What are we doing?
Walk Run or Cycle 5415 miles, the distance between London and Kathmandu, to raise funds to help support the 5 Health Posts, established by the Nestling Trust, as they struggle to reduce the spread of Covid-19 in their local areas, and care for the sick and suffering, as well as providing food for the starving.​​
Why?
Nepal faces a humanitarian crisis. Cases of the Covid-19 Indian variant are spiralling out of control and the fragile Health Service is overwhelmed. Hospitals in the cities are running out of oxygen and are overflowing with people being turned away, and in rural areas thousands have no access to medical care.
Months of lockdown has caused loss of livelihoods and people face starvation.
Who?
The Nestling Trust and supporters are combining our miles as we 'hit the Hippy Trail' throughout the month of June - leaving Tower Bridge London on 1/6/21 and hoping to arrive (virtually) at Swayambhunath Stupa in Kathmandu on 30/6/21.

TNT Team: Who we are:
Liz Bord
Nicola Coupe
Reece Delaney
Mike Gaiger
George Hamblin (USA)
James Hamblin
Sue Hamblin
Jan Hide and Sandy (NZ)
Prakash Limbu
Bikram Malla
Katherine, John and Henry Cox
Stu Owen and Selina, Ella and Jakey (Team  NZ North Island)
Chandra Pun
Nick Reid
Ang Tshering Sherpa
Hilary Stone
Tarjan Subba
​The Wellyboots
Ali Thomas
Arjun Thapa
Dekray Thapa
Jacyn and Nancy Wade (Canada)
Anne Wilson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h32Fcy7Ukl4 ​  

Seven people have died and many others are missing after flood water swept through various regions of Sidhupalchowk district on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Five days into the monsoon season and incessant rain has caused many landslides and destruction in Helambu and Melamchi areas.
Workers on site of the Melamchi Drinking Water Project were swept away by the Melamchi river floods and an unknown number are still missing.
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1st June '21
Members of the TNT Team live in Canada and New Zealand as well as the UK but today we come together at the start of an epic test of endurance - completing 5415 miles in one month!
Here we are - our 'virtual' starting point - London's Tower Bridge.
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ITV's report into the current nightmare situation in Nepal as the Indian variant of Covid-19 spikes out of control..
​https://www.itv.com/.../covid-19-threatening-to-overwhelm...

Article from The Kathmandu Post
Post Report
Published at : May 12, 2021
Updated at : May 12, 2021 23:21
KathmanduNepal government's poor communication system has left many Nepalis confused about its vaccination campaign, the status of the country’s stock of the doses and its plan—if it is planning—to procure more jabs against Covid-19. Back in January, Nepal became one of the first countries to launch its vaccination drive against the virus, even as some western countries were struggling. The country was seeing a dramatic decline in the number of new cases. The KP Sharma Oli government acted triumphant, as if it had already won the fight against the pandemic. Complacency, coupled with negligence, missteps and poor governance, then led to a sharp rise in the cases. The country has been overwhelmed by the pandemic. Nepal’s health system is buckling under pressure. Hospitals are turning away patients because they lack beds and oxygen. Nepal’s plan to procure millions of doses of vaccines is currently in a state of limbo.

edit.

Part of the report from Peter Beaumont of 'The Guardian' published on 6th May '21:Nepal facing ‘human catastrophe’ similar to India’s amid Covid surgeCountry appeals for international help, with vaccines in short supply and a reported 47% positivity rate
"Nepal is struggling to contain an explosion in Covid-19 cases, as fears grow that the situation in the Himalayan country may be as bad, if not worse, than in neighbouring India, with which it shares a long and porous border.
Following warnings by health officials earlier this week that the country was on the brink of losing control of its outbreak, Nepal has appealed for urgent international help.
As the country reported its highest daily number of new infections – 9,070 – the prime minister, KP Sharma Oli, who has been criticised for his handling of the crisis, asked the army to help manage emergency facilities to take pressure off the health system.

With vaccines running short and hospitals overwhelmed, serious outbreaks have hit both the capital, Kathmandu, and the south-west and west of the country. The national positivity rate – the percentage of tests that come back positive – is being reported at a staggering 47%. Rates are even higher in some locations.
Earlier this week Oli appealed to the international community for vaccines as officials warned that those who had already received a first dose of the AstraZeneca jab were in urgent need of second shots.
The government’s haphazard vaccination campaign, with people queuing for hours in the capital, has been blamed for spreading the disease.
Amid new lockdowns and the cancellation of most international flights, travellers told of checkpoints in Kathmandu en route to the airport.

One of the worst-hit areas outside Kathmandu has been the city of Nepalgunj in the Banke district, close to the border with the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, which experienced a sudden influx of thousands of returning Nepali migrant workers from India ahead of the closure of the border between the two countries.
“We need to act now and we need to act fast to have any hope of containing this human catastrophe,” said Alexander Matheou, the Asia Pacific director for the Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
Netra Prasad Timsina, the chair of the Nepal Red Cross, said: “What is happening in India right now is a horrifying preview of Nepal’s future if we cannot contain this latest Covid surge that is claiming more lives by the minute.”

Last year The Nestling Trust High Hopes Team reached the virtual height of Everest by climbing up local hills - this year we aim to walk or cycle the distance between Tower Bridge in London to the Swayambhunath Stupa in Kathmandu. We hope to raise funds to provide medical care at this time of desperate need for families living in areas of Nepal where no medical facility exists. ​

Nepal sharing a border with India has seen a huge surge in Covid-19 cases reported in the Kathmandu Valley. The Nepal Government has announced prohibitory measures to restrict movement across the country from Thursday, in a bid to curb the rampant spread of the virus. However, it has been reported in the Kathmandu Post and Himalayan Times that today crowds are fleeing from the capital, back to their villages. The increasing risk of widespread infection is grave, and especially so in remote villages without even basic healthcare.
The Nestling Trust has established 5 Health Clinics in the remote villages of the Dolakha region thanks to the donations from our generous supporters - please help us to do more at this time of crisis. 

​Thank you to all those who watched the private screening of ‘I am Belmaya’ arranged by The Nestling Trust. Proceeds received by TNT will help fund a pilot programme, set up by Helpful Development Society – Nepal (HDS-N). This women’s NGO is working in coordination with the local government in Bhaktapur, to improve the welfare of disadvantaged/marginalised mothers and their children by offering the women life skills, and needlecraft training.
In collaboration with the Municipality, HDS-N has a long-term commitment to provide safe shelter for those women and children, who are victims of domestic abuse and violence. The aim is to promote independence by providing the tools for them to meet their own needs, and those of their children.

(Photo curtesy of United Nations)

Nepal has received a delivery of COVID-19 vaccine under COVAX facility. It is an international initiative coordinated by the World Health Organisation and partners.

The following article was published in the Himalayan Times on March 07, 2021.
'Nepal is getting a total of 13,000,000 doses of AstraZeneca/ Oxford vaccine produced by the Serum Institute of India under the COVAX facility. From among the total doses of the vaccine the country is getting 348,000 doses of vaccine tomorrow. "We will receive the first batch of the vaccine under the COVAX facility tomorrow," said Minister of Health and Population Hridayesh Tripathi at an interaction in the capital today.
 The vaccine received under the facility will be administered to people above 55 years of age. The government is launching its vaccination campaign in the community level from tomorrow by vaccinating people above the age of 65 years. After 10 days those aged between 55 and 64 will get the vaccine.
The government has aimed to inoculate 72 per cent of the total population in the vaccination campaign.
The country had launched its COVID-19 vaccination drive from January 27 and has vaccinated 429,705 persons with the first dose of the vaccine, which is 1.4 per cent of the total population.'


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TNT is delighted to offer our supporters the opportunity of a private screening of the internationally acclaimed film 'I am Belmaya' before release to the general public later this year.
TNT has teamed up with Sue Carpenter and Belmaya, co-directors, of this inspirational film to help support the empowerment of oppressed women and girls in Nepal.

Click on the link below for more information and Tickets:

 https://tnt-belmaya-screening.eventbrite.co.uk 

Domestic violence is a widespread problem in Nepal. Despite laws against it, cultural, economic, and religious factors reinforce male dominance and female subservience so thoroughly that it is common for women and their children to be victims of violence and abuse with many being forced to leave their homes. Cast out by the husband’s family and no longer able to return to their birth family, women are alone with no means to provide shelter, food, or clothes for their children. The streets are their only option with all the risks of further abuse, trafficking, hunger, and drug abuse. It is common for children search rubbish dumps for plastic in exchange for a few rupees for rice instead of attending school.

.The Nestling Trust will use funds raised to assist a pilot programme aimed at reducing the number of women and children, facing life on the streets. Those who have fled domestic abuse, or single mothers, will be offered training in sewing skills so they can support themselves and their children.

8th March '21 is International Women's day - proceeds from the film 'I am Belmaya'  can help break the cycle of poverty and despair for women and their children in Nepal.

See it Online - anytime between the hours 6p.m. Sunday 7th March ’21 and 11p.m. Monday 8th March ’21 (Greenwich Mean time) choose at time to suit your Time Zone.

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