KATHMANDU, FEBRUARY 26

Lieutenant General Richard Wardlaw OBE, Colonel Commandant Brigade of Gurkhas submitted the Brigade of Gurkhas Annual Report to the President Bidhya Devi Bhandari, incorporating the activities undertaken by the Brigade of Gurkhas throughout the year.

The report was presented to President Bhandari on Friday in presence of English Ambassador Nicola Pollitt, Brigadier The Lord Lancaster TD VR Deputy Colonel Commandant Brigade of Gurkhas, Colonel Paul Smith Defence Attache' and Commander BGN and Colonel David Robinson Colonel Brigade of Gurkhas, among others.

The Ambassador and the visiting team also paid courtesy calls to Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and Foreign Minister Dr Narayan Khadka, while the visiting team met with General Prabhu Ram Sharma Chief of Army Staff Nepal Army as well.

Meanwhile, the Chairman of the Gurkha Welfare Trust (GWT), Lieutenant General Richard Wardlaw OBE, has also handed over a newly built earthquake resistant house to veteran Kalu Gurung, 71, at Bansar village in Lamjung district, on 21 February 2022.

Kalu is the son of late Rifleman Padam Bahadur Gurung of 4/2 Gurkha Rifles who joined the British Indian Army in 1940 and was discharged on demobilization in 1946 without a standard army pension.

Late Padam Bahadur was one of the nearly four thousand beneficiaries who receive a monthly welfare pension from the GWT.

After the death of both of parents GWT continues to support Kalu, who has lack of hearing and ability to speak, by providing a monthly Disability Support Grant.

GWT has also started building new two room EQ resistant homes for the Gurkha veterans whose house were damaged during the massive earthquake in 2015 and so far, over 1,500 such homes have been built.

Moreover, it supports the wider Nepali community by installing clean and safe drinking water projects, funding school building construction and organizing specialist medical camps in the remote parts of Nepal.