The Himalayan Times

Kathmandu, April 10, 2005

Home with a view
Balazs Szasz

In 1974, Marianne Grosspietsch, a German mother, came to Nepal on a three-week trek. Upon seeing the suffering in a leprosy station, she decided to adopt a young boy, Puskal, and take him home to Germany. Ten years later she returned with him to see his parents. Entering the small family hut, she encountered unspeakable suffering – the mother and father ruined by leprosy. The mother went up to Puskal, but couldn’t recognise her own son – leprosy had taken away her eyesight, her numb fingers couldn’t feel the face of her son and Puskal’s voice had changed from that of a boy to a man’s.

"There we were in that room, where for ten years every day a fresh flower was laid on Puskal’s photograph and all of us cried. In that moment, my purpose was revealed – Shanti," says Marianne. Marianne, now 61, is dharma in action; a woman stripped of needless formalities. She is an incredibly hardworking lady, who breathes life into souls who once gave up … people suffering from leprosy. They have become part of her dream that evolved into Shanti. The blossoming of Shanti started when Krishna Gurung took over as director. If Marianne is the space of Shanti, then Krishna is all its parts. This gentleman takes care of the daily task of implementing Marianne’s visions – adding to them naturally along the way. A born leader, worry constantly arches his eyebrows as he is aware of the dependency that encircles him. Together with the handful of irreplaceable Shanti family members, like Dr Singh, Sabitri-didi, Nama-dai, the medical and technical staff, they provide not only the groundwork enabling people to live but also the fearlessness to love and live with dignity, joy and grace. The foundation of Shanti (shanti-leprahilfe.de) lies in the "team", so well known in Kathmandu. Many of them, like Marianne and Krishna, hail from difficult backgrounds and their story underlines that Shanti is all about turning it around. "Many international aid agencies have unintentionally made beggars out of the leprosy patients, who receive and expect help just on the basis of their illness. Here they must believe that they can work and create. Changing this mindset has been our most difficult task," explains Krishna.

Shanti is a refuge, a colour-filled space that breathes creative expression. The centre in Gaushala is astonishing: sheltering and feeding as many as 500 people and providing a further 500 the dignity of a professional life. Another basic need fulfilled by Shanti is that of health – a free clinic has provided care and medicine to over 1,50.000 people thus far. Shelter, food and work are all recognised by Shanti as basic needs and people cursed by leprosy, polio, disability or "simple" hardships can try to build their life anew here, in the embrace of this "power place".

What sets Shanti apart from all other organisations is its holistic approach to the problems of the country and its people – accepting as basic need also the need for identity, and beauty. In this mad race, Shanti stops and puts its ears to the earth, and listens. This humble and open approach honours the spirit of the place and its people. Shanti is one of the rare charities that see the diamond in the soil, the ancient wisdom of Nepal: this valley and beyond. Surviving age-old methods, culminated wisdoms are usually eco-, people- and budget-friendly, for what evolves out of thousands of years of struggle has crystallised the very best methods to approach the job.

Shanti also simply can’t afford to run with the West, it patiently retraces the steps instead. For, as Marianne rightly points out, "you do not buy wisdom, you remember it." Shanti embraces all the people brought by leprosy to the capital as a myriad of precious seeds: traditions, cultures, religions and ideas. Shanti is thus a plethora of colour; a greenhouse sheltering and nurturing these exotic saplings in the rich soil of the valley. Through the appreciation of diversity, this microecosystem has grown into a magnificent Tree of Life, an euphemism for the place.