Duchess of Edinburgh follows in King Charles’ footsteps at Nepalese refuge
The Duchess of Edinburgh has followed in the footsteps of the King by visiting a Nepalese women’s refuge, where she was given a handmade gift to take home for the monarch in honour of “the lives he has touched”.
Maiti Nepal, which supports survivors of human trafficking, sexual exploitation and gender-based violence, has rescued more than 3,600 women and girls and intercepted some 52,000 trafficked women and children since it was founded in 1993.
During her visit on Wednesday, the Duchess, 60, spoke to Anita Shrestha, 32, who met the King, then Prince Charles, during his visit to the Kathmandu hostel in 1998.
Then, Ms Shrestha was just a child of five but the royal visit made a lasting impression.
She presented the Duchess with a handmade embroidered cushion to give to the King, alongside a picture of them together.
The Duchess said: “I will take it for him.”
Crouching down to chat to her, she added: “I will take it to King Charles from you. I’ll give that to him with your love. He’ll love this, he’ll be very happy when he gets it.”
She then asked: “Did you make this? It is beautiful, you’re very clever. How long did it take?”
Ms Shrestha told her it took her three months to complete.
Ms Shrestha also sent the King a photograph taken when they met and a handwritten letter in which she told him that the picture “fills me with warmth”.
She said she was now a handicraft artisan, specialising in cross stitch, and had made the cushion as a token of her appreciation.
In the letter she wrote: “Please accept this gift, made with gratitude and respect, as a reminder of the lives you have touched.”
The Duchess was also given two placemats and coasters hand embroidered with the UK and Nepal flags, one for her and one for the King.
Two other residents, Pampha Adhakari and Pusba Thapa, said they too remembered meeting Charles during his visit, prompting the Duchess to say: “Well, he’s still the same.”
The King’s visit, almost 27 years ago to the day, made a lasting impression on him, too.
He spent time chatting to the girls who lived there, of whom 90 per cent were HIV positive or had sexually transmitted diseases.
After hearing their stories, he described founder, Anuradha Koirala, as “an angel of mercy” and promised he would keep in touch with the project.
He kept to his word and a few months later, sold 500 copies of one of his watercolours to raise money for the refuge.
The paintings, of the Annapurna Himalayan mountain range, were sold for £150 each via The Sun newspaper, which also printed a letter from King Charles telling of child trafficking and prostitution and the “selfless dedication and sacrifice” of Ms Koirala, who, he said was “living under constant threat of retribution”.
Almost three decades later, as his sister-in-law retraced his steps, she too met Ms Koirala, who still runs the refuge and showed her a photographic exhibition of the King’s visit.
The Duchess asked Ms Koirala: “Is this on the same site? It’s so lovely, do you know how many people have you helped over the years?”
Pausing for a moment, she replied: “Thousands.”
“That’s incredible,” the Duchess said, as she affectionately touched her arm.
Both the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh are making their first-ever visit to Nepal for a six-day tour to celebrate its close ties with the UK.
The Duke went to the Unesco World Heritage Site in Bhaktapur, visited in 2016 by the Duke of Sussex after it was damaged extensively in the 2015 earthquake.
Prince Edward was shown how the historic monuments have largely been restored since then.
Later, the couple attended a youth-focused reception at the British ambassador’s residence where the Duchess wore a floor-length green and blue patterned dress as the pair arrived in the light-festooned garden.
On Wednesday, the Duchess focused on her key causes, with engagements highlighting maternal care, supporting victims of sexual violence and championing women’s rights.
Her first stop was Bhaktapur Hospital’s maternity wing, where she visited mothers and their newborns, telling one new mother: “I want to hold them all.”
She also visited Dwarika’s Hotel, where she was welcomed by the owners with a flower garland, and shown some of the hotel’s famous wood carvings. Over a private lunch, the Duchess met prominent Nepalese women and change-makers representing excluded communities and promoting women’s and girl’s rights.
Later, the Duchess, who is global ambassador of the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness, hailed the “life-changing” work of the Kirtipur Eye Hospital.
Later this week, the Edinburghs will take in the beauty of the Himalayan nation when they travel to the village of Ghandruk, perched in the foothills with views of the Annapurna range.
They will also attend the Attestation Parade for new Gurkha recruits at the British Gurkha camp in the lakeside city of Pokhara.
It marks young Nepalese service personnel formally joining the British Army and celebrates the long tradition of collaboration between the two nations.
Over the past year, the Duke and Duchess have cemented their roles as dependable figures in the slimmed-down working monarchy when The Firm was left further stretched because of the King and the Princess of Wales’s major health troubles.
Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, the late Duke of Edinburgh, visited Nepal in 1961, when they rode on elephants to watch a tiger shoot arranged for them by King Mahendra of Nepal in a jungle near Kathmandu. They returned to the country in 1986.
George V was pictured tiger shooting in Nepal in 1912.
But the last major royal visit to the now-republic was by the Duke of Sussex.
The Duke made an official trip to Nepal in 2016 to mark the bicentenary of the Nepal-UK relationship, four years before he stepped down as a senior working royal.
He travelled to regions affected by the devastating 2015 earthquake and extended his five-day trip to help a disaster response charity rebuild an earthquake-destroyed school.
