On 25th April 2015, Nepal was shaken to its core by a series of powerful earthquakes that killed over 8,800 people and left hundreds of thousands of people homeless. It destroyed already precarious communities, laid waste to remote villages and decimated one of the country’s leading industries – tourism.
In the aftermath of this disaster, we felt that we had to do something and so we teamed up with Help Rural Nepal and launched our Flags For Nepal Campaign. Hundreds of people supported this by sponsoring Nepali Prayer Flags, which were then purchased from Nepal by Shambala and used to adorn the Shambala Stage creating a beautiful statement of Shambala’s support for the people of Nepal.
Over £7,000 was raised and every last penny went directly to Help Rural Nepal which is a small charity that supports a remote rural community, Khahare, less than 20 miles from the epicentre of the devastating earthquakes. This money has been used to both help mitigate the impact of the earthquake and also to help rebuild the community and its infrastructure for the future.
A significant amount of the money donated was spent on immediate disaster relief such as temporary shelters and medical supplies. But, looking towards the future, Help Rural Nepal are in the process of building a new, earthquake resistant block of classrooms after the original school buildings were destroyed. They have established a micro-financing scheme that has distributed over £1,000 to help people buy new animals – one of the cornerstones of rural existence – to replace those that were lost. They have also established a teacher training scheme and are, among other things, building new toilet blocks, supplying new solar panels to the schools and health centre and continuing to fundraise for more ambitious projects.
Although the Nepal Earthquake has long since left our news headlines, Nepal is still in need of much help. The government has shown an incredible degree of incompetence and the country is highly fortunate to have such resilient, resourceful and self-sufficient communities. If you would like to help further in any way, be it offering time, skills or money, Help Rural Nepal would love to hear from you.
A massive thank you goes out to everyone that supported this campaign from all at Shambala and Help Rural Nepal. You made a big difference and touched all our hearts!