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LED light education development, Mick Bromley Wilderness Trekking, Nepal Earthquake How to Help, Trekking in Nepal, Umbrella Org
Photo from Wilderness Trekking/Mick Bromley
My friend Mick Bromley of Wilderness Trekking specializes in treks to the Himalayas, and he often talks lovingly of Nepal. I enjoy receiving his newsletter, The Dirty Sock, which is like having a visit with him in person. This past Sunday I was relieved to see a special edition titled: Nepal Earthquake Message. I was glad to know that Mick was ok, but he confirmed what many readers feared, “The epicenter of the earthquake appears to have been very close to the Tsum and Manaslu regions, where we have been trekking extensively over the past 5 years.” With his permission, here is that newsletter and a second update which arrived yesterday. ( Mick will send more-tailored images later, but these are from the Wilderness Trekking website.) (Thanks, Mick)
(Sunday, April 26, 2015) Update #1
Dear Friends and Staff connected with Nepal,
It is with immense sadness that I am contacting you regarding the terrible news of the earthquake in Nepal. Thank you to everyone writing and phoning to express their concern and desire to help. Communications are very difficult at present and I can offer very little in terms of how your friends and staff from trekking are. I can say that Arjun, originally from Umbrella, has been in contact and is OK and I have second hand information that Namgyal and his mother from Tsum are safe and in Kathmandu.
My own feelings are, that as tragic as the news reports are at present, things will only get worse as more news comes in. As anyone who has travelled in Nepal will know, communications are difficult at the best of times, and there is still virtually no news from more remote areas. The epicenter of the earthquake appears to have been very close to the Tsum and Manaslu regions, where we have been trekking extensively over the past 5 years. Many of you will have intense and personal feelings about this. I do feel for your sense of helplessness and sadness. I promise I will pass on information as I hear anything. My personal intentions are to ‘repay’ our experiences and friendships from this region as best we can in this tragic time and into the future.
Regarding offers of help, I do not pretend to know what is best in the immediate future. My own personal and Wilderness Trekking intention is to support some of our long term staff and friends through direct financial assistance in the short term (support with this would be gratefully accepted), and to organize several ‘medical and healing treks’ which will be a way to raise funds to re-build and supply remote medical outposts, directly offer employment for our staff, be a vehicle to get medical supplies into Tsum and Manaslu regions and to offer hope and companionship to our Nepali friends. Anyone wishing to trek with us, or with medical expertise, fundraising experience or musical talents to share on the journey please be in touch and we will get dates for the treks out to you asap.
I do believe that your personal prayers and positive intentions have immense power. So let’s start there and please be in touch if you feel able or drawn to take part one of our support treks in the coming year or are able to offer some financial help to our friends and staff in the short term. I will be giving more public presentations on Quadra, and in Victoria and Vancouver in the near future. Thanks again for all your concern.
Photos – Wilderness Trekking/Mick Bromley
Photos – Wilderness Trekking/Mick Bromley
(Tuesday, April 28, 2015) Update #2
Dear Friends and Staff connected with Nepal,
I continue to acknowledge our common intense sadness over events in Nepal, and express thanks for the many offers of support. I suggest the following as a way to direct your financial and emotional support, immediately and effectively. Please do not send any donations to Wilderness Trekking. The situation in Nepal is desperate, please commit to supporting our friends as soon as possible, and to follow their developments directly through the links below.
For Direct Financial Assistant in Kathmandu – The Umbrella Foundation I suggest sending financial donations to our long time friends at The Umbrella Foundation in Kathmandu. Many of you know or have visited Umbrella. Their children are currently sleeping undercover outside. They will also outreach to support others as best they can, through a strong and honest infrastructure. They will be supporting vulnerable youth in Kathmandu well into the future. It is my hope that a few of our Umbrella Trekking Staff may return and support Umbrella’s team. Umbrella are also excellent at international communications so you can follow their progress directly, links below.
To Donate: umbrellanepal.org/donate/ Website: umbrellanepal.org Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheUmbrellaFoundation?fref=ts
For Direct Emergency Assistance Tsum and Manaslu Mountain Regions
I suggest giving direct financial assistance to LED – Light Education Development. LED is on the ground in Nepal getting emergency tents, food and medical supplies into remote mountain communities, particularly right now, the Tsum and Manaslu regions. LED is coordinated by Val Pitkethly. Val has been working in the Manaslu and Tsum regions for years and has the best on the ground connections and ability to get things done directly in these regions, right now.
To Donate: https://www.justgiving.com/lighteducationdevelopment Website: http://lighteducationdevelopment.org/about/ Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/LEDCharity?fref=ts
For Direct Financial Assistance to individual friends in Nepal
From a Wilderness Trekking perspective, we have inadvertently created a very small but connected community, through a challenging, inspiring shared experience in the Himalaya. Firstly I want to pray for the survival of our close mountain companions, and when, hopefully, communications are re-established, I intend to help them survive and re-build their lives. If you remember Devi, Umbang, Dawa, Deepack, Arjun, Amar, Namgyal or any of our other staff who have given their ‘all’ to us on our journeys, please consider supporting them directly when this becomes possible. I am happy to assist you with this.
There are of course so many people and organizations working in so many ways to help in Nepal. I just offer my personal suggestions in answer to the many generous offers that are being made, and please keep emailing with the many connections, ideas and support you have.
Please share any of this information with friends and colleagues to encourage the greatest possible support for our brothers and sisters in Nepal. Sincerely, Mick – Wilderness Trekking
Photos – Wilderness Trekking/Mick Bromley
Photos – Wilderness Trekking/Mick Bromley
Spread the info to anyone that you think might want to help. Thanks, Z
Zeebra Designs & Destinations 
Thank you for sharing this.
Alison
Thank you, as well. Mick is a really kind and gentle person, and he is surely feeling torn to not be in Nepal and activvely helping.
Thanks for the updates, the people in Nepal are in our thoughts and prayers
Thanks; you two would certainly be there helping if it were possible… (As would I)
Thank you for sharing this! It is heart-wrenching to hear this on the news…even more so from this personal perspective.
Thank you, Cindy; I am not surprised that you’d be touched by his words that reflect his love for the area and its people.
Thankyou for sharing, this tragedy is hear wrenching. We are helping financially through local organisations. I do hope the efforts of your friend are healing and helpful.
What a tragedy. Thank you for sharing this as I have been reading quite a bit on Nepal lately. The personal experience adds another perspective. The photos are quite amazing showing a very interesting place. I wish them best of everything in getting back to normalcy.
Thanks for sharing. There is nothing like someone with personal experience to bring the story home.
thank you so much. I hope the the news folks haven’t moved on to the next headliner…
Z, thanks for sharing these messages. It is indeed sad with the increasing counts. BTG
thanks; i can easily picture you prompting and working with a team of helpers in situations like this one…
Thanks for sharing this news, Z. My heart is breaking for the people of Nepal. We lived in Kathmandu for a year in the 1990s. One of the best years of my life.
wow, so you’re getting heart-wrenching feelings from several tangents. from your time in nepal and also from your own personal earthquake experiences.
Yes, both ways. Feels like another part of my life has been reduced to rubble.
thank you for this update on the tragic happenings in Nepal
thank you as well; like gallivanta, you probably have experienced some serious quakes….
we had a few…
Your post makes me so grateful that I am a blogger. We can spread the need for support to a large audience and express our hopes for a better future for all. Thank you, Lisa for sharing this. It is heartbreaking.
thanks, debbie, and you’re so right. news can spread much faster, and often gets amazing results. hope all things are improving on ometepe. love, z
Thank you SO much for sharing his valuable insights, especially with regards to his information about donations and help. I can’t fathom what the country, its people, its animals… All of it, are experiencing now. This offers a glimpse of what we can do to help.
XO, Christina
I can only compare this to when Katrina hit the Mississippi Coast and wiped away such a large swath of ‘everything.’ I lasted about thirty seconds when I saw it on the noon news in Costa Rica, and I wept and couldn’t stop. Like you,it’s hard to imagine what they’re doine as they try to pick up the pieces and survive.
Lisa, I would like your permission to reblog this timely and informative post on my own site, since I did at least stir up a few passions about Nepal…May I?
of course it’s ok to reblog this and/or any that you find worthy. presently i’m at home nursing a lovely case of dengue fever, my second. so far it’s not as bad as the first case….
thanks for sharing
,love
z
Reblogged this on Rangewriter and commented:
My friend Lisa from Zeebra Designs & Destinations, world traveler that she is, has information directly from the yak’s mouth about what’s going on in Nepal. I’m honored to reblog her post.