A cheque for nearly Rs 200,000 representing donations for Rabina and Rabin Regmi was handed over to the children' father, Bhakta Bahadur Regmi by Subodh Raj Pyakurel of the human rights organisation, INSEC, at Sankhu on Monday. (See pic, Bhakta Bahadur at left.)
The plight of the children, who were badly burnt after Maoists petrol-bombed their bus near Malangwa on 4 November (see: "Why the children?", #121 and "Rabin and Rabina in hospital", #124) elicited an overwhelming response from readers all over Nepal and abroad. Bhakta Bahadur's eyes were moist as he received the cheque on behalf of his children, all he could say was "Thank you, everyone for being so kind, thanks to you my children have a future." His wife, Anju, and three other passengers died in the attack.
Dr Andreas Settje of the Sushma Koirala Memorial Hospital offered to treat Rabina and Rabin for free after reading about their injuries, and says that the children are recovering well. "We are waiting for the wounds to get dry before we start skin grafts and surgery," he told us. "We expect them to recover fully in three or four months." Rabin has serious burns on his head and will need "expanders" on his head to enlarge the skin on his skull.
Bhakta Bahadur will be depositing the amount collected in an account in his children's name and use the interest for their upkeep until they turn 16. He is already looking ahead, trying to get a transfer to Kathmandu from his office in Simara and plans to send his children to a good school in Kathmandu. "We haven't told them about their mother yet," he says. "But sooner or later, after we return home and they start asking, I'll have to tell them."
List of donors till Jan 1 (some couldn't be identified from bank transfer slips, others preferred to be anonymous): Suraj Mehta, Sundar Kandel, Bikash Mishra, Bishnu Acharya, Kapil Sharma, Prabin chhetri, Binaya Regmi, Raju Malla Kanhaiya Lal Rajwant, Binod Sharma, Mahendra Pradhan Purna Ranjit, Bikash Poudel, Dinesh Poudel, Deepak Shrestha, Deepak Chhetri,Pradeep Baral, Bhuwan Dahal, Niva Shrestha, Prabha Shrestha Pramila Shrestha, Puspa Tamang, Sony Shrestha, Laxman Joshi, Amrit Shrestha, Mangi Pradhan, BR Bajracharya, Samjhana Shrestha, Neeraj Amatya (Nabil Bank staff) 11,363. Hannah Battisti and Thomas Bennedikter Rs 1,000. Shangrila Freight 2,000. Toran Shah Rs 100. Sudharsan Shahi, Myagdi Rs 1,000. Anonymous Rs 2,000. St Mary's School Rs 5,000. Rita Bhandary Rs 5,000. Anonymous Rs 5,000. Shota and Julie Kamshima Rs 10,000. Tirtha Rimal Rs 500. Nepal Bangladesh Bank Janakpur Rs 2,500. Anonymous Rs 500. Rakchya Shrestha Rs 500. Nabil Staff Donation Rs 2,475. Sunita Divakar Shrestha and family Rs 8,000. Puskar Dangol Rs 500. Shishir Magar Rs 1,300. Anonymous Rs 1,023. Meena Shrestha Rs 2,000. Anne Erpelding Rs 3,000. Anonymous Rs 3,000. Nabil Card Division Rs 1,906. Industrial Business Development Academy Rs 10.250. INFOCOM Rs 750. Cecile Houdret Rs 36,000. Prasanna Banskota Rs 3,000. Beverly J Thomson Rs 2,000. Sandesh Singh Hamal Rs 1,000. Shardha, Bangladesh Rs 200. Sarita Lim Rs 500. Saleeha Moza, Bangladesh Embassy Rs 310. British SC Rs 6,800. Basundha Bhattarai Rs 3,000. Sandhya Regmi Rs 1,000. Dr Pushottam Mudbhary Rs 2,000. Eelco Baan van Dooren Rs 3,000. Sai Sewak Rs 2000. Lali Gurans English School, Okhaldhunga Rs 3,325. Philip H Pierce Rs 7,775. Anonymous 3,000. Jane Gogarty Rs 24,772. MA Harvey, JR Plummer Rs 5,000. Vanasthali Rs 9,000. Lincoln School Community Service Rs 10,000. TOTAL collected till 1 January 2003: 199,349.
