During the earthquake many of the schools in the Sindhulpalchok district were completely destroyed, at some of the schools even the land upon which the buildings had been is split/damaged and may not be able to be built upon again. Schools that have safe ground HandswithHands has helped where we can to build temporary structures to ensure classes can resume. Together with TEAM Nepal we have created a temporary student hostel to house up to 200 students that can attend Talamarang upper secondary school that now has well built temporary classrooms to accommodate a wider intake of students. We are thankful for the collaboration with More-than-Shelters (Daniel Kerber) for these specially constructed Domo tents that are durable and long lasting. As we envision this temporary hostel will into the future become a permanent residential hostel the dome tents are designed specifically to become permanent structures into the future. There is a full-time team living on the premises to care for the children and we have built a dedicated kitchen and dining area as well as toilet and shower facilities. This creates a safe place for children to continue their studies under the supervision and care of the local teachers of Talamarang school.
(Also a big thank you to the volunteer organisation www.hands.org/volunteer that helped with setting up the tents as well as clearing significant landslide obstacles to get the truck of tents on location!)

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In the Sindhulpalchok district the earthquake impact destroyed more than 85% of homes and schools. HandswithHands has been collaborating with communities and schools with the help of TEAM Nepal in this District for almost 15 years. Since the earthquake one of our key impact focus points has been schools and education – creating safe spaces for children to continue their education not only alleviates short-term trauma but it also contributes to the longer term health and well-being of individuals and communities.

In July we collaborated with Melamchi Valley campus, a college that offers bachelor degree in education and social sciences – essentially creating the next teachers in the district. Not only were the homes of most of the students destroyed but also their college books and materials. HandswithHands provided textbooks and notebooks for more than 200 students to continue their studies. In discussion with the college faculty in June, Kira understood the need to provide incentive for the students to continue their studies given the difficult circumstances post-earthquake. The cost of providing the essential textbooks per student was only €15 each. It may not seem much but for many of these people taking care of their basic survival given all that they have lost, textbooks simply were not high on the priority list. The provision of these textbooks has given the students motivation and hope for the future as well as a safe place to come together - that too is a healing development!

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Thankyou Sibjan Chaulagain and your continued heartfelt work in your community. It is with pleasure that I share with my friends the third temporary school building that you have helped to build. Many hands are needed to rebuild in Nepal and your efforts with Creating Smiles are doing really great work to ensure education continues even with the difficult situation post earthquake. I am a passionate and sincere believer that education makes a significant difference in the life of a child and their future. I know deeply how much education and giving back to your community has been your journey Sibjan and you are also such a wonderful teacher to many!! With your ongoing contribution in ICT in Nepal I can imagine you being a light for change - thank you bhai for all that you do .

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I have been learning new depths of patience and its accompanying vulnerabilities the last months, it is nice therefore to feel rewarded with some good news! This week our durable, sturdy Domo tents were finally released from the customs (thank you so much Neel & Bikash for all your amazing work to make this happen!) Thank you Daniel Kerber for your innovative Domo tent product! (http://www.morethanshelters.org/eng/) Our children at Bhaktapur Self-Sustaining Children Home in Sipadol village now have more space and comfort in their temporary home while we continue to take steps to rebuild/reengineer our damaged buildings that will take quite some months to accomplish given the continued aftershocks and consequent risks. A small step that took many hands – thank you all who have contributed! I also am truly thankful for the ongoing dedication of Riya, Rupak, Saroja and Amma as well as our house mothers, Jamuna, Moia & Gita for their hard work in taking care of 23 children in such difficult circumstances - I am thinking of you all every single day with so much appreciation!

I am sure I will develop further depths of patience in the months to come as I continue to collaborate with my Nepali friends in various rebuilding projects. The initial drama of the earthquake has passed, however the aftermath of rebuilding - not only homes but also infrastructure, schools, libraries and of course the economy will take time and continued support. Thank you to everyone who has contributed and helped in so many ways the last months, your contributions are continuing to be a gift in others lives .

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With the efforts of Sibjan & SMILES, 3 schools in Sindhuli district are now benefited by bamboo buildings that serve as temporary school rooms for children to continue their studies. Having children back in school is truly an important need – Education is a vital key for children to unlock their own potential and effectively engage in their communities, environment and society, to create healthy futures. Educating children, especially the encouragement of girls in schools, directly benefits entire future communities and the whole country of Nepal. Having no school for an extended period can mean many children will drop out of school and not return, leaving them open to exploitation and with fewer future options. Schools provide a regulated place for the children to be, especially as many of their family homes are not safe. Additionally, teachers and local community members associated with schools support children and parents to be aware of child trafficking dangers which is an increased risk post earthquake.

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Today happens to be exactly 2 months to the day after the Nepal Earthquake - I had not planned it this way but I ended up at our Bhaktapur Self-Sustaining Orphan Home at exactly the same time, sitting outside eating fruit playing with the children as we were on April 25th Saturday at same time as the quake ... this time however there was no earth shaking! The only shaking was from dancing & laughing! Our building is very damaged & we are in the process of evaluation with engineers for repairs which will take some months to undertake as we have quite extensive work to be done to ensure we are super earthquake proofed!! Meanwhile we are sorting out additional temporary shelter support to make these next months of monsoon more comfortable

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Having spent now some days here in Nepal, in Kathmandu valley plus days out in Sindhulpalchok District I am feeling powerfully moved. Thankful to return & see the resilience of the Nepali people plus also feel & see the devastation present still. Yet as we drove yesterday through the monsoon rains there appeared a rainbow & this reminded me that after every storm is a new beginning as the sun returns - I am thankful to be connected to so many, many Nepal friends & communities directly supporting one another during this time & feeling thankful to be a bridge for many helping hands around the world as we support schools & families to rebuild not only their homes & schools but also their dignity, livelihoods & optimism. I spent the last few days sharing heart to heart with school principals & community leaders in 17 schools - 90% of their buildings are gone - yet their determination to support in their communities very alive & strong! In the coming days/weeks I will be sharing more about how we all can be of support - in this moment I share simply a few pictures that for me captured some of the spirit of resilience the past few days ... 
(continued support welcomed: www.handswithhands.com)

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This update is from our Hands With Hands Microcredit coordinator, Shila Pandey, who has been visiting different locations in the Chitwan District. The people most affected by this recent earthquakes are frequently those who are already in need of support. Our microcredit program the past 11 years has been targeted towards the most needful women in rural areas in Chitwan district, the effect of this earthquake motivates us more passionately to support & evolve healthy solutions, particularly for women and children, this will be a long-term process of step by step supporting to rebuild homes & livelihoods, along with schools.

This note is Shila's words: " Yesterday I went to another VDC of Chitwan, The name of this VDC is Other, where was so many houses and school are destroy - I have some pictures houses and school. We organised health campaign also and we distributed some daily uses things for women who gave a birth 1 year before child. And the conditions was very critical, some of child are suffering from disease of nutrition, we distributed some sorbotam lito which is full of nutrition food for child. And we organised health team and some medicine also to help women and children. In that VDC which place name is Yauralitar. "

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More than 24,000 schoolrooms in Nepal have been completely destroyed, and thousands more badly damaged. We are currently supporting building of temporary schoolrooms in various locations in Nepal. Ensuring that children can remain in school is of vital importance for their physical and mental well-being. The rebuilding of schools will be a big part of handswithhands ongoing contribution in the next months/years in Nepal. Here is a short view of some efforts underway already, along with the happy faces of children returning to school! More news to come soon on our outreach with schools!

Nepal Army helping local community members in building temporary buildings

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Slowly Rebuilding our Future

Our Children in Bhaktapur Children Home in Sipadol are doing amazingly well given what they have experienced - being right in the midst of main impact. Our beautifully almost finsihed *Home" building was badly damaged in the earthquake. Thankfully we were all safe and the building was safe enough for us to not be hurt in any way, but it is not any longer a livable building. We are currently having full engineer evaluation on rebuilding/repairing - whatever outcome it will be a very big and expensive task. Plus it will not be possible until after the monsson period (June- September) as not only is the government restricting building the nature of the heavy rains will restrict us as well. We have arrving this next week two very large monsoon safe shelters from *More-than-Shelters* that will provide a safe space for our children and staff to live the next months during monsoon plus our repairing/rebuilding time. In the very short-term, we have made a wonderful cosy space of our animal house which was still "safe" and therefore we have shifted our animals out and remodeled to be our *home*! I feel very close with our children as I was with them durign the earthquake .. out staff are being amazing in their care for the childrne int he compromised situation - I have not enough words to express their dedication!

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