DECEMBER 2021
Nepal needs jobs now, so we ran our first trip since the pandemic started to hand over our school.
We just completed our first trip since COVID while responsibly implementing the ideals we promote around conscious travel.
Our belated School Handover Ceremony, originally scheduled for April 2020, was finally carried out 19 months later shortly after Nepal lifted its quarantine requirements. We decided to start our trips up again in response to the country's dire need for more jobs to be created, after almost 2 years of an almost non-existent tourism economy.
Our beloved school reconstruction project is the product of 79 fundraising individuals who have attended our Langtang Valley program over the course of the 14 treks into the Himalayas. We’ve come a long way since we discovered it in its crumbled state in 2017. During the handover, we were incredibly proud to represent them and all of our collective supporters who helped make this shared dream a reality.
Thank you, everyone, for your important part in this enormous accomplishment! We couldn’t have done it without you.
November 2021
Executive Director Candice Young attends the COP26 Climate Change Conference in Scotland
“I felt a huge shift in the direction for Trek Relief here”, our Founder Candice said.
“Trek Relief started as a disaster response movement, and climate change is going to be the reason behind a lot of increasingly frequent natural disasters in these coming years. I was particularly moved when I attended a talk with Nepalese panelists. They were asking for reparations for the impending losses and damages that will occur in their country due to the changing climate.”
It is argued that individuals from developed nations are the largest contributors to climate change. They also have governments and insurance policies that provide a safety net when disaster does strike. However, it is the people in developing nations who do not have access to support such as these - and they will be hurting the worst.
The Nepalese panelists were requesting finances and technical assistance from the UN, nonprofits, and individuals to support them in these coming years. They posed a challenge to the word “donation” - and suggested that the world should start considering the word “contribution” as a way to view the global responsibility of climate change.
Candice exchanged contacts with the panelists, and met with them 2 times later that month in Nepal. Trek Relief is now developing a partnership with them to support their climate-focused projects.
Stay tuned for the announcement of our next projects in Nepal, which will take us into iconic and extremely remote regions!
September 2021
Our Board and Advisory Board convened at our Annual Board Retreat to brainstorm how to resume our international trips conscientiously during COVID times
After canceling our Annual Board Retreat in 2020, 10 of our core team gathered to discuss the future of Trek Relief during these pandemic times. In addition to having fun excursions to volunteer at the PATH homeless shelter, go to the farmers market to embody our ideals from Patagonia, and picnic at the park with live music - we discussed weighing the risks and the benefits of continuing our international trips and how we can minimize potential risks and liability.
Our conclusions can be found under our ideals under Conscious Travel. The Trek Relief bonding during the retreat was strong, and we are feeling very thoughtful and positive about resuming our operations moving forward!
August 2021
Covid Updates: Progress in Nepal
It has been just over a month since we conducted our Covid Relief Campaign and Fundraiser for Nepal. In that fundraiser, our powerful community of supporters was able to raise $25,728 of our $25,000 goal. Our continued partnership with The Small World Nepal has allowed us to complete phase one of the relief spending plan for the fundraised donations, by providing food relief to Nepali community members in the forms of daily lunches, family meal packages, and the distribution of masks and sanitizers.
Phase two of our relief campaign has centered around providing medical relief to Nepalese communities. Recently, The Small World has successfully provided the Covid vaccine “Vero Cell'' to nearly 500 people in the Himalayan Community of the Solukhumbu District in the Everest region. This was made possible due to our past fundraising efforts and the coordination of the Nepal Government at The Small World project site in Phuleli Community Health Center in Taksindu. The goal of providing basic, affordable, and quality healthcare to multiple rural communities in Nepal is finally achievable!
Finally, The Small World is making substantial progress in its construction and opening of The Phuleli Community Health Center. This center is making sustainable change within this community by providing COVID-19 relief (including a vaccination program), emergency care, maternal and child healthcare, safe deliveries, immunizations, family planning, pharmacy services, dental services, healthcare education programs, and community outreach to all community members. We are so grateful to contribute to the influential action that The Small World is making to help support their Nepali community.
July 2021
Covid Relief Fundraiser: WE DID IT!
Every corner of the world has been affected by Covid-19, and Trek Relief was no exception. Although our ability to interact with different global communities has been limited in these last few months, we have been working hard to pursue avenues for meaningful change.
Our most recent and impactful effort was our June 2021 Fundraiser for Emergency Covid Relief in Nepal. We have teamed up with The Small World Nepal, a Nepalese nonprofit, to fundraise upwards of $50,000 together for emergency Covid Relief.
In our fundraiser, our 118 donors raised $25,728 of our $25,000 goal. We were blown away by the support that we received during this past month with all the donations, shares, and encouraging messages. We’ve experienced a wave of kindness and generosity flow in from our Trek Relief community, bringing us feelings of connection, community, faith, goodness, and humanity. All of us here at Trek Relief are eternally grateful to our incredible and supportive community.
In the coming weeks, our donations will be going toward various restorative and protective health efforts organized by The Small World Nepal into two phases. The first phase of our donations and relief support has achieved the following:
5,000 people benefitted from Dhal Bhat packed lunches
300 families benefitted from 25-day care packages of rice, lentils, oil, and salt
8,000 face masks and sanitizers distributed
The fundraiser has ended, but our passionate desire to help Nepal has not. If you are interested in learning about how our donated funds are making a difference, check our Instagram and Facebook pages for more updates in the weeks to come. Again, thank you to our Trek Relief community for your continued support, dedication, and generosity and to The Small World Nepal for its beautiful partnership. Namaste.
June 2021
Nepal COVID relief fundraiser: providing disaster relief now and job security for the future
Nepal is suffering a severe second wave of COVID right now, and Trek Relief recognized that it is ideally situated to help.
Nepal needs 1. Emergency disaster relief funds, and 2. Job security through the promise of future travelers
And that’s what Trek Relief does best.
Our Trek Relief Founder Candice Young has offered to MATCH every donation made this month to reach our goal of raising $25,000 to help with the COVID relief efforts in Nepal. We are teamed up with The Small World, a Nepalese nonprofit that is doing great COVID relief work on the ground right now.
Each of your donations will: 1. Count toward the charitable contribution portion of a future Himalayan trip with Trek Relief, and 2. Provide much-needed job security for our porters and guides, who have had a challenging year. Won’t you join us in supporting our brothers and sisters in this time of need?
April 2021
Patagonia project progresses, even without trekkers
Trek Relief is not letting the pandemic stop it from completing its projects. The Board of Directors has approved to send $10,000 to our Patagonia program to keep its projects moving, even though we aren’t currently running trips in the region due to the current border restrictions. We are grateful to have our Patagonia Program Director Sarah Nguyen comfortably quarantining down there, and be able to manage the project with local partners. Below, we’ve included some pictures from the beginning of our newest project.
Introducing Patagonia Project #2:
We are regenerating the lands of Patagonia by empowering a village in growing their own food through a community garden and educational workshops.
Our organic garden, based on permaculture principles focusing on regenerative agriculture, serves to both demonstrate and provide hands-on learning to produce accessible, nutritious food that bolsters self-sufficiency and boosts the local economy.
Students and community members will learn first-hand the connection to nature’s bounty as viable, healthy food sources in a way that is affordable and positively impacts their local environment. Through educational programs and interactive workshops, the school garden offers not only lifelong knowledge and fresh food for the community but also income to fund and further the school’s gardener and environmental goals.
March 2021
Welcoming Jay Humphrey to our Board of Directors as our Fundraising Chairman
Starting this month, we are so thrilled to be able to call Jay one of the Directors of our Board! As a generous donor, participant of our inaugural trip to Patagonia, and stellar fundraiser - Jay has already proven to be an incredible asset to our team.
“I truly believe in the Trek Relief mission and have been personally involved in the Patagonia project which motivated me to become more involved in service to others. I have a vision of a world that is full of love, joy, compassion, unity, and kindness and will focus on making that vision a reality while advancing the mission of Trek Relief.”
Way to go Jay - we’re lucky to have you!
January 2021
Project impact in Patagonia for 2020
In early 2020, we launched our newest project in Chilean Patagonia. Since then, positive results have been growing in our beneficiary community of Villa Cerro Castillo! Here’s a recap of what was accomplished during the year with our “Clean Point” recycling infrastructure installed at Liceo Rural school.
1073 lbs. of recyclable materials accumulated:
Plastic: 150 lbs.
Glass: 847 lbs.
Cans: 42 lbs.
Cardboard: 22 lbs.
Tetra Pak: 13 lbs.
Resources saved as a result:
5727 lbs. of water, equivalent to 6 hours of waterflow
5 reams of paper, equivalent to 0 whole trees (for now)
459 kWh of energy, equivalent to 2 months of powering a home
1340 lbs. of CO2 emissions, equivalent to 243 days of traveling by car
Community actions accomplished:
Environmental committee meetings: including Liceo teachers, Trek Relief Patagonia program directors, Kyklos project manager, and Fecunda Patagonia founder
Liceo teacher training
Activities administered to community residents via the town’s Radio Aluen
Garden training
Games & prizes for Liceo students through Kyklo’s interscholastic environmental app
Launch of the environmental program at Liceo school (March 2020)
School actions accomplished:
41 environmental actions
6 environmental committee meetings
31 student/resident activities
2 project participations
2 trips for transporting materials to recycling center in the capital city of Coyhaique
We’d like to give special thanks to Kyklos for the metrics, Municipality of Río Ibáñez for providing transport of the materials, and Fecunda Patagonia for processing the recycling.
We are thrilled and proud of the Villa Cerro Castillo community for keeping up spirits and actions during a challenging year! We look forward to continuing our work with them for our upcoming joint project coming soon.