Having spent now some days here in Nepal, in Kathmandu valley plus days out in Sindhulpalchok District I am feeling powerfully moved. Thankful to return & see the resilience of the Nepali people plus also feel & see the devastation present still. Yet as we drove yesterday through the monsoon rains there appeared a rainbow & this reminded me that after every storm is a new beginning as the sun returns - I am thankful to be connected to so many, many Nepal friends & communities directly supporting one another during this time & feeling thankful to be a bridge for many helping hands around the world as we support schools & families to rebuild not only their homes & schools but also their dignity, livelihoods & optimism. I spent the last few days sharing heart to heart with school principals & community leaders in 17 schools - 90% of their buildings are gone - yet their determination to support in their communities very alive & strong! In the coming days/weeks I will be sharing more about how we all can be of support - in this moment I share simply a few pictures that for me captured some of the spirit of resilience the past few days ... 
(continued support welcomed: www.handswithhands.com)

More than 24,000 schoolrooms in Nepal have been completely destroyed, and thousands more badly damaged. We are currently supporting building of temporary schoolrooms in various locations in Nepal. Ensuring that children can remain in school is of vital importance for their physical and mental well-being. The rebuilding of schools will be a big part of handswithhands ongoing contribution in the next months/years in Nepal. Here is a short view of some efforts underway already, along with the happy faces of children returning to school! More news to come soon on our outreach with schools!

Nepal Army helping local community members in building temporary buildings

Slowly Rebuilding our Future

Our Children in Bhaktapur Children Home in Sipadol are doing amazingly well given what they have experienced - being right in the midst of main impact. Our beautifully almost finsihed *Home" building was badly damaged in the earthquake. Thankfully we were all safe and the building was safe enough for us to not be hurt in any way, but it is not any longer a livable building. We are currently having full engineer evaluation on rebuilding/repairing - whatever outcome it will be a very big and expensive task. Plus it will not be possible until after the monsson period (June- September) as not only is the government restricting building the nature of the heavy rains will restrict us as well. We have arrving this next week two very large monsoon safe shelters from *More-than-Shelters* that will provide a safe space for our children and staff to live the next months during monsoon plus our repairing/rebuilding time. In the very short-term, we have made a wonderful cosy space of our animal house which was still "safe" and therefore we have shifted our animals out and remodeled to be our *home*! I feel very close with our children as I was with them durign the earthquake .. out staff are being amazing in their care for the childrne int he compromised situation - I have not enough words to express their dedication!