Urgent project Appeal
funding required
ORPHAN VILLAGE, NEPAL
Launched for the Murry Foundation by
STEVE COLLINS
Former Supermiddle & middle weight champion of the world
Nepal
‘Dream as if you’ll live forever, Live as if you’ll die today' James Dean.
Freedom of thought, the support of our friends and family and the belief that our society and environment provide us with the tools necessary to survive and fulfil our potential on this earth are ideas that, as part of a developed nation, we take for granted. Whether or not we decide to embrace those freedoms is our choice, but, at least we have that choice.
The Murry Foundation, works tirelessly, to provide help and hope to orphans
who face the reality that every day may be their last. The Foundation
understands however, that hope and help are not enough. To provide the
impoverished with the tools necessary for long-term survival and happiness
the Murry Foundation maintains that an understanding of the environment,
the knowledge of how to utilise its resources in a productive and non-depletive
manner and the means to educate and be educated, are essential and invaluable
tools. The Foundation also teaches an understanding towards the importance
of having a moral compassion towards animals realising that people can
have a grim realism, seeing only the things we want in animals and not
the animals themselves. Animals also share with children a tie of profound
vulnerability. Both too, are usually the first to feel the brunt of human
callousness. A tear can be wiped away through the brush of a hand, but
a scar may still be left on the soul. To ensure that the tears do not
return, we must cleanse the soul. This metaphor, it seems, is one of the
fundamental principles of the foundation.
In March 2006, the Murry Foundation was established as only one of a handful of internationally recognized and respected institutions in Nepal and subsequently received the highest award for the best wildlife conservation organization. The Foundation protects wildlife, helps orphaned children by building orphanages and education centres, and funds rural, sustainable development, enabling the people to build their economy in a manner that respects the wildlife and protects the habitat.
The Foundation has been developing projects all over the world including Africa, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Thailand India and Nepal where it is funding the rescue and rehabilitation of tigers, rhinos and leopards; secured an island to build a rehabilitation and release sanctuary for rescued endangered species; set up an anti poaching education centre and employed a team of anti poaching rangers; built schools and education centres that educate the local people about the environment, teaching them how it can be preserved to increase tourism opportunities and sustain agriculture; helped hundreds of orphaned children by building and setting up orphanages and managed and funded widespread conservation work to ensure the survival of the endangered local flora and fauna.
In August 2003, Beeshazari and associated lakes systems were designated a Ramsar site. The site is an extensive oxbow lake system of the tropical Inner Terai area in Nepal, lying inside the Buffer Zone of the Royal Chitwan National Park, a World Heritage site. Situated at 27’37’N latitude and 84’36’E longitude, the lake system covers an area of around 3200 hectares. The area is a forested wetland consisting of finger like projections with a series of associated lakes, meadows, swamps and marshes. Khageri Irrigation Canal runs diagonally through the Tikauli (Barandabhar) forest acting as a wildlife corridor for animals moving from the Siwalik range to the Mahabharat range in the North. The Murry Foundation is aware that the protection of such an environment is crucial in the cyclic development of countries such as Nepal.
The protection of rare ecosystems such as the cleaning of the Beeshazari is fundamental in regenerating and sustaining both human and animal life in the area. The introduction of education allows local communities to embrace the long term benefits of working with their environment. As education and understanding is passed through the generations, so is an appreciation of the importance of maintaining harmony with their environment. The preservation of rare species and plant life encourages revenue from tourism and the hand that feeds them becomes their own habitat, rather than short term cash that will eventually lead to the destruction of natural life and an end to any source of income. Huge projects such as the cleaning of the Beeshazari Lake used local labour so that regeneration has a positive impact on its population. It is this emphasis on the involvement of local resources and communities, that is fundamental to the success of the projects run by the Bill Jordon Foundation. Not only do communities benefit from the money invested in the projects, but their ‘hands-on' experience and involvement in the development of these schemes, allows the communities to develop an affinity and passion for the redevelopment of their villages and the preservation of the wildlife.
Late in 2004, the Tiger Rhino Conservation Society in Chitwan, Nepal contacted The Murry Foundation in desperate need of help. A young orphaned tiger cub had roamed into a local village looking for food after poachers in the Royal Chitwan National Park had shot its mother. Without its mother, the young cub was sure to die, terrified, hungry and helpless. It strayed into the village with its 2 siblings who were sadly beaten to death by the local villagers; scared that it would attack them and eat their food supplies. Luckily the third little cub survived and a kind local contacted the Tiger Rhino Conservation Society and asked them to rescue the cub before it shared the same excruciating death as its siblings. The Murry Foundation was able to move the cub to safety, building a temporary enclosure in preparation for the cub’s rehabilitation and return to the wild.
However, it is not only the Nepalese wildlife that is tragically orphaned. Disease and malnutrition, animal related deaths and warfare are a handful of factors that leave so many Nepalese children orphaned. Poor sanitation, inadequate shelter, poverty and a lack of education render many children helpless. It is not uncommon to find a young child dipping strips of cardboard into filthy puddles in an attempt to ease the painful affects of starvation. A lack of education prevents any children that survive such a painful childhood moving towards a safer and more comfortable adulthood. The Murry Foundation is acutely aware of this hopeless cycle and has moved swiftly before another generation of children suffers the same fate as their mothers and fathers. We have all heard the familiar phrase, ‘give a man a fish and he can feed his family for a day; give him the means to fish and he can feed his family for a lifetime’. The reality, however, is that true survival depends not only on man’s ability to provide, but on his ability to sustain the supply of his food and livelihood from generation to generation. A man will only be able to fish if a healthy ecosystem allows the fish to survive. It is this respect between man and nature that the Murry Foundation promotes as the only true means of continued survival and improved living standards.
The foundation is now in the preliminary stages of one of its most important projects yet; a village for orphans, which will not only provide essential education, shelter and food for these impoverished people, but will aid them in their long term survival. A specifically tailored curriculum will focus on ecology and environmental preservation, essential for long term survival and improvement in living standards. The introduction of a western curriculum will also provide the children with the means to trade and generate revenue from their breathtaking environment, as well as sustain improved productivity and health. As we speak the Foundation, is working towards twining programs with schools in the local area. Pupils from either side of the world will be able to communicate via a specially developed internet portal, exchanging ideas and information. It is likely that pen pal projects, inter-continental research and possibly even student exchanges will take place in the near future. These ideas, pioneered by the Murry Foundation, will undoubtedly set a precedent for schools across the country to follow. Schemes such as these can only promote tolerance and understanding between diverse cultures and inevitably enlighten future generations of the importance of understanding global concerns that exist outside familiar local communities.
If a fish can feed a family for a day and the means to fish will feed a family for a lifetime, teaching a man how to fish intelligently, how to sustain the hand that feeds him and utilise the tools at his disposal to develop his community, will feed families for generations to come and instill a sense of hope that has long been lost in this part of the world. The importance of this school and its ability to educate further generations of Nepalese children is invaluable in fulfiling the only true dream these good people have; self sustainability. While these children may not yet be able to dream as if they will live forever, they may be able to sleep, hopeful in the knowledge that they will not die today. With the help of the Murry Foundation, they may even be able to look forward to tomorrow.
Human beings have the power to continue to oppress other species forever, or until we make this planet unsuitable for living beings. Will our tyranny continue, proving that morality counts for nothing when it clashes with self interest or, will we rise to the challenge and prove our capacity for genuine altruism by ending our ruthless exploitation of the species in our power, not because we are forced to, but because we recognise that our position is morally indefensible? It is easy just to observe in our comfortable lives but, by now, it should be time for us to stand up and be counted and follow the examples set by the Murry Foundation.
Orphan Children Village
NEPAL
