Conscious Impact Nepal, 2015
On April 25, 2015, a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck Nepal, destroying hundreds of thousands of homes and killing more than 9,000 people. With little access to government support or outside aid, Nepalese families were left to rebuild on their own. Members of the international NGO Conscious Impact Nepal spent the next few weeks delivering relief materials to rural communities.
After much research, the trio discovered Auroville Earth Institute (an organization founded by the Government of India) and their Compressed Stabilized Earth Blocks (CSEBs). During a CSEB and Rammed Earth training organised in Kathmandu, Conscious Impact members met Dheeraj Mishra from the small village of Takure, in the district of Sindhupalchok. Together, they began making bricks to rebuild the primary school. Now, more than a year later, this team ("The Brickmakers of Nepal") has made more than 50,000 Compressed Stabilized Earth Blocks (CSEBs) to help rebuild schools, community centers, orphanages, and homes in their community.
The CSEBs are composed mostly of soil harvested in the community and sand from the nearby river (70% earth, 22% sand, and 8% cement), making them local, sustainable and environmentally conscious.
Conscious Impact Nepal is a group whose members come from all nations and backgrounds, working together from the ground up to explore healthy and practical alternative solutions to challenges faced by rural communities, starting in Nepal. The group's mission is to inspire, mobilize and train volunteers to serve others with compassion, by creating cross-cultural collaborations driven by local leadership from within the community. Founding members: Allen Gulla, Orion Haas, Juliette Maas.
Photo: © Jonathan H. Lee