Raise a Roof in Kathmandu

Raise a roof will auction five challenges, aside from other fundraising activities to help fund 2 homes for children in Kathmandu.

During the summer of 2010, a group of six students left for Kathmandu Nepal. Thanks to the project of AIESEC VUB, they could teach the pupils of the Life Vision Academy a school for underprivileged children in Kathmandu, Nepal. The students received the support of a local NGO called Children and Youth First (CYF), an organization founded by Haushala Thapa to provide shelter, education and family

values to children struck by poverty. Aside from teaching class, the Belgian volunteers organized fundraisers in Kathmandu to create awareness amongst the local youngsters and with the help of CYF organized concerts in The House of Music, the place to be in Kathmandu for Nepali rock, reggae and R&B. With these funds, CYF purchased water reservoirs, bunk beds and bookshelves. The success of the project was published in Belgian local newspapers and motivated another team of students to build a library with internet access one year later. On April 25th 2015, Nepal was struck by an earthquake of 7.8 on a Richter scale, destroying countless houses and killing more than 6000 people. Fortunately, none of the children nor the team members from CYF were harmed. However, the school building was damaged because of which the children had to leave their home. CYF negotiated a deal with a local prefabricated house manufacturer, allowing them to purchase a prefab building under advantageous monetary conditions. Still, the NGO needs support to fund this building and a second one, each worth €15.000, in order to provide shelter and space for education to the children. To that, CYF supports the empovered families of the children and the employees of the school as they too are in need for materials such as tents, water filters, mosquito nets, headlights and food. One of the six students that took part in the project in 2010 is Yves Phan, a young consultant. His time in Nepal was a life changing period, during which he was amazed by resilience of the Nepali people and of the children in particular. Grateful to the people he met in Nepal during this experience, he was moved by the sad news from Nepal and decided to take action for Nepal once more. Together with three enthusiast colleagues, they started a project to raise funds in Belgium so as to send materials to Kathmandu and support the funding of the buildings CYF has purchased in order to house and school the children. For this project, the four youngsters will auction five challenges which they will take on as a team, aside from doing other fundraising activities. They hope to collect sufficient funds in order to fund at least one of the two buildings, worth €15.000. The buildings are earthquake resistant and can be taken apart and rebuild. CYF has already built one prefab house to provide shelter for the children and will move the building to a site on which they will also build the second house in order to complete their plans to provide a new school building and terrain to the children.