Secrets of the Gurkha Suitcase is an online school resource kit designed to help KS2 (ages 7-11 yrs) children understand a little of the background of Gurkha soldiers based on our oral history interviews with the Gurkha veterans in Gurkha Stories. Browse on below for our recordings and downloadable teachers’ resource kit…

They can learn about Nepal and discover through the postcards (and recordings) of Shiva and Umesh what it was like to grow up in a very poor part of the world, where most children worked in the fields and tended animals and very few went to school. They will hear about the games and sports Shiva and Umesh played, and the religious festivals in their village. They will meet (and make) a Galla Wala (Gurkha recruiter) who will interview the village teenagers to see if they are suitable for the British Army. Finally they will look at and draw the things left behind in the Gurkha suitcase and consider why they are so precious to Umesh.

The school resource kit is available from here:

Teachers’ Toolkit

Students’ Toolkit