Nell's initiatives to expand our agriculture in our Talamarang Children Home are truly evolving. We now have a greenhouse and our staff (and interested children!) are trained in seedling development to create more options for our farm. Neel is always engaging our children to learn practical skills that will benefit their future lives. The monsoon has been heavy this year – and some benefits are spontaneous waterfalls to enjoy in the nearby nature.
What a great way to celebrate Earth Day 2017 - by visiting our building projects in Sindhulpalchok, one of the most affected regions in the 2015 earthquake, with a good news story of our Earth based rebuilding projects that are being made from Earth, literally.
Our key points in this after-earthquake-building project are: 1) “On the job training" to skill local villagers to build their own homes - giving them the tools and skills they need to build safe. 2) Use of local materials - earth/mud, bamboo/wood as much as possible to enhance sustainability & reduce costs. 3) Earthquake resilient building technology, easy to learn and use. 4) Meeting government approvals & engineering requirements (enables villagers to access government grants for building). 5) Providing culturally appropriate building styles that look great!
A big thank you to Nripal Adhikary & his team at Abari for doing all the technology ground work & ongoing supervision for this type of rebuilding in Nepal. And a big thank you to Neel, Bikash & Rajan of TEAM Nepal for their local coordination and implementation of this initiative.
Over the past 17 years being involved with children and education here in Nepal I have come to deeply appreciate the value of educating children. Not only can it transform the life of the individual but it also has an impact on their whole family and wider community. Ultimately having a positive effect on the entire country as engineers, doctors, teachers, dentists and innovators emerge.
I have personally helped several children through school sponsorship and higher college/university education – the resulting responsible young adults are now working and giving back to their communities. This uplifts my heart and deepens my understanding that giving children the gift of education does make a positive difference and it is a gift that keeps on giving. Now as the number of children I have been helping the past years has been increasing and as some are now entering into higher level of studies I need help with extra funds to ensure their education options. If you would like to be part of helping a child fulfill their potential and dreams then please message me or make a contribution/donation as below. If you have knowledge of organisations/foundations that maybe able to help please pass this request onwards or be in touch with me directly - thank you! I founded “HandswithHands” into a charity, as I know it takes many hands working together to build better futures for all of us!
Account name: Hands with Hands e.V. Bank: GLS Gemeinschaftsbank eG ( address: Christstraße 9, 44789 Bochum, Germany) IBAN: DE46 4306 0967 1135 8729 00 BIC: GENODEM1GLS Tax receipts for EU are possible just include your name & address PayPal is also possible for donations: "send" funds to kira@handswithhands.com
Our Annapurna Children Home celebrating Nepali New Year 2074 with Kira Kay and the student of Manipal Medical College.
Our New Years Day has been a joy to share with the students at Manipal Medical Teaching College who arranged a fun program for us. They organized games, prizes & snacks - plus being medical students a check up especially of teeth. Then an afternoon of dancing, inspirations, ice cream and delicious dinner - May this whole 2074 be filled with joy, laughter & inspirations!
Kira Kay with children at Bhaktapur Children Home having painting fun during school holidays.
Some school holiday fun! Our Bhaktapur Orphan Home house has been structurally fully repaired now post earthquake - but cosmetically it needs some loving - what better way to start than with pots of paint and many hands all together. It may not be 100% professional but it is 110% full of love & laughter & paint spotting!!
This is a heartfelt call out from Kira Kay for funds to keep our projects active and supporting children, women and communities in Nepal. Any amount small or large is VERY welcomed! see below on how to donate
I am once again in beloved Nepal - even with all the dust, horns and intermittent electricity I feel totally at home - I think all the friendly smiles, warm welcomes & heartfelt practical efforts of my Nepali friends makes my heart fill with gratitude & love. In this first few days I have already had some glimpses of the continued (wonderful!) efforts post earthquake & our ongoing women & children projects illuminating the positive results. However, we are in urgent need of additional funding to keep these projects active - so this is a call out to all my dear friends if you could please !! help, small or large amount VERY welcomed! You can be assured every cent is well used and accounted for - if you wish for further information please message me directly.
Account name: Hands with Hands e.V. Bank: GLS Gemeinschaftsbank eG ( address: Christstraße 9, 44789 Bochum, Germany) IBAN: DE46 4306 0967 1135 8729 00 BIC: GENODEM1GLS tax receipts for EU are possible just include your name & address
Congratulations to Sibjan Chaulagain who with his innovation with information technology for farmers has been part of one of the most innovative entrepreneur start-up initiatives the past months - Rockstart Impact program. Coming up soon will be all the participants presenting their business plans and ideas in Amsterdam, Netherlands March 16th when they will present to public audience and potential investors to helpful social impact organisations in Nepal working to solve real needs. This clip below is a quick glimpse of the different people selected (including Sibjan!) and here is a link to Sibjan speaking directly on his "farmers first" initiative
The basis of our eco-rebuilding is using compressed earth bricks. We are using the technology refined by Abari and their own made machines and their advising on how to make the right mix of clay/soil to produce quality strong bricks. Our brick production has begun! More than 10,000 bricks have already been made! The training on how to make the foundation safely and earthquake resilient begins this next week weather permitting. The training will encompass all aspects of the building to enhance local building knowledge with modern structural information.
Our second microcredit location in Sivanagar village held their AGM with a lot of smiles and good feelings! The women now fully manage the financial structure – Savings and Credit cooperative - We have supported them with training and guidance to be able manage the daily activities and yearly audits required to complete an AGM. All our microcredit initiatives are registered with the appropriate financial bodies within the relevant district within Nepal and we aim to ensure the structures will last into the long-term. Our most recent initiative in Syandi village is now fully registered and first loans have been disbursed to women wishing to start their own entrepreneurial activities after our provision of initial skills training... more news to come when I visit them in April 2017.
Our project with Team Nepal and Abari to enable villagers to rebuild their own homes safely is underway! The on-the-job training is happening while building a two classroom building at Gyaltham, Melamchi tertiary Campus where we are co-creating with the villagers a tool library/workspace that will continue past the building to enable the villagers to access tools along with the knowledge to rebuild safely. We have now obtained all the relevant government permissions and clearances and our Team has been busy purchasing the tools that will be required. We are all very excited with the community participation project in Sindhulplachok district, one of the most affected districts from the 2015 earthquake, where very little rebuilding has occurred. Our hope and vision is that giving the knowledge and tools to the local villagers, as well as our encouragement, we can be an active part of healthy rebuilding efforts.
