Dear Help Nepal Network members and supporters worldwide,

As of now, we have raised approximately US $110,000 in HNN’s Earthquake Relief Fund in the United States, and more funds are coming in. In addition, fundraising efforts have begun in the U.K., Australia and other locations around the world. We are extremely grateful for everyone’s hard work.

Arun Singh Basnet, President of our Nepal team, suffered a fractured leg due to the earthquake, and additionally, Vice President of our Nepal team, Rabi Manandhar’s cousin passed away as his home was destroyed.

Despite this, our Nepal team has been working diligently to organize 2 projects on the ground:

Project 1: Procure, transport and distribute relief materials to severely affected areas. For this, 20-25 volunteers who have worked with us in the past, have been recruited and the procurement process has begun. Please note that our Nepal team has successfully procured and deployed relief materials in the past for victims of floods, fire and cold, and will execute a similar procurement and deployment effort for the earthquake victims (with a focus on those that are most in need).

Project 2: Coordinate with the Nepal Red Cross about deploying relief materials to areas where the Red Cross have shortages in materials and staff. Our Nepal team is having discussions with the Red Cross and we have successfully worked with them on other projects in the past.

HNN USA will wire US $35,000 to Nepal tomorrow as a first installment, with additional amounts to follow shortly (after transferring funds from our PayPal account).

As of now, the focus of our initiatives in Nepal is emergency relief. As the emergency situation is relieved in the coming months, we expect our focus to evolve into the reconstruction process.

Please be patient with the efforts of our Nepal team, as the current situation is difficult, particularly regarding procurement of materials (due to shortages and store closures) and deployment (due to blocked roads). However, our team is working through these issues and will deploy the relief materials as soon as practicable.

Please trust that everyone is doing their best and working as hard as possible. If you have any suggestions, please respond to this email.

Thank you.

On behalf of HELP NEPAL Network,

Abhaya