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!

 

The Earthquake in Nepal

We left Kathmandu approximately 2 weeks ago.  Exhausted and emotionally drained already, we saw the tragic earthquake in Nepal while watching the evening news.

Nepal News here: eKantipur

I wasn’t shocked.  This earthquake has been expected and warned.  It was my biggest fear while living in Nepal for the past 5 years.  We had been warned of an earthquake with 9 magnitude that would have flattened Nepal completely.

We were told to make copies of our passports and leave them in 3 different locations, 2 outside of the house.  Every room was supposed to have a metal bar to dig yourself out.  Each home needed an earthquake detector.  Every family living in fear.

I was living in an ignored paranoia while in Nepal.  We felt earthquakes often, especially while living in Pokhara.  We would wonder, “Is this was the ‘Big One'”?  But it never was and we went quietly about our day.

Was this Nepal’s ‘Big One’?

Now that we are sitting in New Zealand, we are being told of the Christchurch earthquake again and again. The first earthquake hit while everyone was at home sleeping, there was little damage and no casualties. Then TWO YEARS LATER the ‘Big One’ hit; mid-day, while everyone was at work, a lot of damage, a lot of lives lost.

How can anyone know if this is the ‘Big One’ or not?  I think Nepal has had at least 14 earthquakes in the last 48 hours.

My friends write that their nerves are shot; they are sleeping outside in the cold and rain for fear of their houses collapsing.  But all our friends are safe.  And since they are a part of a NGO in Nepal, they have quickly mobilized themselves to be first-responders.

My range of emotions in the last 48 hours:

• Relief that we are home in NZ, not in Nepal.
• Guilt that we are home in NZ, not in Nepal.
• Sadness at the lives lost.
• Immense pride in watching how Nepalis have banned together.  How our friends have quickly mobilized to help others.  No looting, no running amuck in Kathmandu, but a country of neighbors willing to dig through rubble to find a living soul.

Nepal is stoic.  Nepal is fierce.  Nepal is kind and hospitable.  This is Nepal, #tin.

I am sad for Nepal–but I see hope and grace even in this.  First, that the major earthquake happened on a Saturday.  Saturday is the only day off school.  Families were together.  And since Saturday is the religious day, most people were worshipping somewhere, either outside or in low buildings, not at an unsafe multi-story home.

The next few days we will see more tragedy as the number of lost lives may skyrocket.  Once the first responders reach the villages the true tragedy will be revealed–whole villages and people groups wiped off the map during mudslides.

Nepal has a long road of recovery ahead of them.  But the nations are responding.  Kindness is winning.  Nepal will endure this tragedy bound together with their neighbors to keep moving forward.

And I am a neighbor.  I can network, I can give, I can pray.

Please be a neighbor to Nepal.  Immediate needs are shelter, food and water– Tarps, Rice and water catchment systems.

You can give a tax-deductible donation through Cimarron, Colorado. They do not take an admin fees, 100% of the donation goes straight to first responder teams on the ground in Nepal.  Click here to give online: Give to Nepal via Cimarron, Colorado.