the beginning of
everything

"My initial work with The Esther Benjamins Trust involved rescuing innocent children from Nepalese prisons, children who had been imprisoned alongside parents in the absence of anyone else being willing or able to care for them. I set up a refuge that could offer this care and in December 1999, at the end of that tragic year, brought my first seven children out of Kathmandu jail (pictured above). I continued this work over the subsequent months, prison by prison, freeing around 30 children, while at the same time raising awareness through the media. My work was covered in international papers ranging from The Boston Globe to the Melbourne Herald Sun. In July 2000 I was profiled as cover story in the Weekend section of the Daily Telegraph. This coverage led to an avalanche of support and effectively launched the charity. I like to think this adverse exposure shamed the Nepal government into taking action (although I cannot prove cause and effect) and in November 2001 the government outlawed the jailing of innocent children.I In 2002 I shifted focus onto child trafficking, my charity being the first to research a hitherto unknown issue - the trafficking of Nepalese children across the open border into India to become "performers" inside Indian circuses. The children became slaves, trapped in de facto prisons, subject to physical, psychological and sexual abuse. Eighty percent of the children were girls with an average age of eight. Having done the research, we decided to do something about it. In 2004 I moved with my wife, Bev, to live in Nepal, so that I could head up a programme of rescues. This involved crossing the border into India and, in conjunction with the Indian authorities, removing the children from the circuses. These highly dangerous operations led to freedom for 350 children with a further 350 released voluntarily by the circuses in their bid to avoid bad publicity and the risk of prosecution."

Philip Holmes
CEO & Founder of Pipal Tree