Our building collaboration with Nepal eco-building company Abari, and its inspiring founder Nripal Adhikary, continue this month in Sindhulpalchok with our local partners there, TEAM Nepal (Neel & Bikash & Rajan leading this rebuild project) we will be building in two locations, one school and the other is the only technical/tertiary campus in the district and we will be creating a tool library along with the 'on the job' training as we build to enhance the potential for villagers to safely rebuild post earthquake - using local materials, eco-friendly, earthquake safe and government approved - more news on this to come however I leave you with some taster photos so that you can share our excitement!

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Jutpani village was the location we began our microcredit outreach in 2005 with 25 women – 11 years onwards we have truly evolved into a healthy and sustainable financial vehicle providing savings and credit facilities to local women (and a few men!) being run and facilitated by the women themselves. This journey has had many challenges and growth experiences – one we had this past year that has left us all stronger, more resilient and empowered on how to manage outside influences who wish to dominate women and their financial security. In November we (Kira & Rafael) celebrated with the Board of Directors (all women from the village along with our dedicated Team – Shila Pandey and Ram KC) we enjoyed together a Nepali style picnic and in the following days the Annual General meeting (AGM) that highlighted the local community involvement and confidence in what is now a stable financial center for the village providing services for the poorest of the community. It has been so uplifting to be a witness to the ongoing prosperity of the women and the village community as a whole of these past years.

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Our next rebuilding effort is about to get underway this month in Sindhulpalchok in collaboration with TEAM Nepal & Abari Eco Building Co.
I am starting to get excited! After a lot of discussions and planning our "on the job" training collaboration with Abari, TEAM Nepal and HandswithHands is getting REAL! The approval process is well underway now for our 2 classroom building at Gyaltham tertiary college and 3 model Homes in nearby location with semi permanent tool library and workspace to continue the sustainable earthquake resistant building initiatives in Sindhulpalchok after our initial buildings are completed. The buildings will be using local mud to create compressed earth bricks of high standard, using Abari technology and designs. Roofs will be held up using Nepal sourced Bamboo of specific strength species treated for durability. 240 seedling of such Bamboo have been planted already in community forests nearby our initiative for future use. More details to come in the next couple of weeks as we move into action.
Stay tuned for more news soon!

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There are times in ones life when you may meet an extra-ordinary person – someone who is going about their daily life with an integrity, humbleness and aspirations to make life better for everyone they meet. Dr Govinda KC of Nepal is such a man. When we first met him he simply knocked on our door with a bunch of bananas offering them to us as he noticed walking past our gate that we were a Home for Children and wanted to help. I recall the children gasping with surprise and quickly opening their social studies text book to show me the remarkable achievements he had done for Nepal. Ever since then he has blessed us with a visit each Tihar festival time – spending time sharing/talking with Sarada Basnet, our Thulo mother, who is also a remarkable example of selflessness and giving of her time and energy to not only raise our children at Annapurna Children Home but also giving support in a variety of ways to so many people in her community. Dr Govinda KC not only gives of his time within the medical field but is a generally social minded person with a wholistic view of Nepal's development. His passion for ensuring integrity in medical education in Nepal has lead him to conduct hunger strikes to ensure the politicians take notice of the corruption, he travels to all 75 Districts of Nepal offering his medical expertise voluntarily in his "free" time as well he travels to crisis and disaster locations to lend service. What better "Hero" could we have to honour and inspire our children by his living example! We all feel very fortunate and truly blessed by his visit – thank you Dr Govinda KC for being a truly extra-ordinary human being

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Bhai Tikka is one of the main days of Diwali celebrations in Nepal. On this day, also know as "Brother and Sister day", sisters conduct a blessing ceremony and pray to Yamraja for her brother's long life and prosperity. The sisters also prepare special treats for their brothers and gift him this during the ceremony and the brother returns his sister a blessings along with money to ensure she has what she needs in her life. The national astrologer gives the appropriate time to put the tikka
through the national radio a day before and the entire nation abides by it so millions of Nepalese celebrate and perform this ceremony around the country at the same time. It is always a delight to be celebrating Bhai Tikka with all our children and mothers from Annapurna Children Home, and it has special meaning for our children who come together in our big "family", often from traumatic and difficult backgrounds, to have this safe and culturally appropriate setting to enjoy such rituals.

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There is still plenty to be done, however it looks promising that the main part of the move will be completed in the next two weeks.
As some of you already know we have to move from the house we have been living since we started our home. Our future vision is to build earthquake safe and sustainable buildings on our organic farm land, but that will take time & money and the family owner of the original house needed it now - so we are moving!!

This last week has been busy making renovations and repairs to our new house and we have plenty of helping hands (well sometimes they may be more cheeky than helping?!) but overall we are all very excited to move to our next place. Thank you to everyone who has helped us.
The new house is only a short distance from our old house and will provide us a safe and spacious Home for the next few years as we bring about our longterm visions to build on our own land - which we hope to achieve in the next 2-3 years time.

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Our Children have regular dancing & music classes which will be great for Dwali festival that requires a lot of dancing and singing! The children now also have karate/self defense classes and it seems like they have a lot of fun as well giving our children more body consciousness. We continually explore how we can develop the potential of our children in the aim to have healthy, integrated young adults who will eventually leave and be contributing in positive ways to their wider community.

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Thank you everyone who have helped with funds for the repairs after earthquake - we are back in our home at Bhaktapur Self Sustaining Children Home, out of the tents finally! Still lots to repair on our home (flooring, electricity, plumbing, painting & more) however at least for the upcoming winter we will be warmer this year!! We believe it is important for all our children to enjoy play time and fun – essential for healthy development physically, emotionally and mentally. And of course Choco-Banana pancakes are simply a delicious treat every human being should have an opportunity to enjoy!

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Dashain festival here in Nepal is a wonderful celebration of families coming together - on the 10th day the elders give a Tikka/blessings to younger members in the family symbolising good health, abundance & renewal of family/community ties. I celebrated with our Bhaktapur Orphan Home family in Sipadol village where we are now back in our Home newly structurally repaired after the earthquake damage but still in need of LOTs of finishing, like plumbing, electrics, fittings, flooring, painting BUT !!! It was so awesomely home feeling to be back in a solid building after 1 &1/2 year in tents :-) Riya & Rupak you are totally with us in our hearts here! And so, so many friends thank you for the helping hands for us to get this far - with your generous hands we would still be wetly celebrating under canvas!

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 We still have heaps of work to properly finish our home but the structural work is now complete - thank you so much to everyone who contributed to this!!! Dashain festival is upcoming and we are in our "home" for this important festival.

 It's not completed yet, but we could not wait to move back to our home anymore. Lots still to do, but we are back to our home, even if walls still need to be painted etc, its still so nice to be back from tents! Took too long. But imagine our happiness now! Thank you for all your support!

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