Nearly five years ago, I had the opportunity to visit the beautiful Himalayan country of Nepal. The main purpose of my trip was to trek to Everest Base Camp, but along the way, I met many wonderful people, experienced different cultures, and saw many beautiful, historic sites. Over the last few days, I’ve seen many of those places on the news: Kathmandu, Patan, Bhaktapur, and, of course, Everest Base Camp. Sadly, those places, look much different in the aftermath of the 2015 Nepal Earthquake. Many of the temples, shrines, statues and buildings are gone now – reduced to rubble.
It is easy to think of the earthquake as an event, and simple to mourn the thousands that died in that event and pray for the thousands more who were injured. But the fact is that the tragedy is ongoing, and the suffering is actually increasing daily as hundreds of thousands of people have been left without homes. Without basic shelter.
Even before the earthquake, I had been thinking about how the built environment, including basic shelter, is such a common need, and yet taken away so easily in a natural disaster such as this. Food, water, and shelter – we all need these things to survive. In Canada, most of us have adequate shelter and will never know what a lack of shelter means. In Toronto, shelter is bought and sold as an investment. Housing is treated as entertainment on our TV channels, and the purchase of it is treated like a sport in the real estate sections of our newspapers. The shelters that many of us live in are palaces compared with the rest of the world.
My visit to Nepal (guided, by the way, by the fantastic people at Tusker Trail) left me with memories that I will treasure for the rest of my life, and I am deeply saddened by the losses that the Nepali people have experienced, and the suffering that they are enduring. To thank Nepal for the wonderful experience that I had there, I have committed that for the next two months, I will donate $50 from each home inspection that Clarke Engineering performs to the Canadian Red Cross Nepal Region Earthquake Fund. If you are looking for a way to help, please consider making your own donation as well.
Namaste
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