Diaspora digest 09

INF DIASPORA INITIATIVE

MMAYAY . 2012. 2012 NNOO . 9. 9

Diaspora DigestDiaspora Digest

NEW WORKERS FOR THE NEPALI DIASPORA NORTH WESTNORTH WEST

INDIAINDIA

Open Border

Cheap & easy travel

No visas needed

No agents

Seasonal Migration Men travelling on their

own

Robbery at the

border

HIV reaching remote

villages

Family Migration Working wives &

mothers

Children not going to

school

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

NEW WORKERS FOR THE NEPALI DIASPORA:

JANAK HEIKE SAMJHANA

1

ANSWERS TO PRAYER 1

NORTH WEST INDIA 2

IMI NETWORKING 3

PRAISE FROM IMI 3

PRAYER FOR IMI 3

URGENT PRAYER POINTS 3

NEMUN MEMBERSHIP 3

WHAT THE B IBLE SAYS 4

VISITING RETURNEES 4

UPCOMING EVENT—NEMUN IN KATHMANDU

4

News—Ministry in UAE 4

ANSWERS TO PRAYER

Ladies who go to work in

‘Arab’, especially in Saudi

and Kuwait, are known to

be at the greatest risk of abuse and other problems.

We thank God that we

were able to help MAYA

return home and to encourage BINA before

she managed to get back to

Nepal. Both are now

happily reunited with their

families.

MAYA

BINA

FOR IMI (INF)

IN NW INDIA

JANAK BC

(pictured here with his

new wife, Thiru) has been appointed to work

with the INF India

Migrant Initiative in Delhi

& NW India. A recent

MDiv graduate from UBS, Pune, Janak first

went to India as a

migrant himself and has

lived and worked there for many years. Janak

will be based in

Nepalgunj but working

with Alois von Flüe in

Delhi. They will both travel to the IMI projects

in Delhi and the NW of

India—Shimla, Dehradun

& Kotdwar.

FOR NEMUN

IN KATHMANDU FOR MLI (INF)

IN KATHMANDU

HEIKE PRIEBE

spent the last 5 years

being a ’didi’ (friendly big

sister) to many young migrants in Malaysia—

while also obtaining a

degree in Biotech. She

has now returned to Nepal and will be

working with the INF

Migrant Link Initiative,

based in Kathmandu.

Heike will also promote NeMUN in Nepali

churches and maintain

her links in Malaysia.

SAMJHANA BK

is now a full-time

NeMUN staff member.

She is organising the office and this extra

input should also help to

extend the network

around the world.

If you know of

others working in

the Diaspora, whom

we could feature, please let us know.

If you have any

Diaspora News we

could include in

Diaspora Digest please let us know.

DD IASPORAIASPORA DD IGESTIGEST

NORTH WEST INDIA

After HM King Prithvi Narayan Shah unified

Nepal, starting in 1768/9 in the Kathmandu

Valley, he set out to expand his new kingdom of

Nepal eastwards and westwards. By the end of

the 18th century, therefore, Nepal had spread

from its present day border westwards, through

Kumaon and Gadhwal almost as far as Shrinagar

(Kashmir). However, Nepal only held on to

these territorial gains for a few years before

losing them in 1816 as a result of the Anglo-

Nepali war. Nowadays this territory is part of 2

Indian states – Uttarkhand (formerly the

northern part of Uttar Pradesh) and Himachal

Pradesh.

Nowadays, in NW India, Nepalis are no longer the brave

conquerors: many are poor economic migrants. The open

border from Nepal to India, means they can cross easily

without the need to pay agents to help them get visas and work contracts. This is the cheapest option for migration.

Such migrants usually end up as porters or agricultural

labourers, earning minimal wages, but this is still better than

staying at home in a grain shortage area.

Many of them are seasonal migrants who return home

annually to plant and harvest their own small fields. Single

men (i.e. single or without their families) have special

problems. They may fall into sexual temptations and this is

one reason why HIV is rapidly becoming a major problem in remote districts of Nepal. Also, as they return over the

border, bringing home their meagre Indian earnings, all too

often unscrupulous men take advantage of them. They

pretend to befriend them and offer them food or drink. Then, when the migrants fall unconscious, they rob them and

leave them destitute by the side of the road.

Others – especially those who venture further afield to cities

like Delhi – may take their families with them and although

this alleviates some of the problems it causes others, especially if they have small or school-age children. Usually

both parents need to work to make ends meet. The

children are often denied schooling for financial or other

logistical reasons, and if they do get admission, they may struggle because they have to use Hindi (not Nepali).

Nestling under the western end of the Hima-

layas, the whole area

– with its ‘hills and

valleys’ is very similar

geographically to

Nepal. It is therefore

no surprise then that

migrants from the

Mid and Far West Regions of Nepal, especially

those from Mugu, choose to go to this area.

NNOO . 9. 9

The benefits are:

Regular Diaspora prayer bulletins.

2 nights free stay in Mitra Niwas.

NEMUN MEMBERSHIP

Responsibilities are:

Prayer support.

Subscriptions.

Why not complete and cut out the membership

form and join our network?

URGENT PRAYER POINTS BHAKTA has been in jail in Saudi for

2 yrs simply because he was in the area

when a murder was committed. All we

can do is phone him and pray.

SUKMAN is still lost in Malaysia al-

though we have just heard he may have

been located – keep praying.

JHABI LAL suffered an injury to his

back in Malaysia and was invalided

home. Just as he started to recover his

16yr old wife committed suicide.

KRISHNA also had a serious accident

in Malaysia. He was sent back to Nepal

as a quadriplegic. He is in hospital in

Kathmandu.

YOUNGEST NEMUN MEMBER!

Congratulations to Sapana &

Franklin on the birth of their new

baby daughter. Janelle comes to

most of the NeMUN meetings—with mum of course!.

IMI NETWORKING

(INDIA MIGRANT INITIATIVE)

Representatives from all parts of IMI plus the INF Acting Director & Diaspora Coordinator

(from Kathmandu) and one of the INF/Nepal

Safe Migration staff (from Nepalgunj) met to-gether for an IMI networking meeting at the

Navinta centre in Delhi, 8-9th Feb, 2012.

Everyone had an opportunity to present their

own specific migrant work—within India or Nepal. Everyone agreed this was a great

meeting, with great inspiration and that it

should be repeated regularly.

Next year in Shimla!

PRAYER FOR IMI

PRAISE FROM IMI

“I want to let you know that all PP (Prayas &

Prerna) kids passed in their exam from Jakhan

center. We Praise God for that!”

(Email from Dehradun about the Children’s Tuition Centre)

“I have a small request to you that... I am going to take a

bible club in centre and we are going to make salvation

bracelet in craft. According to color I will describe them

God's love for them. I think this is the best time to teach them about God's love and care for them. Please pray.”

(Email from Dehradun)

WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS...

In the early church, the believers who scattered

because of trouble and persecution took the

gospel with them. (Acts 8:4) In other words, it was the Diaspora people who scattered the seed

of the Word throughout the Roman Empire.

What an example to follow!

“Now those who were

scattered went about

preaching the word.”

International Service Office

PO Box 1230 Kathmandu

NEPAL

INF DIASPORA

INITIATIVE

Phone: 00977-1-55-21183

Fax: 00977-1-55-26928

E-mail: [email protected]

INF A Christian Mission

Serving the physical

and spiritual needs

of Nepali people NeMUN:

Staff Worker—Samjhana BK

Board Chair—Sapana Basyal

EPC 2028, PO Box 8975 Satdobato, Lalitpur, NEPAL

Phone: +977-1-55-26913

Email: [email protected]

Mitra Niwas:

Host / Hostess—Devendra & Ram Maya Joshi

Satdobato Chowk, Lalitpur

Phone: +977-1-55-26913 Mobile: 9841 026 339 or9803 424 011

Email: [email protected]

NEWS—MINISTRY IN UAE

For 3 weeks, from 17th May

2012, Bal Kumari will be visiting

Emirates and teaching Bible

Survey to Nepali migrants.

UPCOMING EVENT—NEMUN

PROMOTION MEETING IN KATHMANDU

Thursday 2 August 2012

If you live in or near Kathmandu, please

book this date in your diary.

If you live anywhere else, please remember this meeting in your prayers.

We hope

NeMUN

will soon be

on the Web

VISITING RETURNEES

“Where can I find fellowship?”

“How can I join NeMUN?” is the

repeated cry of migrant returnees.

They are also asking, “What next?”

Their time overseas has changed

them. Nepal also is changing. Should they return to the

Diaspora? Should they try to settle back in Nepal? And if

so, what should they do? Some opt for Bible training.

Some try to start small churches. Others are struggling

to set up their own businesses. It’s not so easy to give

them the answers, but one of the best ways of

encouraging them is to visit them in their villages back in

Nepal. However, while the country is heavily dependent

on the remittances sent back by these migrants, at the

moment (in the run up to the promulgation of a new

Constitution) Nepal is beset by a

series of bandhs (strikes / closures).

These make visiting – even in the

Kathmandu Valley – rather more than

a simple challenge. Some folks had

planned to visit contacts in Nepalgunj (in the Mid West-

ern Terai) but with closed roads and no buses running,

these plans are still on hold. Other very enterprising

folks managed to make visits in the east of Nepal – by

commandeering an ambulance and

finding friends with motorcycles.

Returnees from Malaysia (& one

Pastor’s son) in Jorpati, Kathmandu

Diaspora digest 09

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