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 (FlyingTypers’
Asia/Pacific Editor-in-Chief SkyKing has spent the majority of the past
six weeks in Nepal covering the story of the devastating earthquakes.
He has also become part of the story, raising money to help people in
the stricken nation.
Along the way, Sky has filed an emotional,
startling, and fact-filled dossier of stories that we have faithfully
sent out to you, dear readers.
Now Sky (he is the guy in the pictures wearing
white shorts) tells of his fundraising efforts and describes just how
much it meant when many of us in air cargo dug deep into our pockets and
hearts to send some relief to people in bind far worse than most can imagine.
We add our ‘thanks for the lift’ to everyone who followed
this remarkable story and sent their support.)
Thanks so much to all of you for all your
financial support and encouragement for Suman’s Story – Direct
Aid for Nepal. https://www.facebook.com/sumansstory
We’ve had the craziest, most rewarding,
humbling, saddest, and sheer knackering three days I’ve ever experienced.
The funds you all gave have helped hundreds
of families—I know I’m supposed to be a journalist but I really
can’t express how grateful I am for all your support.
Here’s the best summary of how and
where your money has been spent I can summon in my exhausted, dust-cloaked
state . . .
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Day 1: We delivered 586
food packs to Palchok—one per family.
Thanks to your efforts and those of Tariq
and the guys at Bye Bye Plastic Bags, with a final delivery of rice Palchok
will now be able to see out the monsoon safely.
We also have the groundwork in place to
pay for and supply a medical clinic there, more of which we will report
later.
The chicken farm that will provide the village
with a collective income is also progressing well—good idea, Tariq
Batanoni and Bye Bye Plastic Bags!
Day 2 and 3: Suman and his team identified
a string of villages far to the northeast of Kathmandu that had not received
any aid since the April 25 earthquake devastated large parts of the country
and left hundreds of thousands of people homeless and without access to
food or medical aid. Considering how badly their own lives have been affected
by the quakes, to set off to a remote part of the country to help others
was an act of extraordinary selflessness by the villagers of Palchok and
their friends—my admiration for their bravery, organization skills,
humor under duress, and indefatigability has no limits.
 I'm
fine, back home from Nepal as you read this—at least I got to
leave.
It was slightly overwhelming and very
hard work.
Village after village decimated. The
bigger towns looked like they'd been hit by mortars.
Rubble everywhere, but some buildings
absolutely fine and the ones nearby collapsed or leaning horribly.
Lots of people living with no shelter
or under a tarpaulin.
Very proud nation with everyone trying
to do their best though, and always very
generous.
 Lovely
people and a beautiful country!
—SkyKing |
They really are the heroes
in all this.
Take a bow:
Suman Khadka, 19
Ramesh Khadka, 29
Pawan Karki, 19
Arjun Khadka, 41
Mahendra Mijar, 21
Suman and the guys organized for an early
pick up of more than 250,000kg of rice to be loaded into two trucks.
Unfortunately, the bloke who was supposed
to open the rice shop for loading failed to turn up.
By the time he did, time was running short.
When we did finally get loaded and underway it quickly emerged that one
of the truck drivers was new to driving on Nepal’s treacherous roads—he
hit two bikes in the first ten kilometers before we even reached the mountains.
Luckily no one was injured, but a new driver
was required.
Unfortunately this also meant getting a
new truck and transporting 400 sacks of 30kg rice between them.
Seven hours later, traveling along a single
track mountain road through town after town, where most of the houses
were rubble and people were sleeping in makeshift tents, Paul, Suman’s
team of seven, and I arrived at our ‘hotel’—a communal
tarpaulin shelter where we all shared beds or slept on tables.
Our hosts had previously owned a thriving
hotel in Jiri, but when this crumbled they were left homeless.
We were all incredibly grateful just to
have somewhere covered to sleep, but the welcome we got and hospitality
received were wonderful.
The next day was supposed to be simple.
We were to visit three villages and deliver 30kg rice bags to 800 families,
enough to feed each family for 2-3 weeks.
But this is Nepal and nothing is simple.
After arranging and distributing our first two drops, our final village
was ‘just on the other side of the valley.’
We took a shortcut.
The shortcut took 2.5 hours along a mountain
track that was like driving along a riverbed with sheer drops on either
side. We don’t think we covered more than ten miles and for the
most part it was faster to walk while our heroic driver maneuvered our
4x4 (but with only two of the wheels working) with the sort of control
that only the most skilled Nepalese mountain specialist could manage with
any safety. We honestly owe him our lives.
The journey was worth it, though. When we
arrived at Chyama the entire village had converged to welcome us. We were
presented with garlands by all the kids and, after a round of speeches,
we started distributing 400 30kg rice sacks using a fair and orderly system
set up by Suman and the village head.
Chyama has 800 families, 8 schools, and
one clinic.
For most of the last six weeks it has been
inaccessible.
Indeed, the UN’s website says it still
is, so we really were heading off into the unknown.
The village leader explained that 95% of
the buildings had been destroyed on April 25 and everyone was sleeping
outdoors.
One aid delivery had reached the village
over the last six weeks but what it had provided was totally inadequate.
When the rains trigger more landslides,
Chayama will be totally inaccessible again.
The gratitude of the village was humbling
in the extreme and we all left feeling overwhelmed by the amazing welcome
we had received and guilty there was not more we could do.
The village head said the rice we delivered
could be the difference between life and death in the coming weeks for
many of the poorest families.
They are not even thinking about rebuilding
yet, just survival.
 Today
we will help one poor old lady who, due to Nepal’s Byzantine land
ownership and tenancy system, has been left with no food, shelter, or
means to feed herself. Because she was a tenant, any government relief
must go to the landlord.
Because her old house no longer exists,
according to the rules she is not eligible for government help because
she has no fixed abode.
That’s Nepalese bureaucracy for you!
In effect she is caught in a tragic Catch 22 situation that has rendered
her a non-person.
With the money we still have left, Suman
and his team will arrange for a shelter to be built for her and supply
her with food for the coming months.
Updates on how this project proceeds will
follow.
Thanks so much to all of you who have contributed.
I know there are many great causes out there
but the money you have spent through ‘Suman’s Story’
has empowered Nepalese people to help their families and some of the most
impoverished villages in the country. We had no overhead and paid our
own costs so every penny has reached those who need it most.
For myself, Paul Winslow, Suman, and the
guys, this has been a crazy adventure none of us will ever forget.
The thanks we have received has been impossibly
humbling and left me with a sense that there is far more we can still
achieve in Nepal by empowering Suman and his team to continue their great
works.
Paul, Tariq, Bye Bye Plastic Bags, and I
have plans to help set up a permanent clinic in Palchok as the first step
to rebuilding the town.
But for this we will need more funding.
We will release details shortly of how we
will achieve this and what it will cost. But for now, thanks again to
you all from the bottom of my heart!
SkyKing
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