I am swimming between Brighton piers (when 7 months pregnant) with my Mum, Sue (who will be 70 next year) and friends Rosie, Cara and Rachel.

We are doing this to raise funds to continue Young Roots work supporting vulnerable refugee children living in long term camps in Nepal. The Bhutanese refugees arrived in Nepal in the early 1990s. Young Roots has been supporting young Bhutanese refugees since 2007.  The refugee children we support think this is import

ant because:

“My confidence is much higher” (Child Participant 2014)

“I am a drop out but I will be re-joining school in the next session” (Child Participant 2014)

Janga is 14 years old and lives alone with his mum as his father died when he was a baby and his sister is married to Nepali national. His mother has not applied for resettlement, as she wants the family to stay together.  Janga juggles many responsibilities and often has to go to work to provide for him and his Mum. He says, ‘I am vulnerable as I don’t have a father and I act as [the main] guardian as my mum is frequently sick’. 

Janga said that going to BRCF has helped to improve his confidence and showed him how to manage all of his responsibilities. ‘Before coming to BRCF I was very shy and found it difficult to talk in a group or in front of adults, but the BRCF has helped me to become pro-actively involved in the community, to do better and to become a leader’.

His mum said that she has noticed a real difference with his discipline, knowledge and maturity. He was recently elected to be an Assistant Children Facilitator for Beldangi I and of the experience he says, ‘I am very happy to interact with my little brothers and sisters who are vulnerable like me’. Speaking of his election as coordinator he said that it enabled him to forget his pain and that when he won he felt happy to be chosen knowing he could do something for the vulnerable younger children.  He said that the process had taught him that, ‘we learn many things from the children, and they from us.  We learn how to co-exist together’.

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