ODD, if true. ?? Gurkha Welfare

[Sir William]

There has been a proud 180+ years of service by the Gurkhas. They, as a unit have been awarded 13 Victoria Crosses. They say it would take TWO weeks to observe a minutes silence for Gurkha casualties in WWII alone. The Gurkhas are now serving along with coalition forces. Honour and duty mean something to the Nepal Gurkhas. I was made aware today that many of the retired, wounded, ill and destitute Gurkha ex-servicemen and their dependents don't have services as compared to U.S. veterans. The brochure asked for money. It was rather like a "sponsor a Gurkha" for X amount per month. Is there anything to this? I should think that these old Riflemen would be taken care of by their government or have a British pension. Anyone know?

 

[Hal]

http://www.army.mod.uk/brigade_of_gurkhas/

Check it out.

 

[Sir William]

I did. The "charity" that was soliciting is NOT found. Thank you!

 

[Hal]

Hopefully it's a legit charity.

My personal belief is that some of these so-called charity's have a special place in hell reserved for them....

 

[Double Naught Spy]

Don't you love the hype? At a minute of silence for each, it would take TWO weeks to observe a minutes silence for Gurkha casualties in WWII alone. That is just a colorful way of saying they had a little over 20,000 casualties.

Was the organization soliciting money the Gurkha Welfare Trust? It is legit according to information found via the address provided by Hal. You can find the link by clicking on Associated ORGS or see the following...

http://www.army.mod.uk/brigade_of_gurkhas/useful_contacts/gurkhawelfaretrust/index.htm
http://www.gwt.org.uk/

While I did not find the original text there, I did find the text here on page 4... http://64.233.179.104/search?q=cach...nce+for+Gurkha+casualties+in+WWII+alone&hl=en

It is from an ad in a magazine that is for the GWT.

 

[Sir William]

OK. I did check further. It is legit. They are a licensed charity. I had not heard of a "adopt a Gurkha" program before.

 

[croyance]

I would have expected that the Gurkhas received a pension for being mercenaries for the British.

 

[Hal]

They are a licensed charity.

Still be careful. A lot of these *legit* and *licensed* charities are just a charity in name only. See if you can find out how much of your contribution ends up where it's supposed to, and how much is siphoned off for "administrative" and/or "operating" costs.
You can contact them directly and flat out ask them. By law (IIRC) they have to provide the information to you.

I'm sorry if I sound jaded. It's just that the Christmas season seems to bring out the worst in some people. There's usually a flood of requests for contributions this time of year. They either play on sympathies, or play up to greed (tax write-off).

One of the few good things that old bag of wind Dear Abby (or maybe the other hack?) did was expose a number of so called charities for using funds to cover large salaries.

Personally, my wife and I only "give" to Amvets and Toys for Tots,, and once in a while the Salvation Army.

 

[Double Naught Spy]

Uh, Hal, those are the risks you run with donating $ to any charity and in some cases, donating goods.

 

[Don Gwinn]

I would not be surprised at all. If you check the HI forum at http://www.bladeforums.com or http://www.himalayan-imports.com you'll see a lot of material about the poverty of the Nepalese smiths who work for and with Uncle Bill. Bill's father-in-law is a retired Gurkha himself, and by our standards he doesn't seem to live the high life. By Nepalese standards, though . . .