Remembering the Earthquake: 7 Years Later

On April 25, 2015, a 7.8 magnitude earthquake stuck Nepal, destroying hundreds of thousands of homes and taking thousands of lives.

Conscious Impact and the community of Takure responded by working together to rebuild. Now, 7 years later, the work continues…

Remembering April 25th, 2015

It was 12pm on April 25th, 2015, when a 7.8 magnitude earthquake shook Nepal and changed the lives of everyone across the country. The earthquake, based outside of the town of Gorkha, killed 9,000 people, injuring 22,000 others, and leaving more than 400,000 people homeless. In the community of Takure, all of the homes but one were lost. 

Even today, when Takure locals describe that day, you can still feel the emotion and devastation of the memory.

Kumari Bomjan, the Agriculture Program Coordinator for Conscious Impact, explains that she still cannot believe it happened, a horrific event that deeply affected her and her family. “I was on a bus traveling back to a teaching post when I heard a rumble, and as I looked across the valley at the city of Melamchi, buildings had turned to dust.” As she sat upon the river bank, crying, she tried repeatedly to reach her family members via phone. She felt they had died, until her father drove up on his motorcycle, having searched for her all day long. She says her community felt it was the end of the world. Immediately after the earthquake, aftershocks continued and monsoon rains fell two months early, ruining everything that could have been salvaged from the rubble.

Narayan “Mama” Bhattarai, Community Outreach Coordinator for Conscious Impact, says the day will forever feel tragic. He pulled out his uncles from the rubble of their homes, tried to save multiple livestock, and worked for days supporting his community to build temporary shelters so they could begin to feel some sense of security. 

Pabritra Khanal, a local Takure resident, remembers her own husband being trapped underneath their house as she worked with neighbors to uncover the stone on top of him. He was injured badly and was rushed to the hospital to receive treatment where he was able to recover. In the end, by some miracle, no lives were lost in Takure, though dozens were lost in the neighboring communities.

The effect of the earthquake went on for months, even years. Community members share stories of sleeping in their garden fields under plastic tarps for weeks through the monsoon rains from fear of the aftershocks. And when Conscious Impact arrived in August 2015, families were still living in temporary structures built with the remnants of their previous homes.

We began the journey of Conscious Impact with the hope to transform this horrible event into something good.

The beginning of Conscious Impact

When the initial Conscious Impact volunteers arrived in August, 2015, the goal was clear. We had committed to support the community to rebuild their primary schools, and we planned to do that using sustainable, locally sourced building materials. We were not expert builders, or experienced in Nepal, but through dedicated work by international volunteers and local community members, and a bit of miraculous fortune, we completed the Siddhartha Primary School in Bimire just before the rains began in June 2016.

In our first year, we had made nearly 20,000 bricks with over 100 volunteers and rebuilt a beautiful school, but the community had still not begun to rebuild their homes. The work was just beginning…

growing our work over the years

Over the following 5 years, Conscious Impact worked side-by-side the families of Takure and the neighboring communities to make nearly 250,000 earth bricks that have been used to rebuild 100+ homes, 4 community centers, two children’s homes, an elderly center and many more projects. Even more, Conscious Impact’s work expanded to support local farmers in organic coffee production and agroforestry to increase their income and restore local ecology. In the past 5 years, we have planted more than 15,000 coffee, fruit, nut, and native forest trees with more than 350 local farmers. We also began deepening our relationships with the local schools and providing after-school extracurricular activities in the areas of art, girls’ empowerment, English and general homework help. Over the years, as homes were completed and construction slowed, our Agriculture and Youth Empowerment programs became the focus of our work. 

Responding to the current needs

Over the past 2 years, since COVID-19 transformed the world, Conscious Impact has evolved. Without consistent international volunteers, and facing significant resource limitations, we focused completely on sustaining the small Nepali non-profit that has been born from the efforts of our local team and international supporters over the years. Our Youth Programming and Agriculture programs continue to grow (led by Bishal Khaiju and Kumari Bomjan, respectively), and we have even begun to expand to new projects. Most notably, after years of discussion, we have finally broken ground on a complete domestic water system that will serve 101 families across Takure and the neighboring communities.

It is so inspiring to see the work continue all of these years, led by our local staff and supported by generous donors. As we get further away from the earthquake and continue to find new avenues of supporting rural communities’ resiliency, it has become more difficult to sustain the funds needed for our work.

For that reason, we are asking for help.

Our Sustainers support our programs and work with consistent donations, allowing for programs to expand and explore new possibilities and potentialities of our work.

sustaining Conscious Impact

Many organizations have a start and finish model, but our model is different, we want to support resilient communities to face their ever changing needs which takes time, commitment, flexibility, trust and empathy.

Conscious Impact is more committed to our work now, after 7 years, than ever. While all families have finally been able to rebuild their homes after the earthquake, we believe our work supporting sustainable agriculture, youth empowerment, clean drinking water, and local artisans is more impactful than anything we have previously done. Our vision is for Conscious Impact to continue our work for generations to come, and in order to do this we need international supporters that can help sustain essential resources.

In honor of the 7 year anniversary of the earthquake, our goal is to find 70 new monthly donors that can contribute at least $10/month.

Anyone that signs up to donate $25/month or more by May 30th will receive freshly roasted Takure coffee beans, shipped directly to your door. And for $50/month, we will include our newest Conscious Impact T-shirt, designed and made in Nepal.

Thank you to everyone that has continued to make this work possible. We love you, and miss you, and invite you to come to Nepal anytime starting October 1st 2022 when we officially reopen our doors. See you soon!

We are forever grateful for some of our most committed and consistent donors, volunteers, staff and everyone else doing their part. We hope to continue to support communities and individuals to connect with themselves, with one another and with the Earth through conscious and effective service work.

Photography by: Jonathan H. Lee of Subtle Dream Photography, Ankit Tanu, Joshua Umesh Bohara, and others

Written by: Orion Haas and Beth Huggins

Our current Sustainers whose monthly donations help our programs and work continue every day. We are continually grateful for their trust and commitment to our work. Kris Rudeegraap | Jim & Dede Huggins | Dylan Ho | Don Krafft | Laura Nyavie | Wil Kiser | Teresa Huebner | The Jacobson Family | Birgit Penzenstadler | Tim O'Brien | Michael Jensen | Jesse Reeck | Elizabeth Layton | Ryan Serrano & family | Dora Lee | Mae Beth Price | Jonathan H. Lee | Anne Goodman | Travis Ludlum | Arnaud Joakim | Ben Perlmutter | Cindy Hecht | Matthew Wayne | Susan Emery | Brian Schneider | Frankie Lee | Carol Fox | Marit de Looijer | Trevor Fedele | Candace Forest | John Paula | John Clawson | Felicia Newhouse | Skjalg Bjørkevoll | Dan & Kristi Michener | Steven Ring | Rebecca Dempewolf | Christy Gervers | Tim Gehring | Kaela De Deaux | Eleanor Casson | Sarah Albinda | Lina Reitze | Sarah Beucher | Tim Junge | Also special thanks to Drew Marshall for his continuous generous and helping our work accomplish all of its goals!

Plant Trees During COVID-19

COVID-19 has changed the world, creating uncertainty and challenges for every human being. Businesses are closing, travel is stopped and thousands of people are facing compromised health. We send our love and appreciation to everyone that is in the middle of this struggle, and our deepest gratitude to each of you that is taking care of yourself and others during this time. We hope that you and your family are healthy, well and able to find peace, wherever you may be.

Here in Nepal, the country is dealing with similar challenges, dozens of new COVID-19 cases everyday, and the first few COVID-19 deaths this past week. A nationwide lockdown has been issued until June 2nd, and the international airport is closed. The economic challenges of the lockdown are beginning to affect all families in Nepal. There have been very few cases of coronavirus in the district of Sindhupalchok where we live, and most farmers continue their lives as usual, planting corn in the fields and collecting grass for their animals. At Conscious Impact, we are healthy and eating well, sheltered in place at our camp in Takure.

Despite the global crisis, local farmers have no choice but to continue their work, and we are committed to supporting them in any way we can. Many farmers already rely on less than $5/day of income, and often struggle to afford basic necessities such as food, supplies and education for their children. Taking a break from their work is just not an option. Similarly, we feel that our work in Takure and around this region is essential, and we aim to continue supporting farmers in every way that we can. Global challenges like climate change, economic instability and COVID-19 are not new to these rural families that have spent generations building self-sufficiency, and our work has always been to strengthen their resilience and independence. We believe that planting coffee trees is one of the greatest ways we can support the planet and Takure families during these challenging times.

We are asking for support to continue this work.

Goma Kafle (shown in the above photo) is one of Conscious Impact's partner farmers. In the last 5 years, she has planted more than 250 coffee trees with our support, and this year she harvested beautiful coffee cherries! Her mature coffee trees will increase her annual income by more than 1200 USD to buy essential food and supplies for her family.

Every coffee tree planted and cared for sequesters carbon, mitigates climate change and provides a much needed sustainable livelihood for local farmers. A single coffee tree can produce 10kg of red cherry every year. At $1/kg, a farm of 100 trees can bring in an extra $1000/year, or nearly the equivalent of a year’s salary for one full-time job. This makes an enormous difference in the lives of these farmers and their families.

Over the past 5 years, Conscious Impact has partnered with over 100 farmers to plant more than 15,000 trees.

Our goal this year is to plant another 3,000 coffee trees.

We are asking for help to fundraise $15,000 to keep Conscious Impact working to support Nepali farmers during this challenging time.

The work has already begun, and the Conscious Impact team is working every day to plant trees alongside local families. COVID-19, however, has stopped all international travel to Nepal, and halted the majority of income to Conscious Impact. Without any donations, we are unable to pay our local staff and provide the necessary support to continue. After 5 years of hard work to get this far, we are not ready to quit. We are so grateful to anyone considering donating to our current fundraising campaign.

Each donation of $5 "adopts" one coffee tree in Nepal for life. That means digging the hole, carrying compost, planting the tree and providing the initial care. It also includes follow up consultations and support from our Nepali team and international volunteers for years to come.

Each tree produces 10 kg of red cherry equivalent to 10 USD in annual income to a local farmer. We support farmers to plant 50-100 trees depending on their land availability, which can provide an additional 500-1000 USD annually (nearly doubling many local families' annual income). 

$5 Donation = 1 Tree Adopted for Life

$25 = Adopt 5 Trees 

$50 = Adopt 10 Trees

$100 = Adopt 20 Trees

$500 = Adopt 100 Trees or a Local Farm (supports a farmer to increase their annual income by $500-1000)

We understand that right now is a difficult time for people all across the world. COVID-19 has changed all of our lives, and many of us are suffering. We truly hope that you and your family are healthy and well during this time. If you are not in a position to fundraise, we completely understand. If you can still help share this campaign and spread awareness about our work with others, that is also helpful. Every donation helps, just $25-$50 can plant and care for 5-10 trees. 

Above, Sanu Kanchi Rana Magar stands alongside her husband Ambar with one of their new coffee trees. This tree, as well as dozens of others they have planted, will provide much needed income to their family in future years.

Additionally, every tree planted sequesters carbon, mitigates climate change, supports local ecology and rebuilds soil. Our goal is to plant more than 50,000 trees in the next 10 years to transform the environment and economy of the local area. 

Narayan Bhattarai, our Lead Community Organizer, stands with his wife Sita and daughter Anju (in the above photo) next to one of their 4-year-old coffee trees. Narayan will be one of the staff that Conscious Impact continues to employ with the support of our international donors. He has more than 100 trees planted, and is excited to continue training farmers across this region of the Himalayas to plant coffee for years to come.

Kumary Bomjon, our Agriculture Program Lead (shown in the above photo), sits happily among more than 50kgs of locally harvested coffee. Our goal is for coffee to become abundant in this region of the Himalayas so that local families can sustain their livelihoods without needing to leave to the cities or foreign countries for work. Coffee is a great cash crop, in addition to being great for the local environment. We love it and we hope you do to!

Thank you for your support, and we look forward to the day when you too can taste locally harvested Takure coffee. :)

Sustain Us: Our Story, Our Vision

Watch our Newest Video

Here it is. Our greatest video ever!

It shows our story, our work and the beautiful people and places that make Conscious Impact who we are.

Since the 2015 earthquake in Nepal, Conscious Impact has been committed to the long-term support of the families in and around the village of Takure. We believe that only through continued collaboration is powerful and conscious transformation possible. This video shows our commitment, and asks our supporters (that's you!) to help sustain this work for years to come.

Our commitment to Takure is for the long-term.

We believe that only through sustained support to the people of Nepal can we make a real impact.

Will you help to sustain our work?

We have already planted 15,000+ trees, produced 150,000+ earth bricks and provided safe and empowered learning spaces to more than 150 young boys and girls in Takure. But the work has just begun.

We will continue to serve Takure and the surrounding communities of the Himalayas for the next generation. We will continue to protect the environment and reforest the region. We will continue to invite you to come visit us in Nepal, to our beautiful home in the mountains. Today, we ask for your support to ensure this work can continue.

Join our Sustainer Team today: www.consciousimpact.org/donate

This film was made possible the amazing Jonathan H. Lee and the entire Conscious Impact team. Thank you to all of our past volunteers that have poured their hearts and souls into our work. And thank you to everyone that supports us from afar, all across the world. We are SO grateful.

Best wishes from all of us,

The Conscious Impact Team

Books for Bricks

“Books for Bricks”

By: Petey John Cunningham

Me, holding a poster we had made for the event.

A few weeks before I arrived in Nepal in December of 2015, I confess that doubt weighed heavily on my mind. I’m an international affairs student at Northeastern University in Boston, and much of my degree has been spent learning about international development. Despite my decision to volunteer, I’d heard countless examples of irresponsible or exploitative development practices and feared that those practices, or worse, awaited me in Takure.

"I was relieved and grateful to find an organization as responsible, caring and hard-working as Conscious Impact proved to be."

Sale day, with my Nepali friend Raj manning the booth!

The ten days I spent with the Conscious Impact team tore those fears from my mind, root and stem.... I was relieved and grateful to find an organization as responsible, caring and hard-working as Conscious Impact proved to be. Upon my return to Boston in the fall of 2016 after a semester studying in London, I decided that I wanted to raise funds for this cause and organization that to this day remains so close to my heart.

My Momma, helping to sort and organize books!

During my time in London, I attended a $1 used book fundraiser hosted by Amnesty International. I decided to bring the idea back to Boston and host my own series of book sales within the Northeastern community, on behalf of Conscious Impact. This approach heartily appealed to me because it creates value for both the giver and the receiver, donors get wonderful new reading material, and the people of Takure get the funds they need to rebuild.

Conscious Impact’s official Sales Associates!

I sent emails to bookstores, libraries, professors, family and friends, soliciting book donations from as many sources as I could imagine; I parted with much of my own personal library. At one point, over 800 books sat in my Mom’s living room; you can imagine how appreciative she was of the clutter! I used my connections with two groups on campus, the Program on Human Rights and the Global Economy (PHRGE) and the NU Buddhist Group, to have the sales officially sanctioned by the university and, in October, I held my first sale. With friends and family staffing the tables, and speakers blaring our favorite music, the “Books for Bricks” vibe was more ‘party’ than ‘bookstore’!

Northeastern’s mascot Paws striking a pose!

The fundraiser cost me no more than time, and the gas I used driving my mom’s little red Chevy to transport boxes, first from the donors to my home, and then from my home to the sale sites. Each book cost only $1, but customers were, of course, encouraged to donate extra if the urge struck them. Often enough, they generously left me their change, or an extra dollar or two. All in all, the sales raised $1573.87.

I have to take a moment to thank all those who helped: my fantastic friends, my many book donors, and my incomparable mother. Their assistance made all the difference.

Drink Good to Do Good

In December some friends and I hosted a guest bartending fundraiser at a popular bar in San Francisco, CA. In large cities you might be lucky enough to find bars/restaurants that open up their businesses to do something similar. Essentially, during a low traffic period of time (in our case, a Saturday from 6-9PM), you and a group of friends can go behind the bar and make drinks, and all tips (possibly both cash and credit depending on the business) will be pooled and donated to your initiative. 

Depending on how well you advertise, you can make anywhere from $100 - $2000 dollars. On top of the tips earned, another volunteer and I donated several items to be raffled off, mostly a bunch of leftover souvenirs from Nepal. The more people drink, the easier it is to get them to buy raffle tickets ;) 

I organized the fundraiser in conjunction with a friend also raising money for a volunteer trip to Peru. After splitting costs, we raised around $400 for Conscious Impact.

Aly's Poetry Book Fundraiser

My second fundraising effort was through a personal poetry book that I printed myself. I bought a bulk amount of paper at Paper Source and printed about 80 copies through multiple avenues, such as a printing room at a friend's former art school and Office Depot. I bound the books myself using hemp cord and gave them as gifts for minimum $10 donations.

I advertised this fundraiser on Facebook and Instagram.

I asked donors to email me their address with a screenshot of their donation so I could ship the book over to them. 

In total, I spent about $400 of my own money on materials, printing costs, and shipping costs. I absorbed around $330 of the profits gained to reimburse myself.

I raised $1,534. 

...with an average donation of $20.45 per person. 

You can read the poetry and writing that was featured in the book on my blog, alysonnoele.com

Dillion and Tayler's FundRAGER!

With 7% ($210) of our funding left to raise after closing our Generosity page, we decided to throw a party.

Overview

We charged $5 for admission at the door, which got attendees access to a keg, some pretzels and chips, and performances by 5 musical acts. If they were not into drinking beer (or at least, the beer provided), they could buy mixed drinks at a staffed bar for $3/ea. If they were feeling like they wanted something more substantial than chips or pretzels to fill their stomachs, we offered bowls of dhal bhat, served at the bar for $1/ea (Dhallar Deals!!!).

We raised $1,074.04!

Party Planning

We had 8 friends that volunteered to work shifts to create the party. One of them was the dedicated ‘sound guy’ for the night, helping bands/solo acts setup and teardown. He also managed the mixer and made sure the sonic waves kept bumping their bump. The other 7 rotated through one hour-long shifts at the door (taking money for admission) or at the bar (mixing drinks). We had a schedule of everyone’s shifts made a day in advance and made sure everyone received an electronic copy.

The PA system was donated for use by one of Dillon’s coworkers. All of the musicians were willing to play for free. We happen to utilize enough ‘cool’/groovy lighting in our household (color-changing LED bulbs, laser-like projectors, etc.) that we did not need to hire anyone from the outside to take care of lighting (although we did have a visual artist/audio engineer offer to take part in any future events that we throw for free).

Our goal was the cover the cost of the party through admissions alone (this gave us an estimated attendance goal). We made a point to reach out to people individually to find out if they were coming, and to let them know to invite all of their friends. We made sure to let people know about the event during the weeks leading up to it whenever we were at other parties/bars.

We made sure to let all of our neighbors know what was going on, and gave them our contact info in case they needed to reach us.

Facebook event

*Special note: We had a friend’s parent agree to match all of the contributions given that night, effectively doubling the impact of every dollar earned.

Turnout

About 60-70 people showed up. Fun was had. Musics were played. Bodies danced. We tapped out the keg much faster than anticipated, and ended up having to make a run to the grocery store to get more beer mid-party. All of the dhal bhat was eaten, and almost of the liquor was consumed by the end of the night.

---

Budget

$95.00

$12.00

$99.27

$63.99

$25.00

DONATED

$36.38

$14.32

$345.96

Keg

Tap

Liquor Store Trip

Safeway Trip

Last Store Trip

Chris' Store Trip

Last Minute Booze

Ice

Total: 

---

Breakdown:

• Keg: Handful of Hops by Stormbreaker (roommate is an employee, we got a good discount)
• Tap: Rented
• Liquor Store Trip: Self explanatory
• Safeway Trip: Mixers, Cups, Straws, Cocktail Ingredients
• Last Store Trip: Snacks, remaining ingredients for dhal bhat (our household already had 25lb buckets of both lentils and rice)
• Chris’ Store Trip: Extra cups and ice
• Last Minute Booze: 2x 24 packs of Pabst Blue Ribbon
• Ice: Self explanatory

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Return

$710

$364.04

$710

$1,074.04

Gross

Profit

Matching Donation

Total Profit

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Rose's Raffle to Rebuild Nepal

Before I starting working with Conscious Impact in Nepal, I was managing a cafe in Northern California. I exchanged my tip jar for a raffle ticket jar during my shifts and the other employees graciously kept the jar out on the counter during theirs. I live in wine country, so a couple weeks prior to starting my fundraiser, I called all the local wineries and restaurants in town. I even reached out to friends who offered services are masseurs, hair stylists, and horseback riding instructors. There wasn't a single person/business who turned me down when I asked for a donation. It's incredible how excited people are to give to a good cause and support folks volunteerings in their community. 

The only cost of setting up this fundraiser were the tickets, which cost about $5.

I created a spreadsheet to keep track of all of the donations. When someone bought a ticket, I had them write their full name and phone number on it. Because I had a couple of months to fundraise, I left the raffle open for two months. Tickets were $5 each, so $20 for 5. I found that most people bought 5 and it gave me a great opportunity to talk about Conscious Impact.

I raised $1,653.

Alyson's Painting Fundraiser

My first fundraising effort was an art gift fundraiser, where I offered donors the option of receiving a painting as a gift for certain tiers of fundraising. I advertised predominantly through Facebook and Instagram. On Facebook, I created an event, inviting all my friends to donate in order to receive gifts and support Conscious Impact's work in Nepal.

I raised $1,500!

$10 donations were gifted hand painted thank you cards

$25 donations were gifted small 5x4 watercolor paintings

$50 donations were gifted medium-sized 6x10 watercolor paintings

$100 donations were gifted large 8x12 watercolor paintings