Town’s Nepalese community helps Afghan refugees

Ashford’s thriving Nepalese community has shown its generosity by raising money for the children of Afghan refugee families being housed in the area.

The money has been used to purchase laptops to help the children with their school work.

The laptops were gratefully received by Ashford Borough Council (ABC) to be passed to the Afghan children at a ceremony attended by representatives of the Sagarmatha Gurkha/Nepalese Community Ashford Kent (SGNCAK).

Dammar Singhak Limbu, senior vice chairman of SGNCAK, said: “When we heard about the many hardships that our Afghan friends have had to endure in fleeing for their lives from their home country, then our community in Ashford knew we had to do something to support them.

“We hope these laptops will help the children with their school work, so they can go on and build happy new lives for themselves in Britain.”

When Kabul fell there was a scramble to evacuate thousands of individuals and their families who had worked with the armed forces and British government.

ABC committed to rehome up to 10 Afghan families in the first year, as part of a government permanent resettlement scheme.

Separately, the Holiday Inn in Hothfield was chosen by the Home Office to temporarily house Afghan families while

efforts continued to find them permanent homes in the UK.

At any one time there are around 140 Afghan men, women and children living at the hotel.

The children are in local schools and the laptops will be distributed among these youngsters.

The support for the Afghan children is not a one-off for the Gurkha community. In the past 18 months they have raised almost £7,000 for the NHS.

Cllr Gerry Clarkson (Con) accepts the laptops from Dammar Singhak Limbu of SGNCAK; looking on are Cllr Jenny Webb, ABC CEO Tracey Kerly and SGNCAK’s Ka Prasad Chantyal