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THE ESTHER BENJAMINS TRUST – STATEMENT
The Esther Benjamins Trust is a registered charity. We operate in Nepal through our partner organisation, the INGO Esther Benjamins Trust-Nepal (EBT-N) and its local implementing partner, Esther Benjamins Memorial Foundation (EBMF).
Since 2004, we have worked with the relevant authorities and often with parents to rescue and help to offer freedom to hundreds of Nepali children who have been trafficked or displaced into India. Post-rescue we always endeavour to safely reunite children with their families; where this is not an option, we provide residential refuge with access to education and vocational training.
On 7th September 2011, EBMF supported the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) in freeing 23 Nepali girls from The Michael Job Centre in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. The centre was identified after thorough investigation into known child trafficker, Dal Bahadur Phadera – a man whose activities were highlighted in a UNICEF Nepal report in 2005 entitled, ‘Report of Fact finding Mission on Displacement of Children from Humla’. Humla is a region in north-western Nepal.
The operation was conducted with the support of the authorities in India and observed all recognised legal protocol – lawyers were consulted before, during and after the action.
An independent investigation into The Michael Job Centre by the CWC in India has since ordered the centre’s complete closure and for all children to be repatriated.
The centre had promoted the children in its care as being the orphans of Christian martyrs. Many were in fact the children of living Hindu parents, some of whom paid a placement fee to DB Phadera to give children a safe education away from the Maoist insurrection during Nepal’s civil war. This was reported internationally, including in the UK by The Daily Telegraph on Saturday 29th October 2011.
While the children undoubtedly did receive a good education at The Michael Job Centre – we have never disputed that – they were also being prepared as future missionaries in accordance with Dr. Job, the Centre’s director who, in his own website’s words, was ‘India’s Billy Graham’. This indoctrination contradicts Article 14 of UNICEF’s Convention on The Rights of the Child concerning Freedom of Thought, Conscience and Religion.
The 23 Nepali girls EBMF removed from the centre were repatriated to Nepal, with efforts being made to reunite children with their families, meet their future care needs and provide access to education in Nepal.
Since the rescue, EBMF has come under sustained criticism from sections of the Nepal media, including death threats made on television against those involved in the rescue.
A picture is being painted that these children are ‘EBMF victims’ and that we removed them from a good education before abandoning them in Nepal. This is patently untrue, as evidenced by the Indian authorities’ subsequent action in closing The Michael Job Centre.
It has also been alleged that we are an anti-Christian organisation. Again, this is patently untrue. We are a secular organisation which values different faiths. Our founder is a Protestant Christian from Northern Ireland, and our board of Trustees includes at least one Buddhist and at least one Anglican: as divulged by them - we do not enquire.
We seek absolute transparency in all our actions, and are only ever concerned with the welfare of Nepali children – of all religious denominations. Our staff work tirelessly and fearlessly to rescue children in genuine need and are saddened to have become the target of such an aggressive and unfounded campaign.
