In the very heart of Kathmandu, right next door to the Hyatt Regency Hotel, is a “community” of nearly 2,000 people, including 300 children. The members of this “community” huddle into tents held up by bamboo sticks, going each and every day without clean water or electricity.
Despite the horrendous conditions they live in and the struggles they have endured, this community remains resilient and has banded together. They nominate their own leaders, including college aged students and women. They are a self-managing community that has organized a money collection system so that they can purchase barely enough drinking water each month, but they still remain in darkness every night.
With help from the community, we discovered that they spend more than USD $70,000 (yes, seventy-thousand dollars) over each year to charge their mobile phones, communicate with each other, and light their makeshift tents by candlelight, which has caused numerous burn injuries. This fact brings back into focus the idea that it really is expensive to be poor.
Sure, they have survived in the short term, but we can help them Thrive through the long haul. With your help, they can begin rebuilding; by saving enough money to build new homes they can take back control of their lives.
This is the mission of the Thrive Project, a start-up non-profit dedicated to providing sustainable solutions to such communities through our signature SPARK system. Together with the families in the Boudha Displacement camp, we put together a plan that will cost $10,000 up front, but over the course of one year will save the community more than $60,000. That means for every $1 donated, it has 6X the impact!
That comes out to more than $100/family when the average person only makes $700 working full-time, 365 days/year. That is money for food and clothing for their children. With this money they can begin to rebuild what was lost, all with the addition of 4kW of CLEAN ENERGY; enough power to charge phones and light houses, entirely off solar power.
However, much like this community, we at the Thrive Project cannot do this alone. We need YOUR help. WE need to share their story.
From first-hand experience I know these are people just like you and me. They are students, waiters, taxi cab drivers, parents and children.
So please, follow the updates we share from the individuals we met in this community and share their stories. You can hear directly from them, and you can hear how humble and gracious they are for your time and your efforts.
Click here to help bring SPARK to the Heart.
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