Wednesday, May 6, 2015

Nepal Earthquake Relief: Direct Efforts by ISKL


It's not often you have the chance, as a community, to "cut out the middle man" and do some direct good in a disaster affected area. This past week was a special kind of week for our school, with four faculty/staff members heading to Kathmandu, under the coordination of Kevin Brawn (HS Activities & Athletics Director). 

Kevin, with the support of Drew Davis, Monica Clear and Bendan Kiernan headed off to Kathmandu to take part in relief efforts, specifically targeting Ocean Nepal (website here) and surrounding communities.  Part of their work was to support the evacuation of the students at the orphanage, with a larger emphasis on providing food and shelter to those affected. 

Certainly ISKL's efforts are limited compared to those by international aid organizations but it was hard not to notice the day-to-day news coming from Kevin (handing out food and tents) and the international press (covering the bureaucratic problems with allowing aid to come in, leaving plane-loads of goods on the tarmac for days).

Much of the group's effectiveness was based on their own know-how of the area (we have several connections in Nepal and also run a good number of HS GAP programs there), but also on the money raised in the four days prior to the team's departure. We are told that Melawati (through coordinated efforts by the Red Hats) raised RM 43,000!  The Ampang crowd was just as impressive and, in total, over USD 20,000 (from all sources) was taken to Nepal for the direct purchase of rice and shelter before in-kind donations were made to those affected by the tragedy. 

Thank you to all of you for making a positive difference to those affected by the earthquake and, of course, a special and heart-felt thank you to those who gave their time, energy, efforts to exhibit caring and compassion to those in need, and for being wonderful role models for our children at ISKL.

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