Namaste, fellow travellers!

As many of you might have seen in the news back in 2015, Nepal suffered two big earthquakes which destroyed around 95% of their houses. Now (5 years later), they are still reconstructing the country.

How come? Nepal is one of the poorest countries in the world and after the incident, many people were injured, locals could not afford the new construction materials and children did not have schools to attend.

What can we do to help? There are many NGO’s which allow you to make donations from home or if you’re willing to go Nepal or you are already there, you can also volunteer. Depending on your skills you can help in schools, in hospitals, empowering women for their human rights, reconstructing buildings, etc. For example, with my architecture background and my English, I would be able to help with the reconstruction or teaching English to kids at school.

However, be careful with the NGO you chose! There are many ‘mafias’ that instead of giving the money to the people they keep it for themselves. Also, if you can avoid orphanages, better. The majority of them bring kids with parents into the orphanage only to attract people that want to help and get their donations. Besides, the short-term visits of different people giving attention to the kids can cause them mental health problems, such as separation anxiety.

Lastly, try to identify why you’re willing to go there and help. Is it because it allows you to travel to a remote country and show it in social media? or do you have genuine intentions to serve the community? If it is the first one, you can end up doing more harm than good. However, if you are really willing to help look for a cause you are passionate about.

I hope this post opened your eyes about the dark side of vounteering and made you be more wary about it.

Cheers!