A Home For Raju: Continuing to Collect.

It has been a successful time being back in England collecting donations for Raju and his mother’s house building. One of our volunteers, Joel Blaht; who was working on the house foundation some months ago; was very quick to make a donation for the continuation of the work, along with our long-time volunteer website editor and dear friend Daniel.  All three of my brothers and a few of my friends were also very quick to help financially; being interested after hearing about the grim reality this family has been experiencing ever since the earthquakes.

Whilst staying with my friend Glenn Ford near London; I visited a pub in Plumbstead called ‘The Plume of Feathers’ just a stone’s throw from his house. While enjoying a beer with Glenn’s housemate George Mitchell we both got speaking to the pub’s Landlady Ellen Hughes.   Through Ellen’s curiosity of what we were up to in Nepal, she decided she wanted to help fundraise with us and she welcomed us to do a raffle with her customers within the premises. I hadn’t realised before arriving that there is a Nepalese community in Plumbstead.  Although few Nepalis ventured inside the pub’s door, I did socialise for the first time with Nepali people outside of Nepal, which was quite surreal. The raffle took longer than we had hoped however the customers soon warmed to the project and the three bottles of spirits up for grabs with a cuddly toy! They wished me the best on my endeavour and seemed to genuinely want to hear more about the project on my return. A very special thanks to our raffle winner Sarah Simpson, for constantly putting loose change into the pot, a most deserved win. All said and done, Ellen and her husband were both fantastic, also making very kind donations to top up the kitty for Raju’s House. We are very grateful for their strong efforts and along with all their supportive customers we wish them the very best.

We’re also very greatful for the support Glenn and George have given us while in south England and their kind donations to support us rebuild Raju’s home.

Marcel, who was with us on the school site last year developing the land with the huge retaining wall, had been messaging me for months about coming back to Nepal to join us again. Likewise, a new volunteer Johannes, from Germany has been showing his interest persistently through email and eager to help the school project. Due to his dates matching up well with this project he was extremely happy to help us on site in service of Raju’s House. For such a small intimate project and with the plan to put the same Nepali team together, I felt we had enough volunteers with just two to start, but imagined there might be a few more from the backpacking circuit down the line if needed. Feeling great and full of enthusiasm,  we were finally ready to continue the adventure in Nepal.

A massive thank you to everyone that has supported us to continue the work in service of Raju and his mother Phul Maya’s House rebuild to change their situation. We also have continued gratitude for those supporting and following our school project, which is still in development.

A very special thanks to all those who have supported us on this project and donated to the “A home For Raju” funding: Chris Wilson, Tony Wilson, Joel Blaht, Gordon Wilson, Basia Bizon, Daniel Davies, Glenn Ford, George Mitchell, Kevin Galerand, Ellen Hughes and the customers od the Plume of Feathers, Plumbstead.