Founders of Kingston Nepal Foundation react to news of devastating earthquake in Nepal

Apr 30, 2015

Leslie Myles, managing director of the Limestone Learning Foundation, has for the last four years been connecting local students with the culture and traditions of Nepal, most recently with the help of Pema, a Nepalese citizen and practicing Tibetan Lama.

When I spoke to her by phone on April 26, she said that both she and Pema Lama were “devastated and shocked” after hearing news of the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that hit the Kathmandu valley in Nepal on April 25, killing and injuring thousands and leaving many more homeless and in desperate need of food, water and shelter.

Myles said that Pema Lama was “in shock” after hearing the news, but he has since learned that a number of his family members residing in his home village located in Sanku, Nepal are safe, though he has yet to hear from his father and grandfather and other family members who live in the village of Mugu located near the Tibetan border.

Pema Lama, who has been in Canada as part of the Limestone Learning Foundation and the Limestone District School Board's “Global Connections Project", has visited Harrowsmith and Loughborough Public schools as well as other schools in Kingston since he arrived in Canada in 2013. Since his arrival he and Myles founded the Kingston Nepal Foundation and are currently in the process of finalizing its charitable status. One of the goals of the foundation is to build a medical clinic in the Himalayas in Pema Lama's home village of Sanku, in order to provide health care, education and community outreach to local residents there.

To date Myles and Pema Lama, along with the foundation's core group of committee members, have raised funds for the build through a number of fundraisers, most of them held in Kingston, where Pema Lama has shared his practices and teachings in yoga and meditation with supporters. Myles said that as a result of the recent earthquake, the foundation's focus has changed for the time being.

With the clinic project currently on hold, the foundation is now striving to provide aid to the residents of Sanku where half of the homes have been demolished and the other half are badly in need of repair. “Right now we want to send immediate aid to the local community in Sanku who are in desperate need of it right now," Myles said. “At this time we feel that because Pema is here with us and since Sanku is his home, we should be focusing our energies there right now”.

However, Myles also stressed that immediate help is needed all over the Kathmandu valley and the surrounding areas. Donations can be made at any of the major international aid agencies.

Prior to the earthquake Pema was planning to return home to get started on the clinic building project. He now believes that he will have to delay his return until things in Nepal become a bit more stable. Myles said that after Pema returns to his home country, he plans to return again to Canada to continue the work he has been doing through the Global Connections Project.

For more information about the Kingston Nepal Foundation visit them on facebook.