Dearest Friends and Family,

I wanted to reach out to you, particularly those who find fulfilment and enjoyment in helping others, and ask you to join forces with me.

First and foremost, this is not a fundraiser to raise money for me to go volunteer somewhere, I would never ask that of you. I will pay my own way. This is for Nepal.

There exists a village, called Takure, a few hours Northwest of Katmandu, where devastation struck in April 2015. All but 1 of 241 houses were destroyed in the earthquakes. A few beautiful people collectively realised the urgency and immediacy in which this town, and these people, needed help to implement sustainable solutions to the earthquake prone land they call their home. Thus Conscious Impact was established and I invitie you to check out the awe-inspiring work they have been doing, which I plan to become a part of this May.

https://www.consciousimpact.org/#intro

Why am I doing this? As you know, I’ve spent the past year and a half traveling the world, but there has been something missing. I’ve only been doing things for myself and it’s time to get back into something I am very passionate about, selfless service.

Why Nepal? Well, when I was fundraising for Doctors Without Borders (or Medcin San Frontier) this year in Australia, I was often retaliated against with the “people in this country need help too, etc. etc.” response- I won’t go into the nitty gritty details of their reasons to reject our pleas for support, but I want you to know that I undoubtedly and whole heartedly agree, people in every country need help. But, I believe the extent of it is different. While I was volunteering in Peru with the Foundation of International Medical Relief of children, I experienced that revelation firsthand when I watched two nurses exchange one pair of gloves between the two of them (yes it was for the same patient). But my point is, that is how limited their resources were. Meanwhile I had lab partners who were changing their gloves every single time one of theirs got a little dirty, I worked at a hospital that was going to throw near 50 BOXES out because they CHANGED BRANDS (so I took those gloves and donated them). No, I have not been to Nepal yet, so I cannot offer you my firsthand insight, but I have a very inspiring friend over there, Greg Robinson, and he can tell you that we need your help and support. I’m not asking for a huge donation. Maybe just the price of one drink or one meal you would have out, and cut back a little bit this weekend. It’s not a large amount of money, but collectively we can fundraise enough to make a huge difference in a small place. So if that matters to you… please join me and help me reach my goal. I contributed the first donation to get the ball rolling.. the amount of money I earn from cleaning one house. I did something small, I cleaned a house for Nepal. Will you? hehe I love you all, thanks for reading my long splurb.

For those of you that really love detail:

Conscious Impact has created a resource center for rural Nepal families to learn about natural building options and to offer access to affordable and locally available building materials. The natural building technique focused on is Compressed Stabilized Earth Blocks (CSEBs), a technology developed by Auroville Earth Institute and is used in over 80 countries including earthquake prone areas, and are made using a manual lever brick press. The main focus is to rebuild, but they have started an educational program, and agriculture program as well. This organisation employs 40 Nepalese members of the community, and they are the only ones paid. Even the founders are all volunteers. So if you have the time, check it out. It's truly beautiful things that conscious impact is accomplishing in this very remote corner of the world.

I love you and miss you all so much,
Alex