On a dark, cold winter’s evening in the magical, twinkly lit Pen & Paper Shop in Old Town, Rosa and Ian Matheson told a story of devotion, dedication and inspiration.
Rosa Matheson may be better known in Swindon for her books on the GWR Works, but to a man called Angel and his family of orphans in Nepal, she and her GP husband Ian are life savers.
In 2009 Rosa and Ian were part of a joint British-Nepali medical venture when they were asked to attend some sick children in an orphanage. It was here that they met Angel, a professional guide who made a living taking tourists on trekking holidays across Nepal. The orphanage began when Angel came across a small boy living alone in a remote village, his only relative an elderly grandmother unable to care for him herself. Angel took the boy home and raised him as his own. When Rosa and Ian met Angel and his wife they were struggling to survive with their growing ‘family’ of twenty one abandoned and orphaned children.
“We decided we could not walk away and leave these children in such a poor state, we had to help to alleviate their poverty and distress,” said Rosa and so began The Friends of Angel’s Orphanage.
But the couple’s mission did not stop there. They quickly recognised that educating women was the way to help the children of the future and three years on, in addition to the orphanage, they are fund raising to support women’s projects in Nepal. Last year 100 British women wrote about a day in their life to support an untold number of Nepali women to improve theirs. Money raised through the sale of the book is now supporting three micro projects with a 4th to get up and running by February 2013.
The first project was a £1,000 investment in Nepokra. Here small groups of women with an elected project leader have bought materials to set up in business; some in animal husbandry others in crafts. They receive veterinary attention for their animals and marketing advice for their products and at the end of the project they repay their loan, which can then be redistributed to other women.
Their second project was a cash donation to purchase a moped. This vital means of transport enables Dr Archana, a young Nepali woman committed to spending two years working in rural Nepal, to get around her practise a little easier.
The Himalayan River Girls project is a work in progress, inspired by Inca, a Swedish water sports instructor, who has trained the women in canoeing, kayaking and white water rafting. Rosa and Ian have pledged to pay six months’ rent on a boathouse when the River Girls find a suitable property.
The fourth micro project waiting to take off is a co-operative of 100 women who will grow medicinal plants and herbs. A 500 euro investment will buy tools and seeds for the first year for 100 women. This venture will begin with the Nepali growing season in February.
The women’s projects and Angel’s orphanage may seem a long way from a small shop in Swindon, but as Ian told me, ‘we think about the children all the time.’
If you would like to support Rosa and Ian’s work visit the website on http://angels.appligenics-dev.com/angels-orphanage/. Copies of A Day in the Life of 100 British Women are available from Pen & Paper Bookshop, 113 Victoria Road; Rainbow Bookshop, St Aldhelm’s Centre, Edgeware Road and Lighthouse Bookshop, 40 High Street, Highworth.
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Rosa and Ian Matheson
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Angel
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The children
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Rosa, Ian and Dr Archana with her new means of transport
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2013 and A Happy New Year
Come along and support Swindon's International Women's Day celebrations at Central Library.
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Rosa and Ian Matheson
The children
Rosa, Ian and Dr Archana with her new means of transport
2013 and A Happy New Year
Come along and support Swindon's International Women's Day celebrations at Central Library.
