Wholehearted & warmest THANK YOU – DANKE – DHANYABAD
Many of you receiving this note have written personal messages along with your donation to help us in Nepal. These messages have been so heart warming and are motivating and encouraging me to keep in action, as well as being an inspiration to our many Nepali friends who are helping so much on the ground in response to those most in need. Step by step I hope to reply to you all, however with the amount of communication and coordination I have been doing since 25th April, it has been overwhelming and simply not possible to reply to everyone as of yet.
I am slowly, with the help of some amazingly helpful friends, getting systems into place that can be of practical support with regard to communications, especially so that I can send out regular updates about what Hands-with-Hands is facilitating in response to this massive earthquake.
What is happening:
The April 25th Earthquake has activated our entire collaborative network (both in Nepal & internationally) into action for the immediate emergency relief of providing essential shelter, food, medical services and basic communication support . Our help is already arriving to those who need it. It has been incredibly heart warming to get the news reports back from our friends in the field and to see the smiles and gratefulness of the recipients.
Additionally we are already active in the next step of support; organising shelters to serve as temporary school rooms and health provision facilities. And, for our Bhaktapur Children Home in Sipadol (where I was during the initial earthquake), we are collaborating with More-Than-Shelters (www.morethanshelters.org) who supply eco-friendly shelters that, after their temporary use, can be reused to build safe housing. Additionally we are supporting local Nepali eco building company/research facility, Abari centre (www.abari.org ). The upgrade to their equipment will facilitate renewable earthquake friendly rebuilding; there are hundreds of thousands of replacement buildings required.
How can you continue to help? Many of you have expressed a wish to help in some way - thank-you- simply you saying this is indeed already a help! It reminds me of our innate humanity and natural compassionate impulse for helping one another! I think that although this is a truly heart wrenching crisis for many, it also has a gift- that of bringing many people together and potentially creating something better out of this situation, something that we cannot yet fully imagine.
Many people are coming up with wonderful ideas to raise funds -excellent- we will need a continual flow of funds for quite some time to help with our outreach. I will be uploading the public events on our HwH website; let people know, encourage friends, family & strangers to think of the people in Nepal.
I am slowly collating various ways people can volunteer their time and energy, either in helping HwH or in Nepal directly. Please keep checking our website for updates.
For now I wish to once again say a huge heartfelt thank you! Your support in not only helping financially but also, for our many Nepali friends knowing that we are here in support, is giving them renewed energy to continue helping others.
My inspiring young friend Sibjan Chaulagain with his Nepal registered NGO *SMILES* is doing amazing support in Sindhuli District, one of the most affected districts of the recent earthquake. These words are from Sibjan: "While many of you are supporting by heart, we are tirelessly reaching out to most people in need of shelter, food and medicines. This time we managed to help more than 250 households in 2 wards of Sindhuli district. People have not lost their smiles even though the devastating earthquake took all away. It is because good people like you still exist on earth. Thank you for your help! Please continue to help us in rebuilding Nepal."
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Sibjan's SMILES organisation has been supporting with sanitation, water supplies and education in Sindhuli district the past several years and Hands-with-Hands has collaborated on a number of projects with them. We will be supporting Sibjan & SMILES as they continue helping post earthquake in rebuilding and emergency support.
Indeed yes Sibjan you are bringing smiles, not only to the people in Nepal, but to many of us who feel with you all there in Nepal.
For a moment imagine your home, & most of your neighbors homes have just crumbled & collapsed. As you look across the valley you see the same picture. Electricity & communications have stop working & you see friends, family who are injured, some seriously. You have no idea when help may arrive or even if any will.
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This is the snapshot of the worst affected areas in Nepal. I know these areas well.
I am super grateful for friends like Bikash Shahi & Neel Shahi & Melanie Hennessy from TEAM Nepal who are right now getting medical help, food and some shelter materials to those in most need in the Sindulpalchok district. Sindulpalchok district is one of the most hard hit during the earthquake.
It will take time as we support these communities to rebuild and we will need continual help. From my heart I thank you all so much for the help that has poured in already.
There is awesome magic happening. When we follow our hearts so much can unfold.
I want to say a HUGE thank you to everyone who has donated and supported - it has hugely motivated my Nepali friends doing the hard work on the ground. It is also really inspiring & supporting me personally.
Feel free to keep the funds rolling in as we are really getting things happening!!
Donations can be made by: 1. By sending to our German Bank account 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 (receipt for tax within EU available if donations made to this account)
Dear All, Nepal needs all our hands and help! The earthquake, that just hit, was the strongest one in the country after 80 years, and the country and people are in big pain.
Luckily all HandswithHands team, children and friends have survived the shake, and most of them are already up and giving many hands to people in need. Each one helps as s(he) can with shelters, medical supplies, emotional support and many more things. Kira was also in nepal during the shake, and is in touch with all local people, she knows how and whom to support.
Now they also need our support, every smaller and bigger contribution helps. The most easy way for us is via a donation into the handswithhands, click the here for all details.
For our friends from US, UK, and China we have also created a way to donate tax-exempt, under the platform sharedImpact, please click here for all details.
And if you have any other resources, projects and network whom you might think is good to collaborate, please contact as directly.
THANKYOU!! 2014 has been a very fruitful year in the development of all of our projects in Nepal I'm very happy to be reporting. I wish to give a super big thank you to everybody who has helped either financially or with time and energy in helping to achieve so much in our endeavours this year. Without your many hands helping together we would not have this level of development underway – and I don't really know how to convey how much the support continues to ripple outwards in the communities but perhaps you can catch a glimpse through some of my words in the pictures here below. Please feel welcomed to come and join one of my next trips to Nepal and experience some of the energy directly for yourself
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Helping Sibjan to get to USA for Clinton Global young leaders conference: Sibjan (SMILES) has been dedicated the past few years to developing a new outreach project called ICT for Agriculture, which is a tool using mobile phones to educate and inform rural communities on a variety of topics, from diseases in agriculture, market prices, health initiatives and much more. In March 2014 he was invited to join the Clinton Global Young Leaders conference in Arizona University in USA and we happily supported him to join this event, which has continued to inspire and evolve his ICT project. Sibjan’s inspiration is having major ripples in a growing number of communities in rural Nepal – and - he is healthily mentoring Nepalese youth in making a difference.
Chitwan microcredit project – ongoing growth and development: Our microcredit outreach program continues to evolve and grow. This year we provided training in basic veterinary knowledge for our members, advanced sewing skills and an advanced 5-day intensive in accountancy for cooperative management, in which the older children of some of our members also participated. We provided field visits to other cooperatives and supported our Jutpani Board members to attend national cooperatives day at the local district office. We have also provided additional software support and an inverter/battery pack to ensure their office can stay operational even during power outages (which is often 12-14 hrs. a day) Our membership continues to grow, now over 800, involving more women (& a few men!) to enable them to establish their own income producing business and to grow out of the poverty cycle. It is so heartening to see our members become empowered and contributing to developing their own community.
Supporting Dang community Health clinic: Dang is located in the Western region of Nepal, and we worked in conjunction with the local community hospital to provide a free Health clinic in one of the poorer village areas. HwH provided the medical supplies and the doctors donated their time and skills for free. More than 200 community members gained check-ups and received medical treatment. Some of these participants would normally never have medical support; it was very heartening to see their grateful response and enthusiasm to participate in this programme.
Bhaktapur Self-Sustaining Children - Home building development: We have been busy adding two stories to our Children Home in Bhaktapur, which is enabling more room for our growing family and allows us to comply with the increasing guidelines of Child Welfare in Nepal requiring additional space. We still have finishing to be done with electrics and plumbing and painting, however the main structural work is now completed. We also helped establish a more secure water source for the Home, providing piping and labour to install this, plus new sewerage installation to comply with new local rules and ensure our water supply is uncontaminated. Our Children (20) at Bhaktapur Home continue to grow and develop, school results continue to improve and general health improvements for some of our children who came with very poor background in health. Additionally our organic farm is becoming more established providing healthy vegetables, egg and milk for daily use and our ‘team’ more and more a family feeling. The laughter and playful energy are now a daily part of our Home environment; as well our children are learning natural, cultural practices that will serve then in their longer life. We continue to provide support for schooling and every-day expenses, along with providing for the inevitable health expenses that children need that are part of raising such an extensive family!
Annapurna Self-Sustaining Children Home ongoing development: We have this past year helped to build the additional ‘boys rooms’ plus verandah/patio area which serves for covered play area plus functions, meditation and study area. We have also provided for additional support to extend our organic farming with the addition of one more cow and a buffalo and several goats. Plus we have continued to support with the sponsorship of school fees and additional daily expenses that our ever expanding Home requires! The continuation of developing our new organic farmland has continued with planting our orchard of over 500 fruit trees plus developing new crops, providing growing long-term sustainability for our Home. We currently have 31 children plus 5 full time mothers. As well as Sarada who serves as a full time volunteer manager. This past November we held a special function to celebrate the help of the local community, many who contribute with discounts in their shops (e.g. for school uniforms; hardware items etc.) or provide mentoring or other support. It was a special coming together occasion and reminded me deeply of what we are really achieving here all together with many, many hands!
Talamarang School - ongoing development and support: Last year we helped through TEAM Nepal to fund the facilitation of Talamarang school upgrading to provide class 11 and 12 – we now are happy to report our first class “11” students (38 students) of which 70% are girls are completing their year of study successfully! We have also initiated the building of a study room/library particularly for the classes 11 & 12, but also for all students. This project should be completed mid 2015. We currently have 600+ students enrolled, with numbers increasing each year. We have been involved with Talamarang School now for fourteen years and it so rewarding to see the significant development and sustainability that the school has evolved into.
Supporting Ulrini School: (In collaboration with TEAM Nepal) Ulrini is a Tamang village up the mountain from Talamarang School. Ulrini school did not have any reliable water source for the 80 students plus teachers we supported by providing the materials to pipe water for both drinking and for sanitary purposes. The school in Ulrini village currently has classes up to fourth class. Children who wish to further study must travel to Talamarang School, traversing across a rather strong river to reach from their village area to the walkways to take them down to Talamarang village. There has not been an adequate bridge; in the non-monsoon time the local villagers construct logs across stones to make a temporary bridge. During the monsoon time, basically they are cut off which means the children essentially miss in every year three months of school minimum – the monsoon has been strong then it can be up to 4 or five months until the river is low enough to build this temporary construction. The village of Ulrini is a Tamang caste village, which is one of the lower castes and generally has very high rates of illiteracy and consequent problems that come from lack of education. From my own experience of now 15 years supporting in Nepal with various different social project work I can truly say that education makes a huge difference, especially as girls are educated. The lack of education can lead to high levels of poverty, distress, illnesses and so much more; the positive being healthier communities, proactive initiatives empowering individuals and communities out of poverty cycles and happier lives. I have become a huge advocate of the phrase "education does make a difference" The community of Ulrini was very excited that we were supporting them to build a bridge, they were providing all of the manual labour and we were providing the materials. They were so excited to get started and ensure that the bridge was built before the upcoming monsoon. Indeed they were successful to accomplish the aim of completing the bridge before the monsoon, to the great delight not only to the children but also to the entire village – however misfortune prevailed and the monsoon was much more intensive in this particular area this season. And unfortunately our wonderful new bridge became the victim of a landslide – landslides being very common during the monsoon season. The entire community was very upset about this outcome, not only about the loss of the newly constructed bridge but also to inform us the donors about the event. In November when I visited to the location it was a very touching and moving experience. I had already had my suspicions that such a misfortune had happened as in this region some short 60 km away a very severe landslide had occurred which resulted in the death of several hundred people and as I had not received any positive news about the bridge I had begun to suspect some misfortune befallen. The community also informed me that as a consequence of the entire process they had reached out to the government to ask for help in the rebuilding for some specialised engineering support and some compensation due to the extreme monsoon weather. Just as I was writing this report I was informed that had a positive response and there will be some funds from the government that will help in the reconstruction, and once again the villages will be applying their own efforts and labour to ensure this secondary success. I also learned that our helping initially to construct the bridge has allowed the village to apply to the government in this situation whereas if they had not had the bridge they would not have received any support whatsoever from the government. So in a funny way our help as initiated now bigger and I sincerely hope longer lasting bridge!
A personal highlight of 2014 for me was to meet a young man whom I supported in 2005 to have open heart surgery – he was 11 yrs. at the time and now he is 20 yrs old and studying to be a teacher, with a fire and passion for education. What were heart-touching were his comments that the support he had received via me had inspired him to continue to help others and how much his opportunity to have a good education has created opportunity in his own life and how he wants that for all children.
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I hope that you have received in reading this note some heartfelt glimpses of how your support is making a difference in the lives of people in Nepal! Once again a huge thank you for you ongoing support – without it I cannot be doing my side of the contribution! And a reminder in case you a curious, I pay all my own expenses in my Nepal travels to ensure all donations arrive to the projects directly. I will once again be in Nepal in April and October/November 2015 if you would like to come and join for a visit please be in touch Here
Thank you to everyone who has already been supporting our various projects – your support has far reaching impact. It is not only the financial support that you have provided but also the energy and intention along with it equally has an impact. I don't really know how to bring this across to you if you have not visited yet to Nepal, but if you have visited to our projects you will have more understanding of what I mean. The best way I can try to convey this is that as we financially support these initiatives by our Nepali friends to make a difference in their own lives and communities they feel supported and encouraged to continue to be involved in developing and expanding many of the projects. What I have come to realise over the years of being involved in this work is that when we can give this encouragement to say "yes, you can do this, I know you can” is that it has such a profound ongoing ripple effect that is much wider than we realise.
‘High Tea Networking Event’, Hosted in partnership with John Curtin Leadership Academy May 18th 2014, 2pm – 4h30pm @ Curtin Aboriginal Studies Centre • Australia
Hands with Hands in partnership with John Curtin Leadership Academy proudly presents the High Tea Networking Event for Women in Business, Women interested in Community Leadership, Women interested in Philanthropy and Women wishing to join us. Tickets are limited so be quick and buy some under the link Tickets above. The event is sponsored by Antiquitea and Chica Catering.
The children have just left for school on the bus, Riya and one of the mothers are out looking at different rice-hay as we need to buy some for the cows ... and I have a few minutes here to write a few sentences and updates.
It seems as if another evolution has occurred here at Sidapol, leaving an overall feeling of maturity, harmony and depth. We now have two new live-in mothers to be a support for Jamnua. Parvati came from Pokhara and Moiya from the village of Rupak's mother. Plus we have Devi who comes by during the day each day to help with daily tasks. With twenty children and the farm, they have plenty of work to keep them occupied! We have asked that the mothers all give a long-term commitment so we are not changing all the time and we can co-create a place of stability and security for the children.
Five new children have joined our home in Sipadol, Bhaktaur, three sisters, Sabina, Sabita & Anita along with two brothers Sushil & Sudip. This makes the total number of children fifteen. Riya has been busy with building the new house for the Children Home; the structure is now basically completed and the various finishing’s still needing to be done step by step as we have the funds. In the general the Home is flourishing and we have been grateful to have various volunteer support the last months, which has been a great help for the children’s integration and study!
Hosted by Dagmar Marth& musician guests September 12th, 2012, Berlin, Germany, 20.00 – 22.30hr Passionskirche @ Marheinekeplatz 1 • 10961 Berlin
Join for an inspired evening of World Music, Poetry and Sound, all woven together creating a soundscape to uplift the audience. The evening is in benefit of the Charity ‘Hands-with-Hands, founded by Kira Kay, which supports and initiates empowering projects in Nepal. During the evening a short movie about the projects will be viewed. All musician’s donate their time freely in support of Hands-with-Hands projects. There is no entrance charge. If you feel to freely give a donation this is welcomed.
