Report by Harsha Gautam, Tara Shrestha (Sydney),
Raju Shakya (Melbourne)
Nearly a dozen leading Nepali musicians toured Australia
last September to raise funds for various projects of HELP
NEPAL Network (HeNN).
The artistes, Nhyoo Bajracharya, Jems Pradhan, Nima Rumba,
 Deepak
Bajracharya, Mausami Gurung, Sujil Karmacharya, Gopal Rasaili,
Amul Karki and Indra Man traveled from Nepal at the invitation
of HeNN-Australia
From Australia itself, Sarun Tamrakar and
Dheeraj Shrestha were involved in the team.
Over three nights in Melbourne and Sydney
over two weekends, over a thousand people swayed to the beat
of contemporary Nepali music, folk songs and fusion music.
The foot-stomping dances drew people of all
ages to the dance floor. It was truly an entertainment of
the highest quality. The tabla recital by Dheeraj Shrestha
drew praises from many. Momo, alu achar, khasi ko masu and
chiura completed a memorable night-out for many.
The tour was a great success. It generated
funds for future HeNN activities. It made people aware of
HeNN. It was a celebration of Nepali music. It brought the
Nepalese community together for a great cause.
Every person who participated in this endeavour
with us will make a difference to the lives of many needy
people in a one of the world’s poorest country.
Background to the tour
The month of September marks a very important day in the
HeNN calendar. On a day convenient to HeNN chapters around
the world a particular day is earmarked to raise funds for
the HeNN’s many  charity
projects and is know as HELP NEPAL International Day.
Buoyed by the overwhelming successful fund-raising
event of 2005, the 2006 fund-raising activity aimed to be
bigger and better. An idea that cropped up during a casual
conversation at a small gathering has become a reality and
a great success.
The idea was to invite top ten contemporary
Nepalese artistes and musicians for live concerts in Melbourne
and Sydney. The sheer logistics in organising a tour of this
magnitude and complexity were a great challenge to the mere
four HeNN Sydney Chapter executives but the prevailing attitude
was “If we try and seek help from the community, we
can pull it off.”
It was still a very risky idea for a network
that does not have its own resources and the success depended
entirely upon the external factors on which we had very little
influence. A low turnout was always very probable.
However, such an event would provide benefits
at many levels: exposure and branding of the HeNN organization;
fund raising for its activities; opportunity for Nepalese
artists to travel and exhibit their talent; and, lastly and
equally importantly, it provides a fun-filled evening for
Nepalese community settled overseas.
It was to us an experience, a challenge and
a journey to achieve the above outcome. A favourable outcome
would serve as a fund-raising model that could be repeated
all over the world.
Lessons
Many valuable lessons have also been learnt.
We gained valuable insights into mobilising the greater Nepalese
community with different agendas, organising a live music
concert and fulfilling statutory processes for visa processing.
We also found that there we were naïve
to expect the full support and participation from everyone.
Our greatest disappointment was the lower than expected turnout.
There will always be sceptics who will choose not to participate
but this is more than adequately offset by the many enthusiastic
supporters.
Our success is a measure of our earlier stated
objectives. Foremost among our achievement we feel is the
composition of a theme song for HeNN. It is a work in progress.
When completed it will be audio-visual composition reflecting
HeNN’s objectives and projects which will be a powerful
medium for our promotion.
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