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Monday, February 29, 2016

Tête à Tête #22: with Edu Bores: Karuna Social Programme.


The Hands that help are Holier than the Lips that Pray.
When the earthquake happened in Nepal last year, my heart went to them. I wanted to  do something. One day at a market I saw a stand with Karuna Social. It's my aunt's name so I stopped and learned more about it. They were an ONG based in Nepal helping the women. Edu Bores was their founder and coincidently he was going to be back in Barcelona in June. 
BelleBarcelone decided to organize a charity event; which happened last June. It was quite a success. 

I met Edu there, and a friendship was formed. I admire him and his work. He was back in Barcelona during Christmas for the holidays.
We met for another event I had organized for another NGO and then we also met for lunch at Isabella's. 
More than an interview it was a conversation between friends. There were no really questions, answers. 
So here is a bit of Edu's work and generosity. 
Edu had a job and his life in Barcelona. He went to India to Orissa to meet one of his friends. He was there during the cyclone in 1999. One of the strongest cyclone ever happened in North of India. He joined the Citta. "In 1999, the largest cyclone to hit India in over 100 years ripped through the coastal region of Orissa for three days. This cyclone was in the same region where Citta had been running the hospital since 1996, and it destroyed the few small government schools that existed. Odisha, one of the poorest states in India where only 10% of the local population has received any formal education, is already at a disadvantage.
In 2001, Citta responded to the lack of educational resources in the community by constructing The Vivekananda Primary School.
In 2004 Edu went to Nepal with the same NGO Citta. They created a clinic in Gurka specialised for women. Edu was with Citta Spain and in 2008 he decided to go his own way. 
That's how Karuna Social was born. Karuna was the name of the first woman they helped. He wanted to create a self sustained organization based on woman rights. Women didn't have a strong recognition in Nepal. But he knew that women have a bigger notion of the future, they always think ahead of themselves. They now have Karuna Nepal and Karuna Spain. They work parallely. Their organization creates work for women, they make accessories and they sell them here in Barcelona . They have a market twice a year and also occasionally present in some other markets.
In the organization they have 7 nepali women who are in charge as well as a local lawyers. It's very important for Edu to work hand in hand with the locals. Even in India they worked the same way. Edu was in Nepal during the earthquake. It was Saturday day, the festive day in Nepal. He was with Karuna in the city center and it happened. Everyone and everything stopped . Everyone was scared. He was able after a certain time to get some bottles of water from one of his usual grocery store; that's where he lived, everyone knew him and he knew everyone. After 5 hours they were able to get a taxi and drop Karuna at her place. During 5 days they helped till the first aids started coming in. It 's been a long trip and still lots of help is needed. 
They created Hugging Nepal: "On April 25th the Earth screamed, shaking in fear and Nepal went mute and the silence that followed hurt. 
Many of their people, those from all different nationalities who undertook this land as their home and travellers who were there when the earthquake happened have pulled together to help, creating an independent group of self managed volunteers.
And that is how HuggingNepal was born, offering direct help to the most affected."

More on the NGO : Karuna Social Programme here

You can check the video of the event here.



You can see some of the pretty things they make in the Karuna Social Programme. 






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