First wave:
a) Distributed over 19,000 food packets to Nepalis returning after lock-down was imposed in India in May/June 2020.
b) Three rounds of ration distribution to trekking staff in Kathmandu in 2020.
c) Interest free loans to 11 trekking staff.
d) Began construction of a hostel for girls in a village in the Kanchenjunga region which is now complete. We are currently building a second hostel. This will not only provide work for our trekking staff but will also allow girls from neighboring villages to live at the school and pursue higher education. Without a hostel, most would have to quit school.
Second wave:
a) We helped the Chhatrapati Free Clinic in Kathmandu create an Intensive Care Unit ICU COVID ward by supplying them with 4 ICU beds and 4 monitors. This cost us $14,082. The Chhatrapati Free Clinic is a community hospital, a local non-profit, that provides free care to the poorest neighborhoods in Kathmandu.
b) We distributed medical items worth $56,000 to community hospitals in 16 districts to enable them to better protect their front-line workers. We distributed around 2,500 face shields, 1,850 boxes of surgical masks, 2,000 Kn95 masks, 640 (500 ml) and 450 (5 liter) sanitizers, 4,660 pairs of surgical gloves, 4,150 pairs of examination gloves, 1,200 disposable PPE’s, 800 washabale PPE’s, 200 pulse oximeters, 17 oxygen cylinders, 24 large boxes of liquid soap, 60 disposable gowns and 9 oxygen concentrators.
c) We distributed rations to poor families whose lives have been upended by the pandemic. In our first phase, we distributed a food package worth $36 each to 50 families in the outskirts of Kathmandu. This should be adequate for a month. We also distributed a 30 kilogram sack of rice each to 500 families in the Everest region and another 30 kilogram sack of rice plus a pack of cooking oil each to 500 families in the Annapurna region just prior to the Dashain festival. And then distributed a sack of rice to 300 families in another village in the Annapurna region.
