The Gurkha Welfare Scheme
The Gurkh Welfare Scheme (GWS)
The GWS is the field arm of the Gurkha Welfare Trust (GWT), a UK based charity. The GWS is based at Pokhara and is run on a day-to-day basis by the Field Director GWS and his staff.
The Field Director is a serving Brigade of Gurkhas Lt Col. He is supported by a Captain and several retired officers. Commander BGN is the Director of the GWS and answers to the GWT trustees in UK. The GWS is represented in the hills by 20 Area Welfare Centres (AWCs) spread across all the traditional recruiting areas.
There are 9 AWCs in the East of Nepal, 9 in the West, one in Kathmandu and one in Darjeeling, India. They are purpose-built and are staffed by an Area Welfare Officer, one or more assistants depending on the size of the parish, a medical assistant and one or more peons who act as cooks or runners.
It is this staff that investigates all claims for aid from ex-servicemen and frequently the circumstances of serving soldiers’ families. Aid dispersed by the GWS is directed to support ex-servicemen and their widows either individually with welfare pensions, hardships grants, medical grants and education grants or communally through projects such as water points, schools and suspension bridges.