which 5 of 9 children are blind as a result of severe malnutrition so we suspect he is making up for lost time. His family comes from a very poor area but he was lucky enough to win a scholarship (from the Nepal Association of the Blind) to study English at the school in Pokhara. Now 23, Chiran holds a Bachelor level degree in English but as he so eloquently puts it himself; “education is nothing without opportunity”. Without this course, Chiran would have extremely limited job prospects. He says he wants to learn to heal people with his hands and change attitudes about the blind in society.

Anita Gawali

Anita was a late admission, but despite missing the first few classes, she has shown an amazing aptitude for learning anatomy. At 19 she is quite small but surprisingly strong and certainly one of the most confident partially sighted girls we have met. Her mother and father are both sighted but she receives no financial help from them whatsoever – they are too poor. She is determined in her studies and says that one day she hopes to help support them. Anita speaks good English and recognises that this course is “[her] best opportunity for a bright future”

Laxman Subedi

At 27, Laxman is our oldest (and most serious!) student. As the student with the best sight, he has taken on the role of carer and does a fantastic job of safely guiding students to and from lessons. Sadly a simple operation in childhood could have saved his sight but his parents were poor and illiterate and did not know. He is now married to Sita (who is also partially-sighted) and they have a 2 month old baby boy who is sighted, called Prajwal (which means ‘light’ in Nepali). He desperately needs this training so he can get a job and support his new family.

Sarita Acharya

Sarita is 20 and although totally blind, often wears glasses to pretend she is not. Both her parents died when she was in her teens and she now lives with her brother, who cannot support her financially because he has his own family to feed. Despite lacking the others’ advanced English skills, confidence (and volume!), she is quietly and doggedly learning everything we teach. She can also use a computer quite proficiently and has a lovely polite, respectful manner. She says she longs to be self-dependent and have employment of her own.

Strikes, Curfews and Demonstrations.....

No-one could have predicted the sudden upsurge in the political conflict that coincided with our training start date. For a period of 20 days, a strike or ‘bandh’ was imposed throughout Nepal in protest against King Gyanendra’s autocratic rule.

Many of our family, friends and supporters were concerned for our safety during this time but it was needless. Despite massive civil unrest in other parts of the country, life goes on much as normal in Nepal's tourist areas, where we are based. The total lack of road transport was a problem for us but luckily our students were willing to walk to lessons outside of the curfews. A 2-hr walk to get to school is not unusual in Nepal, but is of course a little more challenging when you are blind!

Sadly the road strike did prevent us from receiving our much needed anatomy training models. Too large to come by air, these models were supposed to arrive from India by road courier but could not; and as a result we were forced to improvise. Pictured is Rob with ‘George’ a skeleton we managed to purchase from a scientific traders in Pokhara. He is not, strictly speaking, exactly anatomically correct (being made in Nepal of course), but our students think he is great and he’s really helped their understanding at a basic level.

Building a Future.....
Unfortunately, Nepal’s recent turmoil has also seriously hampered our search for a major sponsor. Funding is currently our biggest obstacle. Although we have now managed to begin the training part of our project thanks to the kind generosity of our private donors, we still need a further £16,000 in order to build and equip a permanent training centre and clinic.


This facility is crucial for the future sustainability of the project and we literally must build these students a future for the project to be a success. The land we identified for this purpose is still available and we are most grateful to Robinson Design Group for providing architectural plans for the site in lieu of a donation. For the next few months we will be concentrating on raising money for this building.

Thank You!
We would like to take the opportunity to extend a huge thank you to our board of trustees for their patient support and fundraising efforts. Particular thanks to Kate Hencher, Cedric Jeanson, and Carole and Michael Stephens, The rest of our generous supporters are far too numerous to mention individually but we are sincerely grateful for your support and can promise your money goes directly to where it is most needed.
Rob & Sue Ainley, SHN Project-Coordinators