Since the earthquake on the 25th of April our entire Paddle Nepal family have been working tirelessly to help local communities most affected. While it will take time for emergency services to take action and international aid to arrive, we have the outdoor leadership skills, supplies, vehicles and crew available to get much needed emergency supplies to those who need it most right now.
This effort started with a simple sign in front of our Paddle Nepal office requesting donations of clothing, tents, sleeping bags etc. While we provided supplies from our adventure trip inventory, random tourists, expats, local business owners and families added to the donation pile. By the end of the first day, we had collected enough life saving supplies to fill an army helicopter to be delivered to a remote location near the epicenter!
Momentum has grown daily with a constant flow of supplies, financial donations and volunteer support. News has spread through Facebook and other social media platforms, resulting in donations coming in from all over the world. Other like minded businesses including BABU Adventures, Rapid Runner Expeditions, Frontiers Paragliding and The Bike Shop Nepal, as well as local NGO SATHI Nepal have joined to help. Together we have become known as The Centerpoint Relief Initiative.
Our neighbors within the Centerpoint complex have provided space for storage of supplies while an efficient distribution center for emergency earthquake relief has emerged. There has never been a shortage of helping hands.
We are working closely Karmaflights.org sharing fundraising resources and helping to supply their rapid relief work in Saurapani, Gorkha.
Thanks to the overwhelming generosity of so many people, we have been able to reach out and provide urgent life saving support & supplies to 11 districts, 44 VDCs and 1 municipality so far.
To date, over 37,000KG rice, 11,000KG beaten rice, 4500KG daal, 4200KG chana, 1835 blankets, 1642 tarpaulin shelters as well as an incredible amount of assorted food stuffs including salt, oil, sugar, noodles, baby cereals, milk powder, biscuits, tea & random canned goods have been dispatched.
In addition to these supplies, we have shipped out over one million Nepalese Rupees worth of medical supplies including water purification drops, water filters and electrolytes.
Thousands of items of used clothing, sleeping bags, tents, backpacks, helmets, trekking poles and stretchers etc have also distributed.
That’s a total of over $100,000 USD collected and distributed locally in just the past 13 days.
MIND BLOWING. Thank you to every single person who has been a part of this incredible effort. To the donors, volunteer, drivers as well as local police and government officers – GRATITUDE.
It’s inspiring to see so many spontaneous relief initiatives popping up all over the country. Grassroots relief at its best! What an amazing group of people. What an amazing country.
The United Nations have finally arrived and other international aid organizations have started their operations. We plan to slowly shut down the Centerpoint Relief Initiative and take some much time for our family and staff recuperation. Paddle Nepal and SATHI Nepal will continue to work closely together for long term recovery throughout Nepal.
Together we are strong.
