Dear
A
little more than 3 years ago, I resolved to participate in the London
Marathon for 5 marathon races to raise funds for Kumbeshwar
Technical School (KTS). I ran my first race in 2004 and, with
your kind support, raised a total of £1,200 for KTS. Here
I am once again counting the days to this year’s London Marathon,
which is on 22 April. I can’t believe it has been nearly 3
years since I did the last London Marathon. This means I will still
have 3 more to go. I must say each training is different from the
last one and I am not finding it easy, but I can honestly say I
am really enjoying it and I am truly looking forward to it. I know
that seeing many of you there on 22 April will help me along the
way!
Once
again I would like to thank you all of you who have contributed
so much to KTS so far. This year, I am hoping to raise twice as
much as in 2004 and, again, ask for your help. I have attached a
sponsorship
form to this newsletter. As ever, any help you may be able to
offer will be very much appreciated. I can assure you it will go
a long way and make a huge difference there at Kumbeshwar.
On
a separate note, Comolongmo is a year and half old this month. Very
many thanks indeed for your kind support and for shopping with us,
whether through our website (http://www.comolongmo.com),
or at Spitalfield or Greenwich markets. This means a lot to us and
everyone at KTS. With your support last year, between September
and December we imported approximately 67 square metre rugs. This
means, you have helped to sustain employment for about 4-5 weavers
full-time for those months.
I
am afraid that we still have a long way to go. It has been more
than 12 years since the British ODA, (through the British Embassy)
and Australian Embassy, funded the building of a carpet weaving
section at KTS. Tragically, the political situation in Nepal, brought
about by Maoist rebels, all but destroyed the market for rugs. At
KTS they have 25 looms capacity. This effectively means they have
the potential to employ 50 weavers – directly benefiting 50
families. Sadly, due to a lack of work, KTS are still only able
to employ about 17 weavers at present. There is no doubt that this
is a considerable improvement on just a year earlier, but could
be so much better. Therefore, it is our aim to bring the carpet
weaving section to full capacity by the end of this year with your
support. That means if 15 more looms could be brought into operation,
25 more weavers will be able to get much-needed jobs. 25 weavers
mean 25 families. Generally a family has about 4 children. This
means 50 adults plus 100 children will get a decent meal and a decent
place to sleep. Furthermore 100 children will be able to go to school
where they will learn to read, write and count.
For
those of you still unfamiliar with them, Nepalese hand-knotted rugs
use traditional weaving techniques which date back more than a century.
The wool is hand washed, hand spun, hand dyed and hand knotted.
They come in varied knot density, though we have found the most
popular to be 60 knots and 100 knots per inch. I hope you enjoyed
watching the attached clips of spinning,
dying, looming,
and weaving.
The
market stalls at Spitalfield and Greenwich have helped enormously
to raise the profile of Comolongmo. They have brought much needed
business and helped to improve hits on our website. We are constantly
looking for new avenues in which to promote KTS and Comolongmo.
We very much enjoy giving presentations
with slides of KTS and the Kumbeshwar region of Nepal, which have
been very warmly received. We would be extremely grateful for contact
details of or recommend us to your local clubs and chairties, churches,
voluntary organisations, or other bodies who may be interested in
hosting such a presentation.
Thank
you once again for your continued support. I hope you will be thinking
of me on 22 April!
Yours sincerely
Kabindra
and Comolongmo family
www.comolongmo.com
Email: info@comolongmo.com
View
other newsletters:
Newsletter 15, Thursday, 29 Septebmer
2011
Newsletter
14, Saturday, 16 October 2010
Newsletter 13, Monday, 13 Septebmer
2010
Newsletter 12, Monday, 12 July
2010
Newsletter 11, Monday, 15 May
2010
Newsletter 10,
Tuesday, 18 December 2009
Newsletter 9, Friday, 16 October
2009
Newsletter
8, Thursday, 5 March 2009
Newsletter 7, Sunday, 21 December 2008
Newsletter
6, Wednesday, 8 October 2008
Newsletter 5, Thursday, 4 September
2008
Newsletter 4, Saturday, 1 September
2007
Newsletter
3, Friday, 4 May 2007
Newsletter 2, Wednesday,
18 April 2007
Newsletter 1, Tuesday, 7 November
2006
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