Suresh gets words of praise from his seniors

By Ranjana Pradhan

KATHMANDU, Oct 1 - His strong love for art reflects a childhood upbringing well grounded in arts as his father is the real source for his leaning towards this creative field.

With his father always pushing him to concentrate on painting, Suresh Kumar Dyola has finally become a thorough professional in his field.

"I got the inspiration from my father who has helped me all the way, he is my guru and I intend to live up to his expectations," says 27-year-old painter who started painting 8 years ago. "Now I have decided to take it up professionally."

He still remembers the day when his father used to make him sit in front of the mirror for hours and paint a picture of his own face. "I had great difficulty in grasping the expressions," says the young artist, whose primary interest of painting faces need to catch different moods. But eight years of his hard work has today enabled him to fulfil this important aspect as well.

Paintings done on hand-made paper and that too using charcoal as a medium is a unique and uncommon concept. Talent can be scooped out of so many things, you just need a way to search a medium to get there.

Suresh Kumar, born in Lagankhel in 1974, has come up now with his collection of 35 charcoal paintings which took him a year to complete. His exhibition of charcoal paintings, entitled "Mirror of Nepalese People," has depicted the facial expressions and moods of people from different communities and races.

He has prepared a majority of his paintings after visiting different places of Nepal. And has succeeded to portray various images in a remarkable way. "It is easier to paint an old man rather than a young one because the younger people are not patient enough to give me their time and attention which I need the most," he says.

His paintings are even more realistic as he has only used a black colour to catch expressions of so many faces. Even those present at the exhibition praised Suresh for his works. I.B.Malla, chairman of Commercial Artists’ Association of Nepal, said, "We really enjoyed his paintings because of their beauty and realistic nature of faces of the Nepalese people." Showing different impressions by using just a single colour is the most attractive part of his works, he added.

Even his mentor father Baburaja Dyola is proud of his young son. But he knows that his son still has a long way to go. "Suresh is still young, energetic and is a skilled artist," says senior Dyola. "I know he still has a long way to go but I hope this exhibition will encourage him to focus more on this creative field."

Suresh Kumar’s first solo exhibition began at the Nepal Art Council gallery on Sunday and will continue for a week.

Need of hygienic slaughterhouse stressed

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KATHMANDU, Oct 1 - Thousands of people living in the Capital city have to depend on unhealthy meat products as the biggest city of the country does not have a hygienic slaughterhouse, experts said.

"Kathmandu is the largest and main meat market, which slaughters 368 buffaloes, 218 goats and 17,558 chickens daily," said Dilip Subba, a food scientist from Dharan, while presenting a paper at a seminar on slaughtering management workshop.

However, a big part of meat production is imported from neighbouring countries, either as live animals or as fresh meat, they said.

Though Nepal is considered rich in different species of livestock, breeding, handling, stunning, and transporting of the meat product are unhygienic and so prone to cause meat-born diseases, said Dr Durga Dutta Joshi, the founder of National Zoonoses and Food Hygiene Research Centre.

He said "Nepal has a potential for exporting meat, but humane treatment of slaughter animals is not satisfactorily practised."

He said pain and fear during the time of slaughtering causes stress in the livestock and stress affects the quality of meat obtained from this livestock.

Director General of Livestock Department NP Singh Karki said though we have meat product, it lacks nourishing qualities in them.

"Though the government has been working hard to establish scientific livestock in the country, it has shown no good sign that such livestock would be in operation soon."

"The responsibilities of erecting slaughterhouses fall mostly on the municipalities. They have some encouraging steps on the process but visible results are yet to be seen," he said.

Karki said the people are found worried about the possibility of meat price hike but public health must be more important than unhealthy meat and the consequences they can bring in the people’s life.

Kathmandu Metropolitan City planned to construct a slaughterhouse a year ago in ward No. 12, where unscientific butchering of water buffaloes has been in practice but the project is in limbo due to the local residents’ protest.

A large-scale slaughterhouse was constructed around 15-20 years ago but it did not come to functioning yet.

Govt committed to press freedom: PM

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KATHMANDU, Oct 1 - Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba Sunday called for all concerned to formulate a policy on the press freedom in Nepal.

"The government is committed to grant freedom to media." PM Deuba said while inaugurating a national seminar on Media Freedom in Nepal in the Capital. If the press feels that there is no proper policy and they are barred from enjoying press freedom, PM Deuba said, the government is ready to formulate a new policy.

Addressing the seminar, which was organised by the International Press Institute (IPI), Nepal National Committee, PM added, "The Nepali press has no threat from the government but it is afraid of the Maoists and are forcefully writing in their favour. If the situation is like this now, how would they (Maoists) treat the press if they come to power?" he questioned the intentions of the Maoists.

But, the press should not be afraid of anything - neither the government nor the Maoists. It should write independently," said Deuba.

Speaking on the occasion, chairman of Kantipur Publications and member of advisory board of IPI-Nepal, Hemraj Gyawali said "The press should use the freedom of any kind in the national interest."

The press should go ahead by remaining within the frameworks of international norms and principles of press freedom, Gyawali added.

Addressing the seminar which was supported by Friedrich-Ebert Stiftung (FES), FES representative P Kharel said, "Our Constitution is the first in the South Asia region, which has well described about press freedom."

Chairman of IPI Nepal, Pushkar Lal Shrestha, urged the press to give solidarity to the government in the case of any national crisis, as the solidarity shown by the American press in the recent crisis of the United States.

Peer education can prevent HIV/AIDS

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KATHMANDU, Oct 1 –The peer education is the best way to prevent transmission of HIV/AIDS, said an expert here on Sunday.

"Peer education could prove to be the best way of preventing the transmission of the disease," said Wendy Arnold, President of Peer Education Programme (PEP), USA. "It would be very effective if sex workers educate the fellow sex workers and students relay the messages they get to their friends.

"HIV/AIDS is a disease, this is not a disgrace," Arnold said at the opening ceremony of two-week long workshop on "Train the Trainers" for the prevention of HIV/AIDS.

The workshop was jointly organised by National Federation of UNESCO Club in Nepal and Gandaki Sewa Samaj on Sunday.

She stressed on the need of more information on the prevention of HIV/AIDS and the need to educate youths on sexual habit and caution them about the risk of experimenting unsafe sex without proper knowledge on its consequences.

Speaking on the occasion, Khagendra Basnet, general secretary of National Centre for AIDS and STD Control said, "This kind of programme will surely help to avoid the perils that the younger generation, being the most vulnerable age group, is facing at the moment."

Statistics show that 67 per cent of the total people infected with HIV/AIDS positive are between the age of 14-29 years old.

Basnet also assured of launching "Needle Exchange Programme" in the near future to avoid spread of disease among the injecting drug users, which consists the major portion of HIV/AIDS patients.

Although the official statistics show that a total of 2,024 of HIV/AIDS positive cases are in the country, the World Health Organisation predicts that there are as many as 50,000 HIV positive individuals and among them 9,000 are cases of AIDS.

Call for proper attention to aged people

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KATHMANDU, Oct 1 - Older people of Nepal do not want to live at any old age home. A congenial environment should be created in the family so that old-aged people feel comfortable living in a joint family, a report says.

The report of participatory research on older people’s situation in Nepal, Budyoli Awaj, the Old Age Voices released on the occasion of International Elderly People’s Day held at British Embassy on Monday.

The report was a research conducted jointly by Nepal Participatory Action Network (NEPAN) with the coordination of Help Age International in the 15 districts, three districts in each development regions of Nepal.

The report categorized several perception about the basic needs of various income groups in the country. For instance, the poor people have indicated their basic needs are sufficient food, clothes and a house to live in. Whereas, the rich older people’s basic needs are seen as care and love from their family members.

Huta Ram Vaidya, the senior social worker and the research management committee chairman said that the society should reap the benefits from the experience of the young-old age-groups. He said, "Those age group who can still contribute to the society are the middle aged people and the present generation should learn from their knowledge and experience"

Vaidya also stressed a need of separate ministry for the old people. "There is a ministry for women, children and youth, but I have never heard of any politicians raising concern over the old people," he added.

Banjamin Schonveld, first secretary and the human right advisor of British Embassy said that the providing proper attention to the aging people is not just a problem of Nepal but it is also mounting everywhere in the world. He added, "We people can only envy the family bond found in Nepal which can hardly be seen in our country."

Dolkha festival kicks off

By Nitya Nanda Timsina

DOLKHA, Oct 1- A three-day Dolkha Tourist Festival was inaugurated here Monday amidst much fan-fare. Thousands of locals of this remote and terrain district thronged the tiny Charikot’s Tundikhel ground proclaiming the day in their century old cultural and unique traditional fashion.

The inhabitants of this historically popular for the country’s first silver coin economy also held rallies and colourful cultural programmes welcoming the guests. Sherpa, Tamang, Thami, Newar, Surel Jirel and the like displayed traditional and tribal dances and songs during the inaugural of the festival.

Notwithstanding the long distant-walk, on narrow and sleepery country-side roads, thousands thronged the district headquarters- Charikot to catch the glimpses of the festival looked with awe and inspiration here.

"Jhakris" belonging to a "Thami" community of Dolkha community were among the spectacular eye-catchers today.

Also present at the occasion were Temba Tsering Sherpa, world’s youngest Everest climber, who belongs to Dolkha, Swiss and Chinese tourists were also present.

Speaking at the inaugural session, various officials highlighted Dolakha’s magnificent landscapes and its towering mountains like Gauri Shankar and other historically famous, Bhimsen Temple, Buddhist Chaityas and a host of other locations.

Inaugurating the festival here, Mahesh Acharya, Minister for Agriculture and Cooperative said government is holding talks with Maoists to bring them under a negotiated settlement to create a conducive environment for Dolkha to promote tourism.

Acharya also said that Dolkha district will be announced as Tea District and electricity, water and other facilities will be given priority.

During the same, Kanchan Joshy, Director of Nepal Tourism Board, cited insecurity as the biggest bottleneck to promote tourism. " We will work fully for the promotion of tourist", adds Joshy. The scenes in the market places was one of the festivity and students holding banners and pla-cards commemorating the day.

Pemba Tsering was awarded an honourary letter by Minister Acarya in recognition for his outstanding performance.

Most speakers said that peace and security are vital for the development of tourism, particularly in Dolkha, which is being considered as one of the Maoist hit district.

In the function, Deepak Kumar Joshi, CDO of Dolkha cited the lack of IT development in the district and responsible for lack of information outside.

Keshav Sthapit, Mayor of Kathmandu Municipality, urged to open up sports tourism in Dolkha.

Society still detests Leprosy patients

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DHANGADHI, Oct 1 - The Leprosy Control Programme has been started in 17 districts of the country with a view to reducing the number of leprosy victims to less than one person among every 10 thousand by the year 2003.

The five-day programme has been started in 17 districts, including two districts in mid-western region, three districts in western region, six districts in central region and five districts in eastern region.

Policy-makers in health sector have expected that the special programme will prove useful in identifying the leprosy patients who remain hidden in the society for fear of having to bear the hatred from the society

Speaking at an inter-action programme organised here for the press by Netherlands Leprosy Relief (NLR) on the eve of launching the programme, Western Regional Director Dr Bhoj Raj Bhatta expressed the view that one of the main challenges facing the programme was to find out and cure the leprosy patients who were compelled to hide their disease due to fear that they would be despised and boycotted by the society.

At the inter-action programme with the press, which was attended by 15 journalists from Kailali and Kanchanpur districts, Dr Bhatta urged all concerned to make collective efforts to remove this disease from the list of main diseases affecting public health by the year 2003.

There are 3.4 leprosy patients in every 10 thousand people in Nepal while the rate of discovering new patients is 3.4 per 10 thousand populations. Of the total patients discovered, there is disability in 8.4 percent patients. According to National Convenor of Leprosy Control Campaign Dr Mangal Prasad Jain, there are 3.86 leprosy patients and 3.32 new patients per 10 thousand population in the Far Western region while disability is found in 11 percent new patients.

Kailali is one of the districts where the highest numbers of leprosy patients are found and where the programme has been introduced. A total of 378 teams have been constituted under the special programme in the 42 VDCs and two municipalities.

Every woman health worker and other health worker will visit from door-to-door in an attempt to detect the new leprosy patients. They will send them to the disease identifying centres for their examination and treatment, NLRB project Chief Sukh Lal Singh said.

Health officials say on the basis of their past experience that the rate of finding new leprosy patients was high during such leprosy control programmes.

During the 12-day-long campaign launched in 50 of the total 75 VDCs in Achham district in the month of Jestha (April-May) this year, a total of 900 suspected people were examined and 146 new leprosy patients found.

According to Dr Jain, a total of 11,696 new leprosy patients were found during the national leprosy control campaign launched all over the country in 1999.

Another problem that is generally encountered is that a large number of patients do not take medicines regularly. On the other hand the task of rehabilitating the patients who get cured was also no less challenging."This is a major challenge. Some of those who have been cured but are disabled are again maintaining their livelihood by begging. They have not been rehabilitated in the society," NR project chief Sukh Lal Singh said. To resolve this problem, both the civil society and the government should be sensitive, he added.