The hills around Darjeeling, the northernmost district of West Bengal, India, are home to the Lepcha people and to ethnic Nepalis who were brought to the region in the mid nineteenth century when this area became part of British India. The Lepcha population, which now numbers no more than 50,000, is a backward tribal group of Tibetan origin that is rapidly losing its culture and identity under growing economic and cultural pressures. However they have a long history and a fighting tradition that goes back for millennia to when the Lepcha king Pohartak Panu sent an army to challenge Alexander the Great. In more recent times the Lepcha sent their sons to join the British Army's Brigade of Gurkhas, a custom that continues to this day, even after Indian independence. But to meet them nowadays Lepcha menfolk look far from warlike as these dignified people seem so helpless in the midst of their growing destitution and economic isolation.

The Lepcha people live in the foothills of the Himalayas, practising for the most part the Buddhist faith, their prayers fluttering from colourful flags. They believe that they were born out of Mother Nature and live close to her, calling themselves "Mutanchi Rongkup" which means "Mother's Loved Ones". However this close proximity to the land, idyllic as it might sound, is also the source of both their current downfall as a community and of their rapidly vanishing identity. For in Dalapchand village, one of the poorest in the district, the farmland is exhausted, drained by years of over-use that even crop rotation fails to prevent. Their crops are failing through this soil infertility in combination with the adverse attentions of fungi and parasites. The village is only able to feed itself for about two months of the year and the quality of the food that is produced is so poor that adults and children alike are malnourished and prone to illness. The rest of the time their financial distress is compounded by having to import expensive food to feed themselves. That is a very difficult chore for the villagers as the only way of getting into and out of the village is along a steep track that is just wide enough for one porter and takes two hours to climb. As if this isn't bad enough, that one route is now severely compromised and dangerously fragile following a huge landslide that occurred next to the track in 1996.

In short the Dalapchand community is clinging onto its very existence and apparently losing the battle for survival. The children of the village are feeling the impact of this economic downturn most of all, with a very high infant mortality, high maternal mortality (no doubt linked to early marriages) and general ill health of the mothers and children. Education is very limited with a high school drop out rate; many children either marry young or are trafficked into domestic labour in the south. We know of no fewer than 36 children from this small village alone who are all in child labour when they should be at home and attending school.

As the largest registered charity that works solely for Nepalese children in Nepal and India, we have decided it is high time to do something to help the Lepcha children. We have chosen to begin at what we consider to be the most needy village, Dalapchand, and then roll out our community upliftment work from there to another twenty or so villages over the next ten to fifteen years. The Dalapchand Village Project will run for a total of three and a half years with the overall aim of improving the viability of Dalapchand community and in so doing benefit the education, health and development of children and the health of their mothers. This will be through an Integrated Early Childhood Development Programme that will operate out of a new purpose-built centre in the village which can give educational and health support to parents and children. In parallel with this, income generation initiatives will make the community sustainable and allow the people to cherish and preserve their culture and identity. In return for our support we will expect the community to take better care of their children, to stop the trafficking and retrieve all those who are currently in child labour in the south of the country.

Phase 1 runs from March - August 2006 and during this phase we lay the groundwork for the main project by:

Constructing a new road into the village that will open up the village to the outside and allow our future development work to be conducted efficiently - cost £3,622

• Provide agricultural advice and help with irrigation to the village lands - cost £3,393


• Prepare for the construction of an Early Childhood Development Centre (ECDC) that will be built in Phase 2 and that will provide the focus for education, stimulation, health and welfare of preschool children and of parent education programmes - preparation costs £2,636


• Install an improved drinking water system - cost £2,500


• Through the establishment of goodwill with the villagers, collect accurate baseline data on the children of the village and their wherabouts. Ultimately we will retrieve the trafficked children and return them to school - cost £200


• Curriculum development and training - cost £300

The project will be conducted on the ground by our new partner Trust, Esther Benjamins Trust - India (EBT-I). Consultancy will be provided by agricultural consultant Mr Roger Cozens who has lived and worked in Nepal for many years and by leading London-based engineering company Whitbybird.

The total budget for the three years is £90,000 but at this stage we are seeking financial support only towards Phase 1, for which the budget is £16,444 made up of £12,651 in direct project costs and £3,793 in local administration and support costs.
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