A CHESTER business is improving lives in Nepal.

The GB Group, which employs more than 140 people on Chester Business Park, celebrated raising over £22,000 for a charity in the Southern Terai region of Nepal with a Nepalese Day.

During the last 18 months the company, which specialises in providing businesses with solutions to verify people’s identity, has been fund raising to support the Friendship Clinic Nepal, which provides medical facilities, kindergartens and now, thanks to the fundraising, a farm in the village of Meghauli in southern Nepal, called the Farm of Hope.

The company invited the Nepalese chairman of the Friendship Clinic Nepal, Hari Bhandary, to visit the company and receive a cheque for over £8,000 raised since last July.

Richard Law, GB’s chief executive, explained: “We chose to support the Friendship Clinic Nepal after we realised just how far our money could go to improve the lives of the people in Meghauli.

“For instance, when the farm cow that we paid for in 2007 gave birth to a female calf last year, the increased milk production meant we can now supply the village kindergarten with all the milk it needs – and the savings this represents paid for an additional midwife at the clinic.”

Three members of GB’s staff based in Chester recently returned from a trip to Nepal, to see first hand, the work that was being funded by the company.

“We wanted to see for ourselves just how the money we raise is being used and it was a very sobering and humbling experience,” said Richard.

“For the equivalent of £200 a month we can cover the costs of sending all the children in the village to a kindergarten where they not only receive an early start to their education but also learn about health and the importance of good sanitation and hygiene. They also receive a good, nutritious meal each day and this, in combination with better hygiene practices, has resulted in a dramatic fall in the number of medical cases coming to the village clinic.”

Gareth Drury, a business analyst at GB, visited the area in December.

He said: “The experience was fantastic and really brought home to me just how important it is – for us, as well as the Nepalese – to continue this sort of support.”