Greencastle natives' mission in Nepal drastically changed

Developing Hands spent a decade raising money to build a school Mankha, located in the Sindhupalchowk District of Nepal. Locals (above) pitched in to build the school, which was set to be almost complete in June. The non-profit board members, including a Greencastle native, had tickets to fly over at the end of May for the grand opening of the school, but now plans have changed. The school building sustained major damage due to the recent earthquake. (Courtesy Photo)

A trip that started out as a celebratory venture to Nepal has turned into a disaster relief effort for two Greencastle natives.

"Right now our mission has changed from doing the ribbon cutting and grand opening for our new school to a full-on humanitarian relief effort," Keith Robinson stressed.

Robinson, a Greencastle High School graduate, and Tyler Davies, a North Putnam graduate, are flying to Nepal at the end of May and are looking to raise funds through the organization Developing Hands, based in Colorado, to help those in need.

The extent of damage to the school building in not known at this time, but Developing Hands is more concerned about helping the people of the village. (Courtesy photo)

Robinson has served as the president of the Developing Hands board of directors for seven years. The non-profit organization, consisting of a small group of friends, spent a decade raising funds to build a school in Mankha, located in the Sindhupalchowk District of Nepal.

Last year, they finally raised enough money to build a school up a steep hill in the district in a remote area of Nepal -- the country where the organization's founders, Mukesh Jha and Aspara Aryal were raised.

Starting last October, their hard work started to take shape in the district (similar to a state) with a population of about 287,798 people.

The school was expected to be nearing completion at the beginning of June, so last month Robinson, Mukesh Jha and two friends purchased tickets to head to Nepal on May 29 for a ribbon cutting to open the school to the public.

Last week, the organization's plans drastically changed when they learned not only had Nepal been hit with a deadly earthquake, but the district of their focus had been hit the hardest with about 95 percent of structures destroyed.

Robinson said recently released information shows at least 630 families in the district are now homeless. The school they had worked so hard to make possible also sustained severe damage.

"My reaction has evolved over the last few days. My initial response was absolute horror and and almost disbelief that the magnitude of what we are witnessing. Having been to Nepal, it's a difficult thing to describe what the conditions were there before the earthquake," Robinson said. "It's been difficult to look at the images and see what's going on. You see one photo and think that's horrible, but if you multiply that on the scale of it all, and it's gutwrenching."

With little to no electricity and phone reception in the area, the group is not sure of the overall devastation. They are staying in contact, but it is hard to gather the information.

Robinson stressed right now the school is the least of their worries. Helping the people of Nepal has become a top priority, but they will be needing help to do so.

Developing Hands is now seeking a whole new round of donations to help those who are without shelter, food or clothing. Robinson said he hopes his hometown of Greencastle and Putnam County will extend a helping hand by making a monetary donation.

Robinson stressed the small organization works without a "middle man," so every dollar that is donated will make it to the Nepalize district to help with the relief. The goal is to raise $100,000 by the time they leave May 29.

Donations can be made online at www.developinghands.org/helpnepal.

"Everyone has concern about donating money to a non-profit that they don't really know and sometimes things get where they are supposed to be and sometimes they don't ... The thing that we offer is that we are physically taking the money and supplies with us, so we know that 100 percent of everything that is donated to our organization is going with us to Nepal," Robinson noted.

In an effort to provide the best services possible, the group has extended its stay to three weeks, doubling the time it had initially planned for the stay.

Robinson said the recent timeline shows that this group was meant to be in Nepal to help with disaster aid. The group already had tickets purchased for the trip in the biggest time of need without even knowing it.

Davies said he was on his way home from Tokyo when he saw the news of the disaster, and said he knew in his gut that his plans to travel to China in a few weeks would be changing. He had assisted with Developing Hands fundraising in the past, so he was familiar with the organization and also passionate about the cause. He had been to Nepal twice in the past, so his initial reaction was to call those he had befriended in the area.

Robinson said the group's treasurer recently had a change in his life that allowed him the time to begin working full time on the project.

Also, the group's biggest fundraiser of the year is set for the weekend before they leave for Nepal. Annually, the group volunteers at the Boulder Creek Festival's Beer Tent. The group is able to keep the tips and a percentage of the sales to be used toward the building of the school. Although, this year they will be using the funds in their disaster relief effort.

"This is going to be an ongoing effort. Nepal doesn't have a lot of the things we take for granted here in the U.S. They don't have big machinery. They don't have ways to get organized like we can here in the U.S. Or in Europe. They don't have the capacity to bounce back like we would here," Robinson said.