C’mon, friends – please join our Seeds of Exchange kula [community] in our support of Help Carry the Load, a crowdraising campaign for and with the people of Nepal.
-Sarah Davison-Tracy
Here’s what we are being invited to do:
- Shoot a short video of you carrying a friend on your back. If you want, say something to the effect of: “We’re helping carry the load. Can you help too?” And, if you can’t piggyback someone, you don’t have to miss out – just show yourself carrying something – big or small, heavy or light – we can all make a difference and #HelpCarryTheLoad!
- Make a tax-exempt donation to emBOLDen Alliances, one of our trusted partners on the ground in Nepal now.
- Share your video far and wide with the hashtag #HelpCarryTheLoad, include these directions in your share, and ask your friends to make their own video. And, please challenge your friends to do this, too!
Ask anyone who has been to Nepal, and they’ll all agree one of the remarkable things they encountered was the people’s ability to carry loads. Towering baskets filled with rice and noodles; fiberoptic cable carried by a barefoot porter high into the mountains; duffel bags loaded down and strapped to the tump-line of a hardworking porter; Sherpa and other Nepalis literally running heavy packs high into the mountains.
And, the loads they carry are not just physical ones. When traveling in Nepal, we foreigners have other loads carried, whether we know it or not. Nepalis carry the load of incredible hospitality. The load of fast friendship and a ready smile. The burden of caring for travelers who may never even know their names. The list goes on.
Now, it is our turn to help carry the load.
On April 25, Nepal was rocked by the worst earthquake in 80 years, a 7.8 on the Richter Scale which reduced much of the rural areas to rubble. An estimated 6 million Nepalis were effected by the quake, and the need is stunning. Relief efforts are ongoing, meeting immediate needs for shelter, food, and medical care. But, long after the relief efforts have finished and the big organizations have gone home, the real load will still need to be carried.
Nepal will need to rebuild. Villages will need to be reconstructed, sometimes literally from the ground up. The work is huge, and will take dedicated teams with a long-term focus, deep experience, and the ability and tenacity to keep going no matter what. And, it will take funds. A lot of funds.
Nepal needs our help carrying this new load. Please help us carry it today…and long into the future.
Together, we CAN #HelpCarryTheLoad and make a resounding difference for Nepal today, and far into the future.” – Jake Norton, of MountainWorld Productions
