Disaster in Nepal stirs caring response through Conscious Connections

 

While Nepal is far away, many Spokane people have personal connections there.

At a Sept. 3 fundraiser in the Community Building foyer, about 50 supporters of fair trade and Conscious Connections Foundation (CCF) heard updates on Nepal after the glacial flooding Aug. 26 from Tibet through the Trishuli River watershed.

While CCF provides access to education, healthcare and economic opportunities in Nepal, it has responded to disasters in the past, providing aid after the 2015 earthquake and supplies during COVID. Their sister nonprofit, Conscious Connections Nepal (CCN), is on the ground in Nepal, working with people affected by the disaster.

In Spokane, thousands of miles from his home in Nepal, Satish Shrestha, a volunteer with CCF, said at the presentation and in a blog post that he is heartened to realize so many people here care about the devastation there.

Satish, who now leads a data and applications team serving North American universities, said his physics, business and leadership degrees taught him about the intersection of technology and humanity. In Spokane, he also works with CCF to help people in the mountains of Nepal.

"Pasang Tamang, a childhood friend, grew up in Thuman, a village that neighbors Syabru Besi and Timure, two of the devastated areas. While most of her family is now in Kathmandu or abroad, many relatives still live in the region. Her family stopped counting how many people they've lost. Every day brings news of someone else. The grief and stress are constant and compounding," he said. "Her focus is to help people survive. She works in public health with nonprofits in her village."

She received a doctoral degree in public health from the University of Huddersfield the United Kingdom to help women and reduce the infant mortality rate.

For her, as for him, education was the way out of poverty.

"As I watched villages being swept away, I thought about the climate change that led to Nepal's glaciers melting," he said. "Nepali people suffer not because of their actions. They are responsible for one-tenth of one percent of greenhouse gases, yet they are the ones who suffer.

When he asked Pasang what he could do, she said to look past the next few weeks. The greater need is after people survive and as they carry the stress, trauma and burden of rebuilding.

 "I'm grateful that in Spokane so many people care about Nepal, where CCF and Ganesh Himal have been helping for more than 40 years," he said.

CCF's work is personal for him, as he calls people to help educate children who lost parents.

"In Nepal, education is the clearest route to stability and opportunity. Money and fundraising matter. We need to mobilize it for lasting impact, not just immediate relief," Satish said.

Denise Attwood, CCF board chair, said on Sept. 3 that the CCF, which focuses on removing barriers to women, grew out of Ganesh Himal Trading Co. She founded the fair-trade wholesale business in 1985 with her husband, Ric, to work with Nepali artisans and sell their goods.

"Spokane is an amazing community in how people support fair trade, and CCF," she said.

Through Ganesh Himal and CCF, they have used their long-term relationships to set up channels of relief with Nepali women.

"These women are smart, they just need resources and to be heard," Denise added. "As people share ideas with us, we help them realize them, providing the tools they need to help each other."

This disaster is no different. On the day of the flood, women in Nuwakot, who had lost everything, requested menstrual hygiene supplies, and CCF put 245 kits on a truck. CCF has since had requests for 500 more kits for women displaced and now housed in Kathmandu, she reported. Kits are being provided.

More relief is offered through the connection with Pasang. At her communities' request, CCF is purchasing 150 NLP gas-filled cylinders for villagers cut off from roads by the floods.

"CCF also thinks of the long-term needs. Given our work with educating girls, villagers have told us that many children were orphaned and will need support to continue their education," Denise said. "To do this, we have to ensure there are sufficient funds so the children impacted can stay in school for multiple years. If we are asked to do this, we are committed to supporting them through their education, because these children need stability."

CCF is already providing disaster preparedness and first aid training, as part of long-term disaster relief. Remote communities where CCF has done menstrual hygiene trainings since 2017 have asked CCF to provide emergency first aid and climate disaster preparation, because they know more disasters are in their future.

In 2025, CCF created a program to provide women in remote areas with resources to help them manage effects of climate change.

"Perhaps we can work with organizations like the GU Institute for Climate, Water and the Environment on global warming to mitigate what is happening in Nepal's mountains, rivers and homes. CCF programs ask if the work will have an impact 20 years in the future," she said.

"The hard work comes after aid groups go and world the turns to the next disaster. So, we are assessing strengths and connections CCF/CCN have and are talking with those impacted to learn how we can provide support and preventive measures to communities," said Denise.

Brian Henning, director of the Gonzaga Institute for Climate, Water and the Environment, also spoke Sept. 3, noting that disasters such as the one in Nepal are not going away. They are a partial result of global warming.

"Climate change impacts those who have contributed the least to global warming," he said, pointing out the importance of women in Nepal educating their communities and building strategies for survival.

Denise said donations at the evening event and later, plus 10 percent of Kizuri sales raised $20,000 for CCF's disaster relief and long-term recovery in Nepal.

For information, call 499-3320 or visit consciousconnectionsfoundation.org.