The me:

Hello dear reader. The me is a joyful creature living and working in Greece. In the past I’ve been volunteering for years in Greece empowering local communities, mainly through cultural projects. My drive for solidarity has also led me to France and Belgium. This year’s March will find me in Nepal, taking days off my regular office job, to be a member of the NGO’s ‘wheeling2help’ delegation. Want to know more about this very, very important trip? Keep reading!

Won’t go on describing my excitement on this upcoming project since I would like to keep this short, meaningful and avoid tiring you much. I am definitely sure that you are this big of a person and wheeling2help and if you indeed decide to move forward with a donation I am deeply thankful for your time and kind generosity. Till the next time, Namaste and keep it humble.


Nepal, Takure 2020 – The situation:

The deadly earthquake (magnitude 7.8) of the 25th of April 2015 (also called Gorkha earthquake) destroyed the 240 houses in the village of Takure in Sindupalchuk.  About 9,000 people were killed, many thousands more were injured and more than 600,000 structures and houses were either damaged or destroyed in the whole Nepal.

Read more on Nepal’s earthquake:
https://www.undrr.org/news/nepal-earthquake-recovery-enters-5th-year

Timeline highlights
- January 2016: Greek volunteers under the non-profit Wheeling2help, in co-operation with the local organization YUWA (Youth’s Unity Working for Awareness Nepal) and the non-profit Conscious Impact, fundraised and built a greenhouse that helps the local community through coffee and avocados to earn money for house rebuilding.
- February 2017: 60 volunteers raised money and visited the village again, helping to rebuild 20 more houses and create a bamboo greenhouse for improving community’s needs for food in the future.
- February/March 2019: a coffee co-operative, in order to further enhance local community’s income, was created.

Conscious impact works to support the rural village of Takure through sustainable rebuilding solutions, agriculture and improved education. They build houses with natural materials, earthquake safe and environmentally friendly bricks that are cheaper and stronger than the regular ones, which are produced in the capital city and pollute the atmosphere. These bricks are called CSEB (Compressed Stabilized Earth Blocks) and cost about 0.12 cents each. It is estimated that a house needs approximately 3,750 bricks, a total cost of about $450 per house.

Find out more on the non-profits, at:
https://www.wheeling2help.com/en/
consciousimpact.org 

Collective project - MYQUEST trip in Nepal, March 2020:

The purpose of the fifth visit to Takure is to build more houses and empower local communities -farmers and children at school and orphanages- by raising funds and gathering volunteers.

As a certified Emergency First Aid rescuer, I will be there to make sure that my team and I, stay safe while working to fulfil our cause.

Personal project:

Inevitably, this trip to Takure will also provide the opportunity for us the volunteers to get to know village’s residents, be part of their daily routine, feast together, play with young children and create a mutual relationship by this very close interaction.

It is a personal goal to closely observe habitants’ culture, advocate for arts and stand as a culture ambassador. Having being writing poetry since the age of seven, and later certified as a Literary Arts Specialist on projects in the creative and cultural sector, this is as well a unique opportunity for me. Inspired by the great Nikos Kazantzakis and his travel writing, I aim to come back with a journal full of observations, stories, asian night dreams and thoughts to work on and maybe some already finished poems. Great inspiration in this endeavor have also been the poets that I have met Theo Dorgan, Giorgos Veis and Don Schofield, as well as my friend Konstantinos Protopappas with his radical writing and so many other young, talented people that I’m blessed with their creative presences, in my life.

***
 

Documentary films on past years’ myquest journeys:

https://vimeo.com/224235128

https://vimeo.com/270767818

Wheeling2help success stories:

https://www.wheeling2help.com/en/wheeling2help-vol-2/

https://www.wheeling2help.com/en/asiaquest/

https://www.wheeling2help.com/en/afriquest/

https://www.wheeling2help.com/en/wheeling2help-vol1/