Nepal Mission: Join Us.
Let there be light!
Most of us underestimate the importance of light in our lives- In developing countries life is dictated by the sun. When a village has no access to an electrical power grid or generator or when power has been destroyed by a natural disaster such as an earthquake or hurricane, much work can only take place when there is daylight. It’s estimated that a quarter of the world’s population—1.6 BILLION people—live without electricity or light, limiting the hours they have for activities like cleaning, sewing, socializing or studying.
On a more personal note “In Haiti I witnessed the power of light in a way I hadn’t thought of before. We were running a camp for over 65,000 earthquake victims and I noticed a correlation between the absence of light and the number of rape victims I was seeing in our field hospital daily. When the large solar lights were down (due to theft or damage) rapes went up 80% overnight as women were forced to walk around in the dark and raped without any witnesses.
I have given out many lights to rape victims all over the world and some people write back to tell me how much safer they feel now that they can see what is coming in the dark. They also beg for more lights for their friends, who are also scared. It was in these moments that the importance of light became tattooed into my heart and the journey with The Solar Puff began.
The solar light now has its own song written and sung by beautiful humanitarian song writer Ruby Stewart ( Rod’s daughter) and Alyssa Bonogura -who have worked with me in Haiti. They are helping to raise money to give out lights around the world in the One Light campaign- please join the movement and help us get more lights to Haiti, and Nepal.
One light costs 15$ each.
The solar light song is called “One Light ” and was written by Ruby Stewart and Alyssa Bonogura from the Sisterhood band. Please donate so we can bring many more lights to Nepal and Haiti.
LIGHT DELIVERY:
The solar lights have reached the remote villages of Baseri in Nepal.
Last week I experienced one of the hardest physical climb of my life starting with a 5 hour jeep ride in one lane deep slippery clay up steep mountains to a 10 hour hike straight up the mountain in intense heat and then the last 4 hours in monsoons rains and darkness as leeches crawled up volunteers legs. Exhausted and wet, but finally at the summit, we fell asleep on the floor of a newly built dirt shed full of cockroaches and we awoke up to the most beautiful welcome from the people of Baseri village. Their villages were all destroyed in the 2015 earthquake.
The people have an innocence I hadn’t seen in a long time and I practiced squatting with the local women (which is hard to be able to do it for long without falling over as I did frequently). Its a long crafted art.
We had been told about this village by Denise Attwood (from Garnesh Trading company) who had stumbled onto the village 30 years earlier while treking in Nepal from the USA. She had stayed in touch and built them a new medical center which now lay in ruins along with their school and all the houses.
That night the whole village, along with Third Wave NY volunteers Max and Lorraine and myself celebrated new light for the village. The locals were so happy they danced all night with the lights- what a great experience!
Join us on the next one!
A huge thank you to The Sisterhood band, Paul Borrud for the Nepal Drone footage, Mallory Brown -Ryan Doyle- Archana Gurung for volunteering and the Nepal footage and Danielle Dreis for Haiti footage and Fredric King who spent long hours volunteering on the editing and producing of this video feature.
Thank you to Emily Hime- at Hime for Help Haiti orphanage and Krisisna Bliss and Archana who spent long hours volunteering in Nepal and helping Third Wave volunteers. Thank you to Third Wave Volunteers and Jen Q Adams and LAHAF.
