Ex-child labourer promotes charity that rescued him

An ex-child worker rescued from a life of drudgery at the age of 10 by a West Cork schoolteacher is to spend weeks in Ireland highlighting the work of the organisation which saved him.

Nowadays he’s a university student and trainee social worker, but 10 years ago Bimal Gurung was a child servant who spent 16-hour days mopping floors, chopping vegetables, polishing shoes and shopping for a wealthy family in Kathmandu after his father died, leaving his family in poverty.

Bimal was among the first children to be rescued by an organisation set up by Clonakilty man and primary teacher Declan Murphy — in 2004 Murphy established just-one to help vulnerable children like Bimal in the Nepalese capital.