Rebuilding Nepal

I am so thankful for everyone who has given to our Sheltering Nepal rebuilding fund!  #HopeinHumanity

$1,000 has been raised which equals about 20 shelters built!  Each shelter can hold up to 5 families, that means at least 100 people have been helped through this giving!

I know many families are still suffering without shelter or food, but I am HOPEFUL that international neighbors and friends of Nepal are sharing their burden and doing more good than I will never know. Because we have seen such generosity, all the thousands of other people who are working hard to help Nepal, they must be making strides to.

Even though the rebuilding process will take time, the little moves we make forward together are life changing for those individuals involved.

I wish I had testimonies and stories to share, names and places of families being helped, but I don’t. And you know why? Because our friends are hard at work traveling and visiting those in need in villages.  They are tired, they are suffering through the heat of the monsoon and they honestly don’t have time to sit and communicate long stories to me…but I trust that lives are being changed! And when the time is right, I will hear those stories and pass it along!

Thanks for being a part of Nepal!  You can give or share our Sheltering Nepal fundraiser by checking it out on YouCaring.com. Click here to see the Sheltering Nepal fundraiser!

Please remember anytime you buy a My Color Friends paperback book, $5 will also go to this fundraiser for Nepali families!

Read more here: My Color Friends Book Titles

Help Build Shelters in Nepal Before the Monsoon Comes!

Let me begin by saying the BIGGEST THANKS to everyone who had read our stories, prayed for Nepal and has given so far! We are only able to move forward with YOU by our side!

Our Nepali friends (the ones that we have been bragging about!) in Hetauda, Nepal are now mobilized to build metal or tin shelters. Imagine a big piece of sheet metal wrapping around a frame to protect families from the monsoon rains. I hope to have pics soon!

1 shelter can house up to 5 families.

1 shelter costs about $60-100 for supplies

They ave a goal to build at least 60 shelters to house hundreds of people!

60 X $60 = $3600 USD + transportation costs = $4,000

Will you donate to shelter Nepali families?

The Monsoon is coming quickly in Nepal–sheets of rain for hours every day, until Sept…the focused building area is the hardest hit villages near the original epi-center, Gorhka, Nepal.

it is URGENT that shelters are built today!

please GIVE and SHARE. You can give through our online fundraiser here : Sheltering Nepal

100% of the donations will go to our Nepali friends who are organizing this project. They are all voluteers!

I am also Giving $5 from every one of our paperback books sold through us or the Shades of Grace Art Studio to thei sheltering project in Nepal!

Following the Earthquakes in Nepal

After Yesterday’s Aftershock, May 13, 2015

 

Nepal is on always our hearts.  We eagerly open Facebook to see how our friends are doing– are they still sleeping outside in tents?  Are they still afraid?  I decided the best way I could be of any help to Nepal is to try to encourage our friends there.  I have meager messages to send.  It’s not enough. But I want to give something.

All 400 of our friends in our shared NGO have been safe since day 1, but I am afraid they will experience burnout.  They are giving 100%.  They are also feeling the fear 100%.  Are they emotionally safe?  Can I say anything to encourage them, or are my words trivial?

I am hearing GREAT reports—

“We distributed 300 insulated mats and 300 tarps in 5 locations around Chiraudi. (Then) 1,176 tarps arrived in Gorkha from India and other places in Nepal. Distributed them yesterday (along with bags of rice, insulated sleeping mats and blankets) in several places in the mountains surrounding Gorka…” M.E.

“Five families will be able move from tarps to portable shelter (out of corrugated iron)
By tonight..and we are training others at the hospital on how to make the shelters…” P.P

“Today reached 123 people without house(s).” K.M.

“Distributed for 85 houses…”  P.D.

Our friends are giving themselves! They are in the best position to be able to give as they speak the language and they already have many connections in the villages most hit by the earthquake and land slides.  They are giving food, building temporary shelters for families, helping other bigger NGOs hand out supplies and donations, translating and coordinating within Kathmandu and the epicenter villages.  They are phenomenal.  I am so proud of our friends in Nepal!

From a friend in Nepal

I know the Kathmandu we once knew is now gone.  I am hopeful that once the rebuilding begins Nepal will think to the future, not just try to sort out the past.  The future is bright for Nepal as the global neighbors lend their helping hands.

We are trying to move forward with our life in NZ, renting a house, adjusting, connecting with friends here.  I’m not sure how to move forward.  I feel emotionally stuck in Nepal, and completely out of my depth in “normal” NZ life.  Somehow we have to keep moving forward.

NZ has always had a great tie to Nepal, mostly because of the New Zealander, Sir Edmund Hillary and the Nepalese Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay conquering Mt. Everest in 1953.   Nepal is still highlighted daily in the New Zealand’s 6 o’clock news.  Yesterday a Kiwi guy being interviewed via Skype from Nepal, said it perfectly, ‘Nepal has plenty of local people who can help and speak the language, they are the greatest asset now, we just need more donations to keep the supplies flowing…’

You can give a tax-deductible gift to our friends doing relief work in Nepal by clicking here:  GIVE TO NEPAL

Or give to your favorite NGO,

~We are hearing that the funds are no longer bottle-necked in the Nepali government, but going straight through to all the organizations.

 All I can pray is there will be triumph in Nepal.  This crisis will continue and continue and continue…but may there be triumph of the human spirit in the midst of destruction and uncertainty.  May the world keep looking to Nepal, keep giving, keep praying and keep hope alive for the nation!