Care home provider helps The Gurkha Welfare Trust

A South coast care provider is helping The Gurkha Welfare Trust to open a second residential home for ex-servicemen and their dependants in Nepal.

Retired Gurkha and manager-designate Punendra Limbu spent two days at Colten Care’s Braemar Lodge home in Salisbury. The trip enabled him to observe at first hand the operation and procedures of a busy and successful care home.

Punendra will take charge of the Trust's new £800,000 home in East Nepal when it is completed in 2013 that will house 26 residents and have a staff of 12.

Colonel William Shuttlewood, director of The Gurkha Welfare Trust, said: "We're very grateful to Colten Care, and Braemar Lodge Manager Alison Bremner, for giving Punendra the opportunity to spend a few days at Braemar Lodge.

"It is not only a great opportunity for him to learn new skills but also an example of the strong relationship of nearly 200 years between the Gurkhas and Great Britain."

The Gurkha Welfare Trust's first home was opened in West Nepal in 2010 and looks after 26 residents. Bishnu Pun, executive assistant at the Trust which has its Salisbury office in Queen Street, said: "The homes allow Gurkha ex-servicemen and widows to live out their lives in dignity."

Established in 1969, The Gurkha Welfare Trust is the lead charity for Gurkha welfare. The trust provides a monthly welfare pension of 5,000 Nepalese Rupees - about £40 - to over 8,100 Gurkha veterans.

The charity helps the veterans who served with distinction in the Second World War and were either demobilised at the end of the conflict or made redundant from the British Army in the 1960s and 1970s.

Image: Bishnu Pun (right) and Punendra Limbu show a model of The Gurkha Welfare Trust's first home in Nepal to Alison Bremner, manager of Colten Care's Braemar Lodge (second right) and deputy manager Jackie Cash