News

12 September 2017

Gurkha Welfare Trust

Families, Gurkha, Nepal, Remembrance, Veterans, Welfare

The medal that saved my life

Tulsidevi Danai holds up a battered medal bearing the likeness of King George VI. To her, it is the difference between life and death.

“This is my evidence for getting my Welfare Pension [from The Gurkha Welfare Trust],” she explains. Her husband, Rifleman Bakhansing Khatri, earned it for his service during the Second World War, fighting in the jungles of Burma.

“It was hard for them,” she says. “They didn’t have enough supplies. When he used to fill his water bottle in the jungle it was dirty and full of leeches. But they had no choice but to drink it.

5 September 2017

Gurkha Welfare Trust

Families, Nepal, Remembrance, Veterans, Welfare

From WWII to modern day: supporting our Gurkhas

British air drops kept Rifleman Kehersing Thapa alive during World War Two. Today, The Gurkha Welfare Trust continues to provide him with vital care.

Kehersing lives with his daughter and her family of six in the village of Chhabdi Barahi in Tanahun, in central Nepal. The veteran of the 8th Gurkha Rifles proudly remembers his fighting days throughout the early 1940s, a period that saw him serve in the Middle East and North Africa.

5 September 2017

Gurkha Welfare Trust

Families, Nepal, Remembrance, Veterans, Welfare

World War Two veteran battles the Nepal floods

World War Two veteran Rifleman Manbahadur Limbu’s home has been damaged by the recent severe flooding in Nepal.

Last week, Gurkha pensioners were among the millions of people in Nepal affected by high levels of rainfall. The monsoon weather has continued to make life difficult for the Gurkha community, although water levels have now dropped.

17 August 2017

Gurkha Welfare Trust

Families, Nepal, Veterans, Welfare

Major floods hit Nepal

The Gurkha Welfare Trust’s field team is currently reaching out to vulnerable Gurkha pensioners as Nepal faces its worst rains in 15 years.
Beginning on 11 August 2017, the country’s annual monsoon took a turn for the worse, triggering widespread large-scale flooding and landslides in 27 of the country’s 75 districts.
Across the nation, search and rescue efforts are underway with a total of 8,300 trained security forces already deployed. Around 70 people have already been killed and dozens more are missing.
So far, there are no casualties to report among the ex-Gurkha community. In the most affected areas, our own patrol teams are risking their own safety to reach vulnerable pensioners and provide medical aid, relief items and cash grants where necessary.

17 August 2017

Gurkha Welfare Trust

Children, Disability Support, Families, Nepal, Veterans, Welfare

Living with disability: a Gurkha hero’s daughter

Life in Nepal can be hard at the best of times. For those who suffer from a disability, it can be an almost impossible experience.

This is equally true for the children of many of our Gurkha pensioners. As fathers, our veterans are deeply concerned with the wellbeing of their family, especially as they grow older and are faced with the prospect of no longer being around to help them.

To ensure that some of the more vulnerable children of Gurkha veterans are able to live with dignity, we provide Disability Support Grants after the loss of their parents. This ongoing assistance helps them to survive in a country with limited healthcare, welfare support and infrastructure.

15 August 2017

Gurkha Welfare Trust

Children, Events, Families, Funding, fundraising, Nepal, Sport, Veterans, Welfare

Trailwalker 2017

On 28-30 July 2017, over 1,500 people across 399 teams attempted the Trailwalker challenge across the South Downs.

Originally formed as a Gurkha training exercise in the 1980s, over the past 20 years Trailwalker has become a fundraising challenge phenomenon open to the public. Organised in partnership with Oxfam GB and The Queen’s Gurkha Signals, it is the ultimate in long distance challenges. Participants must trek, in teams of four, 100km in under 30 hours, finishing at the historic Brighton Racecourse for a well deserved beer and a Gurkha curry.

25 July 2017

Gurkha Welfare Trust

Families, Gurkha, Nepal, Remembrance, Veterans, Welfare

A blast from the past: Gurkha veteran’s new photo

Corporal Gunga Gurung, veteran of the Borneo and Malaya conflicts, has a new photo to hang in the earthquake-resistant home we’ve built for him. Corporal Gunga Gurung, veteran of the Borneo and Malaya conflicts, has a new photo to hang in the earthquake-resistant home we’ve built for him.

After Gunga and his brother Kul featured in our recent article, one of our supporters recognised him from his time in the Army. The British Officer had served with Gunga in Malaya in the late 1960s and was kind enough to share their platoon’s group photo with us.

25 July 2017

Gurkha Welfare Trust

Families, Gurkha, Nepal, Veterans, Welfare

Helping hand for a loyal friend

Gyan Bahadur Sunuwar spent 14 dedicated years working in support of Gurkha veterans and their communities. When disaster struck his own family, we were there to ensure he didn’t face it alone. Gyan started working for us in 1993. At the time, we ran a Welfare Centre on the hill next to his home village and Gyan was pleased to get a job there at the age of 31. Only a few years later, civil war broke out in Nepal and conflict in the hills was the backdrop for the next decade of our work.

28 February 2017

Gurkha Welfare Trust

Children, Families, Gurkha, Health, Nepal, Remembrance, Veterans, Welfare

Our team in Nepal: a day in the life

Dambar Thapa is currently working on one of our major school projects in a remote part of western Nepal.

Siddartha Lower Secondary School was destroyed by the earthquakes in 2015. By November 2016, we’d begun work on new, quake-resistant buildings for its 140 pupils.

9 February 2017

The Royal British Legion

Families, Health, Nepal, Remembrance, Transition, Veterans, Welfare

Legion funds project to tackle loneliness in Nepalese veteran community

Isolation and loneliness issues amongst London’s Nepalese veteran community are to be targeted thanks to a grant from The Royal British Legion.

The £43,000 grant to the Community Empowerment and Support Initiatives (CESI)-UK project will benefit approximately 200 ex-British Gurkhas over the age of 60.

This year-long community support project aims to provide a customised support programme to address isolation and loneliness issues as well as the health and wellbeing needs of Nepalese people in the Royal Borough of Greenwich.

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