 HIO families in Balkhu are coping with the aftermath of unprecedented rainfall and flooding. Dear Friends, Today is the official start to the Dashain festival, the most auspicious holiday celebrated in Nepal. People living in Kathmandu are eager to leave for their villages to gather with family members and relatives. Sadly, recent flooding and landslides caused by unprecedented late-season monsoon rains are putting a damper on the occasion. The disaster has caused 238 deaths and counting throughout Nepal. Many people are missing or injured. The Kathmandu Valley suffered significant damage with roads, homes, bridges and critical infrastructure now destroyed. Our social work team on the ground has been hard at work assessing the impact on HIO families and providing relief from the chaos. Thankfully, all of our girls are safe and accounted for. HIO families in the Balkhu slum have been deeply affected. This squatter community lies along the banks of the Bagmati river, making it particularly vulnerable to seasonal floods. Three days of steady rain this week caused riverbanks to overflow, bringing a steady wash of mud and debris into first floor rooms where many HIO families live. Bedding and household supplies were ruined. Girls’ school uniforms, books and supplies are now unusable.  Sushila Chaurel, HIO-Nepal’s Social Services Manager, assesses flood damage in the heart of the Balkhu Slum where many HIO families live. The Nepal government is coordinating disaster relief efforts, offering food, medicine, clothing and temporary shelters. We’re quietly supplementing this effort for HIO families, providing uniforms and school materials to students who’ve suffered loss. We opened our two learning centers as safe havens for HIO families who needed a brief escape from the devastation in their home communities. We’re offering counseling over the phone and through home visits. HIO’s educational interventions are successful because of our holistic, family-centric approach. The wraparound social services HIO provides are vital for our girls to fully benefit from their access to school. The 2015 earthquakes, pandemic lockdowns and annual floods have led us to systematize emergency response protocols. We want our girls to feel encouraged to focus on their studies, despite routine crises that befall their vulnerable communities. Nepal is known throughout the world for its breathtaking topography. This natural beauty, however, makes the country particularly susceptible to devastating impacts of climate change. Conditions of poverty, coupled with natural disasters, could easily lead our girls into hopeless abandon. Empowering them to rise from the grip of illiteracy, ill health and despair through your gifts of education shifts this narrative. With your kind support, everything is possible. With gratitude — Laura and Ricky  We’ve begun fitting our girls for new uniforms and replacing school supplies that were lost in the flood.
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