Nepal 497

Photo credits (left to right): Omar Havana, Getty Images; AP; Narendra Shrestha, EPA; Niranjan Shrestha; ScanPix; Sewa.

The devastating earthquake that struck Nepal on the 25th of April, 2015 is still fresh in our minds in its scale and brutality. As news trickled in, we were horrified as we learnt how high the death toll was. Not only did the quake leave thousands dead in its wake; it left even more missing, injured or homeless. Those of us abroad with a personal connection to Nepal felt helpless and frustrated at being thousands of miles away and unable to lend our hands in the rescue and reconstruction efforts. Fortunately, there are several nonprofit organizations that are doing a great job on the ground with disaster relief and reconstruction, and now there's a unique way that you can get involved too, no matter where you are! Not only is participation easy, but you can walk or run and raise funds for Nepal whenever you want, wherever you want, at your own convenience. Read on for more details�

Charity Footprints is a great platform that connects people with active lifestyles to individual and corporate donors, for the purpose of supporting worthy causes and nonprofit organizations. What does this mean? This means that you don�t have to wait for a walk or marathon to be organized to fundraise; you can simply pledge miles from your regular workouts, on your own or in a group, and use these to fundraise instead! This makes it a lot simpler to actively (pun intented!) engage in charity efforts on an ongoing basis.

Charity Footprints has teamed up with Sewa International, USA to provide a platform for donors to partner in the relief and reconstruction work in Nepal. The reconstruction work will definitely go on for years, and this is the start of a long road to recovery.

In the ancient Indian language of Sanskrit, Sewa means service. Sewa International, USA is a Hindu faith-based humanitarian nonprofit service organisation whose vision is to increase civic engagement of the communities in the United States to volunteer and promote volunteering. Sewa International, which is one of Charity Footprint�s featured charity partners, has an impressive on-the-ground presence in Nepal and has been raising funds for Nepal earthquake relief efforts.

This collaborative fundraising campaign has been named 'Nepal497', 497 being the number of miles from East to West of Nepal, thus collectively walking (symbolically of course) the length of Nepal along its Himalayan Axis.  Charity Footprints will not be keeping any part of the registration amounts, and neither will Sewa International. All the proceeds will go towards earthquake relief measures in Nepal.

Sewa is working with organizations in Nepal to provide first aid, distribute safe drinking water, food packets, and blankets. Volunteers from Sewa International in the U.S. travelled to Nepal a few weeks ago to provide voluntary services. Sewa has also created an Emergency Hotline to help locate relatives in Nepal whose communication links are down and are not reachable through phones.

Nepal497 is a great way to get involved in the relief and rehabilitation process for those of us who can�t be on the ground in the disaster zone.

Registered users can walk anywhere at any time to move the collective mile marker forward. Please visit www.charityfootprints.com/nepal497 to learn more and register for the event. All miles must be completed by the 22^ndof June!

Wouldn�t it be great if the whole world walks a mile for Nepal? If we each move 1 step, the world will move over 6 billion steps.