Today most of the BIA team took a day of rest in order to stay in good health for the coming days and weeks ahead. But not all of us…
Based on the recommendation of a family member who had worked with relief teams before, we were advised to make sure we took enough rest not to burn out or develop any serious illnesses. If the team burns out now, they will not be able to continue helping the people of Nepal for the weeks and months to come.
Chogyal Rinpoche, Claudia Wu and four children from SOH collected material for children (dolls, paper, coloring crayons, sweets, etc) and headed out towards the village of Batasi with the intention of setting up a daycare camp for a few hours. Because of landslides the team was not able to go all the way to the area they had intended therefore they stopped at a village along the way that had about 27 homes. The kids of this small village had lots of fun drawing for a few hours and they were able to express their feelings in a constructive way, which is a good way to help reduce any stress. The parents were also very pleased to have some time on their own so they could tend to activities in the fields as well as working on clearing out the rubble from their houses. Based on the visible results of offering a few hours of daycare and drawing therapy, this has been identified as something that the team will definitely repeat in the coming days until school starts again in Nepal on May 29th.
One team member spent the day taking care of our extended BIA family. Beds were provided to the BIA students who are living outside at Jorpati and also the wheelchair access ramp was fixed at BIA Thangka. Each student of BIA Statue team was provided with a blanket to help the families, some of whom lost their homes in the earthquake.
Lastly, we were able to secure 150 pieces of tarp each able to shelter from 7-9 people. These tarps will be distributed to villages in the coming days and bring one or many villages some much needed shelter!
May 14th 2015:
– Bought supplies for daycare center drawing therapy with children.
– Supported BIA extended family with beds, blankets and fixing of BIA Thangka access ramp fixing.
– Bought 150 pieces of tarp to provide to villages on next field operations.
– Setup daycare in village close to Batasi to provide children with drawing therapy.
