Home   News   Article

Birichen couple's fundraising drive for porters, tour guides and grandmother in Nepal


By Caroline McMorran

Easier access to your trusted, local news. Subscribe to a digital package and support local news publishing.



Click here to sign up to our free newsletters!

During a visit to Nepal last year Dornoch couple Jim and Gill Robertson were entranced by the county’s mountainous beauty and the kindness of the people, but they were also shocked by the poverty and devastation wrought by the 2015 earthquake.

So much so that they are now fundraising on two fronts – to provide a new home for an 87-year-old Nepalese grandmother living in a cow byre after twice being made homeless, first by the earthquake and then a landslide; and also to support porters and guides whose businesses have been affected by coronavirus.

Jim, a retired chartered accountant, said: “There is a saying that Nepal stands for Never Ending Peace and Love. The people there would give you the shirt off their backs - if they had it. It broke our hearts to see what has happened to the county.”

Jim and Gill’s money making enterprises include selling home-made jam, kombucha and sock monkeys from a stall outside their home at Birichen, as well as collecting Christmas trees in exchange for donations.

Gill (49), trained as a yoga teacher during lockdown and is set to hold a fundraising virtual Full Moon Yoga session on January 28.

It was October last year when the Robertsons, who have previously raised thousands of pounds for charities through participating in marathon power walks, headed off for a six month adventure, first to Nepal and then Australia and New Zealand.

They booked through travel company Enlightened Globetrekkers, which encourages its customers to help the local population in its visitor destinations, and before going had to raise funds to provide pupils in a remote village school at Kaule, southern Nepal, with clothing and shoes.

On their programme was a yoga trek to Annapurna base camp, a cultural trek which included a trip to Namo Buddha, an important Buddhist pilgrimage site 40km southeast of Kathmandu, and a trip in a dug-out canoe down a river infested with crocodiles.

But the state of Nepal’s infrastructure was an eye-opener.

“It took us 12 hours to drive the 150 miles to where we were to start the yoga trek because there are still big holes where the earthquake split the road,” said Jim. “There doesn’t seem to be any state or corporate funding available for rebuilding.”

In Kathmandu Jim also watched in amazement as workers wearing flip flops dismantled by hand a four-storey building opposite where the couple were staying, taking the rubble down to ground level in baskets on their backs and dumping it into a lorry.

“There isn’t any heavy plant or machinery. It is all done by hand,” he said.

While in the capital city the couple helped out at a dog shelter, vaccinating dogs against rabies. They adopted a street dog called Orion, although their attempts to get it back to the UK have so far been stymied by Covid-19.

Also in Kathmandu they visited a facility offering a climbing wall and it is here that they met member of staff and university student Sunita Thapa Magar who told them about the plight of her grandmother Ramdal Rana.

“Her grandmother lives in a remote village called Dhading where the houses were destroyed by the earthquake,” said Jim. “Her home was rebuilt but then it was carried away by a landslide. She has since spent time living under a tarpaulin, in a cow shed and between neighbours and her health is deteriorating.”

From Nepal, Jim and Gill went on to Australia, driving some 8500 kilometres from west to east, across deserts where the temperature reached 50C and avoiding the bush fires that were raging across the county at that time.

They then enjoyed time in New Zealand before flying home two weeks before lockdown, which came as a complete shock to them.

“We were trying to escape from everything,” said Jim. “So we didn’t go online, read any newspapers or watch television. When we came back it was such a shock to hear about the virus and lockdown.”

With time on their hands - the glamping business they set up at Birichen and which hosted 600 guest in 2019, has had to close down - the couple began fundraising, initially to help the porters, guides and tour operators they met in Nepal who have seen their income dry up because of the lack of visitors.

Jim donated a month of his pension and the couple made and delivered kombucha to customers from Dingwall to Brora - they have sold around 700 bottles. They also sold jam, baking and sock monkeys and raised £200 by collecting Christmas trees for a donation, cutting them up and used them for firewood and mulch.

Jim said: “We’ve so far sent out more than £2000 which has been distributed to families in need. It has helped pay school fees, buy school books, food, water, rent and basic needs. We know where every penny has gone as there is no middle man.”

They are now concentrating on raising £3500 to build a new home for Ramdal Rana and have sent out £1200 so far, enough to begin laying the foundations.

Sunita is also doing what she can to help, knitting colourful hats, scarves and gloves which Jim and Gill hope to sell through a website they are setting up. Gill is hoping that her Full Moon Zoom Yoga session next Thursday will bring in yet more funds. Places cost £10 and up to 100 people can participate. All the proceeds are going to Nepal.

The Robertsons are also collecting empty crisp packets to turn into insulated blankets for homeless people in the UK. Collection points are at shops in Dornoch and also outside their home. It takes around 150 crisp packets to make one blanket.

To donate, visit gofund.me/38614ce8 For more information email: jimrobertson2009@hotmail.co.uk


Do you want to respond to this article? If so, click here to submit your thoughts and they may be published in print.



This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site you are agreeing to our use of cookies - Learn More