Georgia Forrester
Rosie Heaton first learnt about the stark reality of burns violence through the words of a handwritten letter. While living in Pakistan, Heaton hired a nanny to help her look after her two young sons while her husband, Selwyn, was working with the United Nations.
On a return visit to New Zealand she received a letter saying her nanny had died after being doused in kerosene and had ‘tripped’ into an open fire.
‘‘I remember feeling powerless and shocked, I guess, because I hadn’t heard of that sort of stuff in New Zealand ... and I couldn’t do anything,’’ she says.
Now, 25 years later, Heaton is working for Burns Violence Survivors – Nepal, a charity based in Kathmandu that aids survivors of kerosene and acid attacks, attempted suicide and burns accidents.
The majority of victims the charity helps have third-degree burns to 25 per cent or more of their bodies.
‘‘Some of the stories are so horrific. Many of the victims are severely disfigured. We deal with domestic violence here in New Zealand, but this is like adding a whole other layer.’’
Heaton tells the story of a Nepalese woman called Janika who had been unhappily married for years.
‘‘Her husband complained that he hadn’t received enough dowry and to cut a long story short, she had kerosene thrown at her private parts and she was set alight. Her mother-in-law held her down. That would be one of the worst stories I’ve heard.’’
Heaton says Janika was also accused of being a witch.
‘‘The level of education in some of these remote villages is so low that they believe in witchcraft. They have the whole dowry thing, they’re married off at such a young age, and women are very much subjugated.’’
Heaton says growing up in Feilding, she knew about Sir Edmund Hillary, Mt Everest and the sherpa people. In the 60s and 70s there was something ‘‘magical and mystical’’ about Nepal. But she says back then there was little understanding of the Nepalese culture and the extreme poverty there.
She says there are about 55,000 burns accidents a year in Nepal – ‘‘how many people in New Zealand would know that?’’.
‘‘It’s heartbreaking to see the number of children that fall into open cooking fires – it’s just hideous. I have never come across so many vulnerable people before.
‘‘In New Zealand if you fell over into a burning fire, a whole lot of systems would come into place to support you.’’
She says there is no Government funding for any burns accidents in Nepal, so the work the BVS charity does is vital for the wellbeing of the Nepalese people.
The charity offers counselling and support around nutrition and recovery to victims of burns violence. It runs a burns prevention programme and an anti-burns violence programme, promoting education.
The charity encourages women to do computer work, sewing and candle-making classes to help them learn business skills that can be used for new beginnings away from their old lives of abuse.
Another woman Heaton met received burns to about 35 per cent of her body while trying to save her children from a burning wreck. Her husband had borrowed money to buy a business. He had to repay about US$50 a month but failed to meet his payments.
Whether it was desperation, frustration or anger, it’s unknown, but he set the family home alight with their three children in it. They were aged 6, 3, and 18 months. The woman raced in to her burning home and managed to save the life of her youngest. Her two older children perished in the fire.
‘‘That’s the kind of woman who has to get well herself, grieve for the loss of her two children, and worry about the other one that was severely burnt as well,’’ Heaton says.
The woman is back with her husband. Through the charity, she took part in vocational training in sewing and set up a small business back in her village.
‘‘Although it’s an incredibly depressing story, if there can be a good outcome then she’s at least tried to make one.’’
Heaton says in countries like Nepal, India and Pakistan, burning is a method used for suicide attempts.
‘‘There’s a woman who works at the [charity] office that tried to commit suicide by burning herself. Her life was incredibly depressing.’’
Heaton says many women can’t go back to their old villages and lives after traumatic physical and emotional abuse.
‘‘This is some kind of domestic violence on a whole new level – they don’t want to go back. They want to start again.
‘‘For many of them this is a new start. It’s a horrendous way to have to go about it, but it is a new start.’’
Since moving to Nepal in March, Heaton has seen the tough journey many burns survivors are trying to make to overcome the physical and emotional trauma they have endured.
She says the woman who tried to commit suicide has turned her life around and is now ‘‘completely inspirational’’.
‘‘She is one of the principal candle-makers, so she’s learning all of these business skills. She cooks for the staff at the centre and they all pay her.’’
For many women, particularly the burns violence survivors, they were married off at 14, 15, 16, so they have never had a life outside of the family home and their husband’s home. So for them there is a sense of liberation.
‘‘I think the way that they have turned their lives around is absolutely inspirational and it’s wonderful to feel that you’re part of that.
‘‘I just can’t get over how they cope with adversity. I think most of us would just crumble under the share weight of it.
‘‘It must have been a really tough journey to be lying in hospital in absolute agony, to then get to a point where you are starting your own business.’’
Heaton says while there are challenges in Nepal, it is a beautiful country with welcoming people.
She has done an array of ‘‘weird and wonderful’’ jobs over the years, from working for the UN in Afghanistan to helping charitable ex-pat causes. But for the Feilding girl at heart, volunteering to support and raise awareness of burns violence survivors is at the top of the list.
‘‘These people are just so vulnerable. So what I love is that I feel that there is potential there to actually make a real difference, not just tokenism.’’
❚ To learn more visit the Burns Violence Survivors charity website or donate via Givealittle.