Nepal Earthquake Appeal

 

The Nepal earthquakes of April / May 2015 killed more than 9,000 people and injured a further 23,000. Hundreds of thousands of people were made homeless in an instant and many villages were cut off from the outside world. The scale of this natural disaster, along with the knowledge that Redspokes’ own guide, Ox, had had his family home damaged, prompted us to raise an emergency appeal for help.

 

Initially we hoped to be able to help Ox's family rebuild their home but, as ever, the response from our friends and supporters has been truly amazing. Despite raising our appeal’s target figure twice (we initially hoped to raise just £2500) the money continued to roll in and we were faced with a new challenge: how best to spend these extra funds responsibly and in keeping with the charity’s ethos.

 

Our initial response has been twofold. Firstly, and most urgently, we have been involved in the distribution of food and other emergency aid to villages in the Bhaktapur region. This included sacks of rice, beans, toiletries, soap, utensils etc. There was even a chance for a little impromptu entertainment for the children, some of whom were still very traumatised.

 

Secondly, we have also given a portion of the money to Ox as we know that many of our donors were especially concerned for his situation. He is using this to rebuild their home and to help others within his immediate community. 

 

Further to this we have been researching options for making a more lasting contribution to the rebuilding effort. This has been a little difficult at times with so much of the road and communications infrastructure taken out, but we believe we have found an exciting and extremely worthwhile project to sponsor. This is currently being costed and details confirmed with the community, but we hope to be able to give more details very shortly - so please watch this space!

 

In the meantime, our heart-felt thanks once again to everyone that has donated so generously and to those that have helped and advised us on the Nepali side.

 

 

Special thanks:

 

We are very grateful to Mandip Poudel of Rotaract Nepal and Punya Lageju for their early help and guidance, and in particular to Steve Colligan and Pranay Raj Shakya. Steve may be known to some for his epic journey across Nepal on a unicycle in 2008 to raise money for Nepali causes, while Pranay is a committed Nepali humanitarian currently studying in Liverpool. Both Steve and Pranay have been working in partnership with us on this campaign and are instrumental to its success.

 

For more information about Steve’s work in Nepal see: http://www.unicyclesteve.com/