GIVING HOPE TO NEPAL

 A 7.8 magnitude tremor on 25 April 2015, followed by a 7.3 aftershock two weeks later, killed almost 9,000 people. More than 740,000 homes were damaged or destroyed throughout Nepal but nowhere was worse hit than the steep, crowded and poor mountainside dwellings close to the epicentre in the Sindhupalchowk District and the villages between Jiri and Lukla. The Juniper Trust, along with its partners and donors have raised over $250,000 to help rebuild schools in the most affected areas and provide new uniforms, winter coats, shoes, bags, books and pencils to almost 3,000 children in the same villages.

The difficulty of sourcing and delivering materials into a remote region, the complexity of permission, new earthquake regulations and the vagaries of the weather, was occasionally daunting but with the invaluable help of local volunteers and the villagers themselves, the work was fast-tracked, and the Juniper Trust delivered quickly, ahead of the bulk of international aid, by getting money and supplies direct to the people. 10 schools were completed by the end of 2016, an incredible achievement by anyone’s standards but there was still much to do. As news of the good work spread, the Juniper Trust was approached by many villages that were either still without a school or using temporary shelters.  In 2017, JT raised money to rebuild Garjyang School and in 2018 a further three primary schools have been rebuilt in the villages of Saraswati , Siruwa and Namuna – all are feeder primary schools for the now prospering Kinja School which was one of the first schools to rebuilt by JT in 2016.