Help Nepal Network receives NAREC award Help Nepal Network (HeNN) -- a global charity run by Nepalis and friends of Nepal?has been awarded the Nepal Council for Economic and Development Research (NAREC) award for the year 2005. Dr Ram Sharan Mahat, handing over the award to HeNN chairman, Arun Singh Basnet, amid a function in Kathmandu on Saturday, June 25 05. Former Finance Minister and Nepali Congress leader, Dr Ram Sharan Mahat, handed over the award to HeNN chairman, Arun Singh Basnet, amid a function in Kathmandu on Saturday. Set up simultaneously in Nepal and UK in 1999, HeNN has now got networks in around one dozen countries around the world including Australia, Austria, Canada, Ireland, Italy, Russia, Sweden and USA. Addressing the function, Basnet said Help Nepal Network had mobilized an assistance worth Rs 3.371 million collected from the Nepalis residing overseas. He said local communities had chipped in labour and other contributions worth Rs 3.6 million to construct schools, health posts and other humanitarian activities by mobilizing this assistance. ?Whatever we have been able to do thus far, the credit goes to the local communities, Nepalis residing abroad and a strong and dedicated team of HeNN Nepal,? he added. The NAREC award carried a purse of Rs 10,000.00 besides a recitation. Basnet handed over the sum of the award to central committee member of Nepal Association for the Welfare of the Blind (NAWB) Purna Bahadur Karki to be utilized by a talented, blind student. The NAWB said the money will be provided to Masina BK, a blind student from Kavre, who passed her SLC exams in first division this year. Chairman of NAREC, Dr Chandramani Adhikary, said he was happy to be able to recognize the contributions made by Help Nepal Network in such a brief period. He said the Network needed to be thanked for bringing Nepalis wherever they lived in the service of the motherland. Dr Adhikary also presented a model, citizen?s budget for the year 2005-06 during the programme. The government is expected to present a new budget through an ordinance in the second week of next month. nepalnews.com by June 26 05 www.nepalnews.com