Levi Gershkowitz a Hightstown resident is listening to the shifting winds, listening for what they hold for him and the Nepali-speaking Bhutanese new to Trenton, NJ.
Levi hopes some of you will jump onto CarvingKaruna http://carvingkaruna.wordpress.com/
which is a blog Levi recently started. It serves as a good portal into where he is right now and where he is headed. Levi is planning a return trip to Nepal at the end of November. He will be working on behalf of Friends of Nepal-New Jersey as a Goodwill Ambassador. If you are not yet familiar, karuṇā is the word used in the Pāli and Sanskrit languages for “compassion”.
The major project he will be focusing on in Kathmandu is the development of a vocational training program for incarcerated women. Because harsh social norms in the Nepali caste system have not yet been lifted, women who are convicted of a crime and receive jail time are often disowned from their families and unable to return home after completing their sentence. By default, groups of these women form new communities where they are targeted for human trafficking or working in brothels. FONNJ is working in collaboration with Nepal’s first female Supreme Court Justice to establish a vocational training program that teaches women viable skills, such as weaving and knitting, to be used in and out of penitentiary. While in prison, the money that is generated from the sale of their goods will be deposited into a co-operative fund, then used to help the women upon release build new homes, grow food and have access to other necessary resources. Some of Levi's tasks will involve meeting with the Supreme Court Justice of Nepal, visiting with female prisoners to conduct interviews and writing grants specific to the needs of developing a vocation training program and a physical building to function as a resource center.
As Levi prepares for this trip he is learning the language and positioning himself for the important work to be done in the months ahead. Learning about the Lhotsampas (Nepali-speaking Bhutanese) is new territory for him, as he expands his understanding by spending time with families who have been resettled within the past three years to Trenton, NJ.
In 1991, the Bhutanese government forced out one sixth of the country’s population. 105,000 of those people fled to their previous homeland, Nepal, only to be denied the same rights their ancestors held 100 years prior. The Lhotsampas are an ethnic group of Nepali-speaking Bhutanese who have lived for two decades in refugee camps outside of Kathmandu. In 2008 the IOM initiated a resettlement program which successfully moved 10,000 Lhotsampas out of the camps after its first full year. This past August, IOM announced that the number of resettled refugees has now passed the 50,000 mark. Of course, the needs of these people do not stop after they have been documented and transported to a new country. Though there are few, some local organizations (Friends of Nepal-New Jersey) www.fonnj.org are working to raise the necessary awareness and resources to help this growing population. In Trenton alone, another 50 families are expected to arrive within the next year.
