I will be taking part in a community chanllenge for 10 days at the end of November to help build homes for Kamaiya families. The challenge will involve long days of hard physical work in Nepal (as well as the expected hard hat and steel toe cap boots, I need to get five pairs of buildres gloves!) and several months of fundraising beforehand.
The project will help improve the livelihood of the community. It is anticipated that the health of the families will improve and children will be able to go to school. Many families have been forced to work 18 hour days, seven days a week to pay off debts and by owning their own homes the freed Kamaiyas will live a life of dignity and become more confident. It is an essential part of their integration into society and their new life of freedom.
communitychallenge Fri 20 Nov 2009 - Mon 30 Nov 2009
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Myriam Some background to the Kamaiya plight:
The Kamaiya system that was prevalent in the five districts of western —before being finally banned by the government on July 17, 2000—was one of the unpleasant by-products of ’s checkered history of land ownership. The Tharus are indigenous to the Terai. They were the natural owners of these vast tracts of fertile land. They lived in peace and plenty before the hill settlers—pushed by population pressure in the hills—descended in their territory. The new settlers managed to gradually nibble at the land and gain the legal rights, eventually evicting the Tharus from their own land. Without land and no other alternative forms of subsistence, the Tharus were forced to work for the newly turned landed gentry, many of them as bonded labourers.
After many long hellish years of bondage the Kamaiya freedom movement emerged in the midst of the gloom and frustration pervading the ten-year anniversary of democracy. The movement was supported by a coalition of social and human rights organizations, working together with the bonded labourers themselves, the media and international aid organizations and networks. In a sustained three months of campaigning the movement managed to force the government to cancel generation-deep debts of the Kamaiya. Even after about two years of legal freedom from bondage, for thousands of Kamaiyas real freedom still remains distant and elusive. Efforts for their rehabilitation by providing them alternative jobs in already saturated market have proven not only insufficient but also increasingly frustrating to a majority of the freed Kamaiya. Without land of their own, thousands of Kamaiya have taken refuge in various public places. Disease, hunger and frustration are taking a heavy toll. The euphoria and expectations generated by the historic Kamaiya movement evaporates with each new day. The struggle is still far from over. The challenge for the freed Kamaiya now is claiming the social prerogatives they were denied in slavery—reasonable plots of land, voices to speak in public and schooling for their children. “Many Kamaiyas remain to be freed in Bardiya, Kailali and Banke. The next challenge is to free them. The other challenge is effective rehabilitation. This newly acquired freedom is usually only skin deep. It takes a long time for the Kamaiyas to change their mental attitude. If support for rehabilitation is not strong they will fall into the same old vicious trap of bondage again. When the Kamaiyas get land they will also need houses and training in new agricultural techniques,” says BASE president and Kamaiya movement leader Dilli Bahadur Chaudhari.If you want to know more about the project and what it involves visit:
http://www.communitychallenge.co.uk/cc/communitychallenge/challenge.jsf?id=1036
