BLIND Nepali people could learn essential skills and help to break down a tragic social stigma with the help of a new charity set up by two Ilkley residents.

Ron and Sue Ainsley, of Ilkley Healing Centre, hope they will not only give people new hope of supporting themselves, but could also tackle the terrible inequalities suffered by many blind people living in Nepal's most traditional communities.

The Nepali-registered charity, Seeing Hands Nepal, aims to give blind people a trade they can use to ensure their own survival, by teaching them therapeutic massage. The Ainsleys are appealing for help to raise the thousands of pounds needed to build a small training centre in the city of Pokhara.

It is hoped that by five years' time, the venture will become entirely self-supporting.

Mr Ainsley explained to the Gazette how blind people are not only considered as being incapable of work by many in Nepal, but they are also shunned by society.

It is not uncommon for the mother of child who goes blind to be divorced by her husband and to become an outcast - even if the child's blindness was accidentally or caused by a non-hereditary condition. Little employment is available for blind Nepalis and the average life expectancy of a person who becomes blind in rural areas of Nepal is just three years.

Unfortunately, because of the widespread poverty in the Himalayan kingdom and subsequent lack of access to medical care, curable or preventable medical conditions frequently result in a person becoming blind.

Among the worst horror stories to come out of isolated parts of Nepal, include tales of blind children being unable to walk because their parents tie them up for long periods, believing they would otherwise injure themselves if they were free to walk.

Such is the stigma attached to blindness, as partially-sighted or totally blind Nepalese people are known to pretend they are sighted. One of the students the charity is working with, Sarita, wears spectacles despite being blind.

And while it is commonplace for people to give help to Sadhu holy men, who choose to live a poor religious lifestyle and beg for enough to sustain themselves, they will not give to blind people who do the same. At least one in three Nepalis is believed to be blind or visually impaired.

Four students, two young men and two young women, have been selected to learn the trade of therapeutic massage. It is hoped they will establish themselves, learn physiotherapy, and then teach other blind people in need.

"They're amazing given what disadvantages they have to start off with," said Mr Ainsley. "They're relatively confident and they look after themselves. They understand this is their biggest opportunity."

The road to becoming self-sufficient will not be easy however.

The Ainsleys believe Nepalese people may continue to be reluctant to pay for massage from a blind person, but there is a huge and largely untapped market for treating the many tourists who visit Nepal's stunning landscape each year.

The ultimate goal is for the trained masseurs to convince society that they can work, and should be treated as equals.

The students chosen for the first round of training lack confidence, say the Ainsleys, particularly the women. There is no gender equality in traditional Nepalese society, so blind women are more severely disadvantaged than blind men.

The scheme is not unique - other Asian states promote or even limit therapeutic massage as a profession for blind people - but there has been no state intervention to do this in Nepal. The Ainsleys say the increased sense of perception which blind people have makes them ideally suited to learning therapeutic massage, and the practice is widespread in South East Asia.

There are said to be more than 40,000 practising blind or visually-impaired massage therapists in China and in Taiwan the profession of massage is actually reserved for the blind alone.

Seeing Hands Nepal is currently working under the Nepal Association of the Blind. The Ainsleys hope that Wharfedale businesses and individuals will be able to help raise they money they need to get the charity running. Only £10,000 is needed to build the centre, and running it is expected to cost just a few thousand pounds each year.

To find out more about the organisation, or make a donation, check the website at www.seeinghandsnepal.org, e-mail info@seeinghandsnepal.org or send a cheque payable to Seeing Hands Nepal to Ilkley Healing Centre, 8 Nelson Road, Ilkley, West Yorkshire, LS29 8HN.