183 Families Receive Urgently Needed Food Supplies

We are continuing to reach hundreds of families in more and more villages devastated by the disastrous earthquake in Nepal, and provide them with urgently needed food supplies and roofing material. Recently we reached two difficult to reach villages ravaged by the earthquake, the villages of Lele and Champi. Very little help had arrived in these two villages and people were waiting to receive urgently needed food supplies. We are delighted that we could provide most urgently needed food for 183 more families consisting of more than 1,400 family members.

After the earthquake there was a big shortage of food in the affected areas. At the request of Bina who is a resident of this area I first visited the villages and met lot of families who had lost everything including their homes. They told me about their hardships due to the shortage of food. Understanding the urgency of the situation, I immediately had a meeting with my assistant monk, the village representative Bina and a Buddhist nun Masukee.

We all went into action. My main responsibility was to make sure we had enough money to pay the bills. Since bank transfers took a lot of time I had to use money grams or western union to receive money. Often this means a trip to one of those offices in town. That took a bit of time. Finding sponsors and organizing money transfers and receiving them in Nepal often takes a lot of time as well. All this means very little sleep for me because in the daytime I’m busy out in the field and in the night I spend time on the phone or writing letters looking for sponsors and organizing money transfers.

The very next day we arrived with two truckloads of food. All 183 families received enough rice for one month along with lentils, salt, sugar and biscuits. People celebrated our arrival with gratitude and walked away with smiles knowing that next few weeks they will not have to worry about food. I was glad I had a chance to meet almost all of the families and personally distribute the food supplies. Although it is hard to imagine the kind of challenges facing everyone and the amount of work needed to accomplish such a task, I am grateful to all our sponsors and everybody who assisted me to bring food to 183 more families who are victims of the devastating earthquake in the Villages of Lele and Champi. Thank you for being part of the solution.