Standing with Nepal

Masayo Yasuki and the dogstar team in Brisbane, Australia are collecting donations to send to Nepal via the Japanese Buddhist community based in Kathmandu.

Here is a few things $50 AUD can help with in this situation.

1. Emergency Sheltering & Roofing Kit

2.Community grade Mud & Debris Clearance Toolkit

3. Structural Bamboo Framework Package

4. Emergency Domestic Re-furnishing Kit

5.Purchasing Power for Raw Materials

6. 10,000 to 20,000 Water Purification Tablets

A story of connection, community and support.

Earlier this year, through a Buddhist temple in Japan and a Buddhist monk who I respect very much, I had a wonderful opportunity to connect with a small community in Nepal.

From this connection, I started a very small team in Nepal.

My idea was very simple. I wanted to work with local people, create some work opportunities, and hopefully make something beautiful together.

We had just started making some wool samples, and I was actually planning to visit Nepal this month to meet everyone and work together.

Then this disaster happened.

What timing.

Fortunately, the Buddhist temple we work with was not affected, and everyone in their Buddhist community is safe. I was so relieved to hear this.

However, some of the people connected to the factory we have been working with were badly affected by the flooding. Some families have lost their homes.

It is very sad to see this, especially when we had only just started working together.

For now, we have decided to stop our collection development for a little while.

Instead, I would like us to focus on helping the people who have been affected and support them to recover and return to their normal life as soon as possible.

My connection with Nepal is still very small and only started this year.

But I cannot ignore the people I have met and started working with when something like this suddenly happens to them.

This kind of disaster could happen to any of us tomorrow.

It made me think again how lucky we are to wake up safely, go to work, spend time with our family and simply live our normal everyday life.

Sometimes we forget how precious a normal day really is.

At the same time, I started thinking about what we can do now.

So we have decided to start a small fundraising activity through dogstar to support the people affected by the floods in Nepal.

Every single cent we raise will be donated directly to this community and our Buddhist team in Nepal to support their recovery and help them return to their normal lives as soon as possible.

What we can do may be very small, but I believe even a small help can make some difference.

If you would like to support us, we would be very grateful for your kindness and contribution.

The photographs I am sharing here were sent to me recently by Gyanu Dahal, who I work with in Nepal and who is now a part of our dogstar team.

These are some photos of our monk and the community he has been working with, building a temple after the Nepal earthquake in 2015.

This small connection with Nepal came to me unexpectedly this year.

I don't want this connection to be wasted.

I hope we can continue to support the people there, work together again when they are ready, and hopefully create something beautiful together in the future.

Thank you very much for reading my story and for standing with Nepal.

Kind regards,

Masayo