Warmth After the Flood: Relief Supplies for Flood Victims at Yellow Gumba

Written by Kesang Yudron, Founder and Director of Conscious Connections Nepal

On October 4, 2026, Conscious Connections Foundation (CCF) handed over 161 gas stoves, 161 hot water kettles and 300 menstrual kits ( with soap and underwear)  to families from Rasuwa who lost their homes and loved ones in the Bhotekoshi flood.

On the morning of August 26, 2026, a sudden wall of water and debris came down the Bhotekoshi River from across the northern border. Within minutes it tore through Rasuwagadhi, Timure and Syafru Besi, sweeping away homes, hotels, roads and bridges. A joint government assessment later counted 32,963 people displaced from 8,317 families across five districts, with Rasuwa among the hardest hit.

Many survivors from Timure and Syafru Besi were brought to Kathmandu. They found shelter at Gosok Phuntsok Choeling Gumba, better known as Yellow Gumba (Pahelo Gumba), in Raniban, Nagarjun Municipality-2. Other families stayed at nearby monasteries, including Mustang Gumba and Nubri Gumba. The monks opened their doors, but a monastery hall is not a home, and families arrived with almost nothing.

A View of Yellow Gumba Monastery. Photo Credit: CCN

A request from the community

The call for help came from Sunil Lama, the main representative of the Rasuwa families living at Yellow Gumba. Food and blankets had started to arrive from many donors. What the families still lacked were the basics of daily life: a way to cook their own meals, boil safe drinking water, and for women and girls, the dignity of proper menstrual care.

Impact of flood on Rasuwa families

Rather than guessing at needs, we worked from the community’s own list, sorted by how badly each household had been hit. According to the Government of Nepal, the families fell into three groups.

A stove and a kettle for every household

Every one of the 161 flood-affected households from Syafru Besi received one gas stove and one hot water kettle.

Supply distribution at Yellow Gumba. Photo Credit: CCN

A stove means a family can cook a warm meal on their own terms again. A kettle means safe, boiled water for children and elders, and a hot cup of tea on a cold Kathmandu evening. Small things, but they bring back a little of the routine the flood took away.

Dignity for 300 women and girls

In a disaster, menstrual needs are easy to overlook and hard to talk about, especially in crowded shared shelters. CCF distributed 300 menstrual kits to women and girls staying at Yellow Gumba, Mustang Gumba and Nubri Gumba. The recipients came from Syafru Besi, Timure and a few families from Amachodingmo Rural Municipality.

Each kit gives a woman privacy, comfort and one less thing to worry about while she rebuilds her life.

From preparation to distribution

The distribution was the easy part. The real work happened in the days before. Our team spent several days sourcing 161 stoves, 161 kettles and 300 kits, checking every item, matching the list against each household’s category, and packing everything so it could be handed over quickly and fairly.

Supply distribution at Yellow Gumba. Photo Credit: CCN

On October 4, at Gosok Phuntsok Choeling Gumba, that preparation paid off. Families were called by name, each household received exactly what it was listed for, and the women’s kits were handed over. Working hand in hand with Sunil Lama and the community volunteers kept the process calm and orderly. Seeing the relief on people’s faces, and hearing a simple “thank you” from people who had lost so much, made every hour of preparation worth it.

Ghewa: saying goodbye without a body

For the Tamang and other Himalayan Buddhist communities of Rasuwa, Ghewa is the most important ritual after a death. Led by lamas, it is meant to guide the soul of the departed toward a good rebirth. It is usually held between the 7th and 49th day after death, the period during which the consciousness is believed to travel through the in-between state before its next life.

Normally, the rites begin with the body: prayers over it and  then cremation. The flood took that away. Many families never found their loved ones, and some lost eight or nine members at once. Without a body, the lamas at Yellow Gumba perform the puja and Ghewa with a name card and a photograph of each person in place of the body, so the soul can still be called, prayed for and sent onward. For grieving families, completing Ghewa is how they finally say goodbye and find a measure of closure.

That is why the timing of this support matters. Once the Ghewa is complete, families will begin leaving the gumba to start over, in rented rooms, with relatives, or back in Rasuwa. A stove and a kettle will go with them as  pieces of a new home.

The road ahead

The families of Rasuwa face a long road back. Many have no village to return to yet, and grief will take far longer to heal than any house. CCF will keep listening to the community and supporting them where we can.

Sunil Lama, speaking for the families at Yellow Gumba, asked us to pass on a message: “Please pass my sincere gratitude to everyone who supported this relief support. This will help people who will move out of the gumba after the Ghewa.”

Our heartfelt thanks go to Sunil Lama for reaching out, to the monasteries for sheltering the families, to our volunteers, and to every supporter who made this distribution possible.

Looking Beyond the First Few Weeks

Written by Austin Zimmerman, Board Member

When disaster strikes, our first instinct is often to ask, How can I help?

That instinct brought people together in Spokane, Washington, on Thursday September 3rd for a fundraiser supporting the Conscious Connections Foundation (CCF) and its response to the devastating flash floods that swept through communities in Nepal on August 26th.

For many in Spokane, Nepal is more than a distant country. It is home to friends, family, colleagues, business partners and communities with whom CCF and Ganesh Himal Trading have built relationships over decades. 

At the fundraiser, CCF supporter, volunteer and Nepali, Satish Shrestha and CCF co-founder Denise Attwood were joined by the Director and Founder of the Gonzaga Institute for Climate, Water, and the Environment, Dr. Brian G. Henning, to discuss the disaster, CCF’s immediate response and importantly, the long-term work needed to help communities prepare for an increasingly unpredictable climate. Centered around building resilience beyond immediate relief, roughly 50 people gathered at the local fair trade store, Kizuri in downtown Spokane to share stories and possibilities for the future.

A Disaster Nepal Did Not Cause

Pasang Tamang

Satish started the evening with a  story of his childhood friend Pasang Tamang, now a Doctor of Public Health living in the UK. Pasang grew up in Rasuwa, Nepal, where members of her extended family remain. On August 26, she watched the community where  she grew up vanish in the floods.

“Imagine that”, Satish said, “Watching, helpless, from thousands of miles away, as the place you grew up in disappears, person by person”. Pasang lost relative after relative. The devastation was so great, Satish said, that her family eventually stopped counting. 

But Pasang's story is also one of determination. Determination that the people left behind, especially the children, don’t just survive this disaster, but they prosper. 

Graphic Credit: Satish Shrestha

Satish went on to depict a card table.  “A few players at that table keep raising the stakes, again and again, for their own gain. Nepal never even placed a bet. And yet when the table finally collapses, it’s Nepal that’s crushed underneath it.”

Nepal contributes less than one-tenth of one percent of global emissions (0.1%), Satish noted, yet communities there are experiencing the devastating consequences of a changing climate. “Rasuwa alone has been hit by flash floods five times in the last five years,” he said. “Communities rebuilding from one disaster, only to be washed away by the next.”

“That’s not an accident. That’s an injustice.”

Satish Shrestha Speaking at the Fundraiser. Photo Credit: Sam Joseph

Satish returned to Pasang's story as he closed his remarks. “Pasang didn’t get to choose where she was born, or which side of that flooded river her family ended up on,” he said. “But she has chosen what happens next.”

“Being crushed by a mess you didn’t make isn’t the end of the story”, he said,  “not if the people who survive have the tools to rebuild. CCF has been putting those tools directly into the hands of the women of Nepal. Education. Empowerment. The kind of support that turns survivors into the backbone of recovery for their entire community.”

“Tonight, I’m asking you to place your bet on them.”

We Create Connections and Listen to the Needs that People Bring Forward
Following Satish, CCF and Ganesh Himal Trading co-founder Denise Attwood began by acknowledging the immediate response already underway in Nepal and CCF’s role within it. “As Satish’s friend, Pasang, stated, everyone wants to help in the first few weeks after a disaster,” she said. “That instinct is good and meaningful, and many are hard at work getting relief through difficult terrain right now. CCF will help with these immediate needs as requests are made. We don’t need to be on the roads right now but we can assist those who are.”

That distinction is central to CCF's approach. CCF is not a traditional disaster relief organization. Our mission is to work alongside women, remote communities and marginalized people in Nepal, helping them develop the tools they need to create stability in their own lives and futures through education, healthcare and relationship building.

“We create connections and listen to the needs that people bring forward and provide support for them to realize how to bring about those changes they see need to be made,” Denise explained. Because CCF has longstanding relationships in Nepal, those connections become especially important when disaster strikes.

Denise Attwood Speaking at the Event
Photo Credit: Sam Joseph

CCF has already begun responding to requests from communities affected by the floods. One immediate need has been menstrual hygiene supplies. A Nepali relief organization, Hami Nepal, requested supplies for women and girls affected by the disaster. CCF was able to provide 245 reusable menstrual hygiene kits immediately with 500 additional kits to be distributed in the following weeks. “These are supplies that women have requested themselves so they can make it through the weeks and months ahead,” Denise said. “We respect that need and will continue to supply as many as are requested.”

CCF is also preparing to support children who have been orphaned by the disaster. “Some children were attending school in Kathmandu while their parents worked in the border region. Others remained in villages while their parents traveled for work. CCF's goal is to find ways to keep these children in school and provide support for the remainder of their education”, Denise explained.  “CCF has worked to provide education to children for many years and we have trusted allies who have done this for years with displaced Tibetan children. Our goal will be to work to quickly find ways to continue to support the children impacted so that they can stay in school.”

“This will require a multi-year commitment to these children,” Denise said. “CCF will assess how many children can realistically be sponsored for the remainder of their education.”

Rebuilding Takes Time

CCF's response to the current floods builds on years of experience helping communities recover from disaster. Following Nepal's devastating 2015 earthquake, CCF helped rebuild the rural health clinic in Baseri. We also helped construct two earthquake-resilient earthbag homes for families who had lost everything in Baseri.

In the remote community of Ghatbesi, which lost 272 homes in the earthquake, CCF partnered with the Northside Rotary in Spokane to rebuild a primary school and help pay teachers' salaries. And in the remote community of Sertung, CCF helped residents develop products that could be sold through Ganesh Himal Trading after the earthquake destroyed much of the village.

Since 2016, those sales have generated more than $100,000 in income for the community, helping residents rebuild, install solar and water systems, and send their children to school. “These are examples of what we have done, and only to show that CCF has experience in material assistance to communities in dire need,” Denise said. “At this present moment we don’t know what will be needed but we will pay attention to what the communities ask for and assess our best ways to help.”

Preparing for the Next Disaster

For CCF, helping Nepal respond to disaster isn't only about what happens after the floodwaters recede. We are also working to put knowledge and resources into the hands of people who will be responsible for helping their communities through future crises.

“CCF has extensive experience providing menstrual hygiene and women's health education in remote Himalayan regions. Through our sister nonprofit in Nepal, Conscious Connections Nepal (CCN), we have been asked to expand this work to include emergency first aid and climate disaster preparedness”, said Denise.

CCF is developing a wilderness first aid handbook for schools, teachers, women's groups and others, with plans to incorporate this material into upcoming programs in Humla, Dolpo and Nepalgunj--remote areas prime for potential disasters. “These are direct requests from communities that know these disasters are in their future and want to prepare themselves,” Denise said.

CCF also hopes to continue developing programs that help women in remote regions cope with the impacts of climate change. “We want to be proactive in helping people so that when disasters arise they have as many tools as possible to help each other"

We Have a Moral Obligation to Act

Brian Henning of the Gonzaga Climate Institute spoke after Denise and echoed many of the sentiments she and Satish shared.

Dr. Brian Henning of the Gonzaga Climate Institute. Photo Credit: Sam Joseph

Dr. Henning began with a moment of pause to reflect on the devastating events. He then challenged the audience to acknowledge the climate crisis we are living in as well as their moral obligation to act.

It matters that we all do something.

“Most people don’t realize that more than driving an electric vehicle or recycling, investing in girls education and women’s reproductive health combined is the number one way to combat climate change according to Project Drawdown”, he stated. “It is so crucial that organizations like CCF continue to do this work with vulnerable communities around the world”.

As CCF's friend and partner in Nepal, Srishti Bajracharya, stated: “Global warming is real. Climate change is happening now. It is not a distant threat or a problem for future generations. It is happening in our mountains, our rivers, our villages, and our homes. This is not just about climate. It is about people, lives, homes, livelihoods, and our future. Let us not wait until the next disaster to acknowledge it. The world must act—and it must act now.”

Looking Ahead, Together

CCF Fundraising Event in Spokane. Photo Credit: Maggie Yates

Nepal's communities need help today, but they also need the resources, education and relationships that can help them face tomorrow.

The Spokane community was presented with an opportunity to be part of that work—not simply in the first weeks after a disaster, but for the years of rebuilding and preparation to follow. And they seized it.

In total, CCF has received over $17,000 in donations since the August 26th flood. Every contribution helps CCF respond to immediate needs while building toward the long-term, community-led change that can still make a difference 20 years from now.

10/20/26 Update: Our fundraiser was covered in The Fig Tree, an independent nonprofit newspaper covering news in the Northwest. Check the article out here!

To our friends, colleagues, and community members in Spokane - and around the world, who are supporting this critical work: THANK YOU. We cannot do it without you.

Supporting the People of Nepal After Devastating Flooding

Written by Denise Attwood and Satish Shrestha

At the heart of CCF are partnerships—our Conscious Connections—that are powerful and through which our impact is multiplied. We are Nepali-led because the needs are best understood by its local people. CCF’s work is rooted in relationships built over more than four decades. Through collaborative partnerships, CCF brings input and resources while ensuring accountability and impact.

On August 26, 2026, a devastating flood swept through Tibet and Nepal causing massive destruction and death from its origin in Tibet down through the Trishuli river watershed and beyond. Although CCF is not principally a disaster relief organization, we have experience in dealing with disasters in Nepal. With our strong partnerships on the ground in Nepal and the incredible assistance of our sister nonprofit Conscious Connections Nepal (CCN) we have the ability to assess who is working in the impacted areas, who knows the communities, and who can distribute goods effectively and efficiently to those in need.

Starting on August 26, CCF/CCN provided, at the request of the non-profit organization Hami Nepal, 245 reusable menstrual hygiene kits for distribution in the impacted areas. On August 28, CCF provided funding to CCN to fulfill some of the immediate needs of local relief organizations. We will continue to do our part to fill the gaps in what is not being provided, for the short term. But, the reality is that the really hard work comes after all of the aid groups have gone and the world has turned their attention to the next disaster. And so we are assessing the strengths and connections that CCF/CCN have and talking with those impacted to try to understand how we can provide support as well as preventive measures for these impacted families and communities into the future.

CCF is committed to being there for the long haul. We have worked in Nepal for 40 years and the well-being of that country and her amazing people is at the base of all that we do. We have asked our good friend Satish Shrestha to write a blog post so that you can fully appreciate how deeply the survivors of this tragedy have been impacted and the work that lies ahead. 

Education was Satish Shrestha's way out of poverty growing up in Nepal. Now he leads a data and applications team serving universities and colleges across North America. A physics degree taught him how the physical world actually works; graduate degrees in business and leadership taught him how people actually do. A triple Zag with fifteen years in higher-ed tech, he uses both to simplify administrative burdens for students. For just as long, he's also been making micro-loans through Kiva to back students on the other side of the world. — Denise

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Beyond the First Week by Satish Shrestha

Numerous friends have reached out to me since the massive flooding hit Nepal last Wednesday. As of today, the death toll has surpassed 500 and continues to rise. Thousands are displaced. For four days, I couldn’t bring myself to respond, not because I didn’t care, but because I was in shock, and honestly, I didn’t know what good sending money right away would actually do.

So instead of reacting, I reached out. I spent those four days talking to friends, family, and people in my network who understand disasters like this far better than I do.

One of those conversations changed how I’m thinking about this entirely.

A childhood friend of mine grew up in Thuman, a village that neighbors Syabru Besi and Timure - two of the devastated areas. Though most of her family is now in Kathmandu or abroad, many of her relatives still live in the region, and her family has stopped counting how many people they’ve lost. Every day brings news of someone else gone. The grief and stress in her community are constant and compounding.

If I’m in shock from thousands of miles away, I can’t fully imagine what she and her family are living through right now.

My friend’s background is in community service and public health. While I was still in high school trying to figure out how to make a difference in the world, she was already out there doing it, partnering with local nonprofits in her mountain village. 

So I asked her the only question that mattered: What is the right thing to do right now?

Her answer: Look past the first few weeks. 

Here’s what she told me, and it reframed everything:

Everyone wants to help in the first few weeks after a disaster. That instinct is good and meaningful, but the real, sustained need begins after people survive. The people who are gone are gone. The people left behind are the ones carrying the stress, the trauma, and the burden of rebuilding.

One of the most urgent and overlooked needs: countless adults who died in this disaster have left behind young children. These kids didn’t just lose their parents, they’re now at risk of losing their path to an education and, with it, their future. In a country like Nepal, education isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s the clearest route to long-term stability and opportunity.

Money and fundraising matter. But the real question is: how do we mobilize that money for lasting impact, not just immediate relief?

Two ways to help meaningfully:

1. Fund education for the children left behind. By some good fortune, I’m connected to a local nonprofit here in Spokane, Conscious Connections Foundation, that has spent years supporting women’s empowerment and education in Nepal. That mission aligns with the nonprofits my friend has worked with and led in Nepal, and it’s exactly what she pointed me toward. Directing resources toward keeping these orphaned children in school is one of the most concrete, lasting things we can do right now.

2.  Build awareness that outlasts the news cycle. Disasters like this trend for a few days and then disappear from view, especially for people in the Global North, far removed from the daily reality on the ground. We need sustained partnerships between organizations here in North America and communities in Nepal, so that young people in the West understand that their choices and their giving have real, lasting impact on people’s lives half a world away.

This is the call. I’m not writing this to ask for a one-time donation and move on. I’m asking you to do two things:

• Support education funding for children who lost parents or homes in this flood, not just emergency relief, but their path forward. Please donate here: 

• Help build lasting awareness, not a 48-hour news cycle. Talk about it. Share it. Push the organizations and people around you to think past this week.

The immediate crisis will fade from headlines soon. The children left behind will still be here, still needing a way forward. That’s where we come in.

If this moves you, don’t just feel it — act on it. Reach out, ask how you can help, and commit to staying engaged past the point where it’s easy to look away.— Satish

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Where We Go From Here

On CCF/CCN’s behalf, please know that our disaster-based work will be carefully reviewed by CCF’s Board of Directors, discussed with CCN and our partners in Nepal, and assessed for the greatest long-term impact. We will always be mindful of donors’ wishes and transparency will be our priority. You can see our guidelines for CCF emergency funding on our website.

In early 2026, CCF also started to explore ways that we can provide assistance for Women impacted by Climate Change. Now seems the time to expand this work. These disasters are not going away and are a direct result of the warming of our beloved planet. They are impacting those who contribute the least to that warming. As such we at CCF/CCN believe that we not only have to care for those impacted but also have to bring awareness and education to those of us in the Global North as to how our actions and policies impact the entire world.

So, we leave you with this forceful and poignant quote by our partner, Sristhi Bajracharya, stated after the floods….

“Global warming is real. Climate change is happening now.

It is not a distant threat or a problem for future generations. It is happening in our mountains, our rivers, our villages, and our homes. This is not just about climate. It is about people, lives, homes, livelihoods, and our future.

Let us not wait until the next disaster to acknowledge it. The world must act—and it must act now.”

When Every Second Counts: Life-Changing Wilderness First Responder Training in Nepal

A four-hour drive from Kathmandu would forever change how we think about emergency preparedness in remote areas.

Written By Kesang Yudron, Founder and Director of Conscious Connections Nepal

The winding mountain roads carried us away from the bustling streets of Kathmandu toward the serene hills of Bandipur, where our 10-day Wilderness First Responder (WFR) training awaited. Organized by Initiative Outdoor Nepal and offering SOLO (Stonehearth Open Learning Opportunities) certification, this intensive program would soon prove to be one of the most valuable experiences of our lives.

 Why Wilderness First Aid? A Question That Answered Itself

Initially, I questioned whether I really needed wilderness first aid training. That doubt quickly dissolved when I considered the reality of our work. Our programs take us deep into remote regions like Sankhuswabha in northeastern Nepal, where the nearest functioning hospital can be days away. We’ve encountered lightning storms and landslides that delayed our journeys between villages, leaving us completely cut off from medical assistance. In these moments, the question shifted from “Why do I need this?” to “How can I afford not to know this?”

 The sobering truth hit home: when you’re hours or days from professional medical help, you become the first—and possibly only—line of defense against medical emergencies.

Photo Credit: Conscious Connections Nepal

A Comprehensive Journey Through Wilderness Medicine

The SOLO Wilderness program unfolded as a meticulously structured 10-day immersion into pre-hospital medicine. From learning proper patient consent procedures to conducting thorough patient assessments, developing rescue plans, and understanding human anatomy, physiology, and pathophysiology, every element was designed to transform us into capable wilderness first responders.

Days 1-3: Foundation Building

The first three days focused on fundamental first aid training alongside 25 participants, many of whom were mountaineering guides from Nepal’s thriving tourism industry. Conducting the training in Nepali ensured that local guides could fully grasp these life-saving concepts and apply them with their clients.

Photo Credit: Conscious Connections Nepal

We tackled everyday ailments that can quickly become serious in remote settings: treating bruises and controlling bleeding, managing dehydration and food poisoning, addressing sprains and respiratory issues. Each lesson carried personal weight—I couldn’t help but think of my cycling accident from years past that resulted in a keloid scar. Had I possessed this knowledge then, I could have managed that injury far more effectively.

For Igroom, who had previous first aid experience, the course served as both a refresher and confidence booster. She found herself more assured in handling bleeding emergencies and performing CPR, skills that felt more natural after hands-on practice in realistic scenarios.

Beyond the Basics: Skills That Save Lives

What truly distinguished this program was its emphasis on improvisation and adaptation. Working with limited resources, we learned to create medical equipment from whatever was available—a crucial skill when your “medical kit” might consist of hiking gear and natural materials.

The practical emergency scenarios were intense and enlightening. Each simulation began with the critical safety assessment: Is it safe for me to enter this scene? We learned to don protective equipment systematically—gloves, masks, and any other barrier devices available—before approaching any patient.

The primary assessment protocol became second nature: Airways, Breathing, Circulation, Deformation, and Environment. This systematic approach helps identify immediate life threats in those crucial first minutes. The secondary assessment taught us to build a complete medical picture through vital sign monitoring, patient history gathering, and thorough documentation—skills that become invaluable when eventually transferring care to medical professionals.

The Art of Knots: Engineering Safety in the Wild

Photo Credit: Conscious Connections Nepal

One unexpected treasure trove of knowledge was learning various knots and loops: figure-eight knots, bowlines, clove hitches, and others. These weren’t just rope tricks—they became essential tools for creating improvised splints, building emergency shelters, and executing complex rescue operations. Discovering this “vault of knowledge” felt like unlocking a secret language of wilderness safety. We practises making the knots many times until it felt second nature.

Water Rescue: Confronting Our Deepest Fears

Perhaps the most memorable—and nerve-wracking—component was the water rescue training. Swimming in a mountain stream while learning to assist drowning victims tested both our physical capabilities and mental resolve. We practiced rescue breathing and CPR in realistic conditions, but the most crucial lesson echoed throughout: don’t become the second victim. This principle of self-preservation isn’t selfish—it’s strategic. A rescuer who becomes another casualty helps no one.

Real-World Impact: Beyond Personal Preparation

This training illuminated a broader truth about disaster preparedness. Consider Nepal’s devastating 2015 earthquake: hospitals were overwhelmed, roads were impassable, and communities were isolated for days or weeks. In such scenarios, widespread first aid knowledge among the general population could mean the difference between life and death for countless individuals.

The ripple effect of wilderness medicine training extends far beyond personal preparedness. Every person trained becomes a potential lifesaver in their community, workplace, and family. Mountain guides can better protect their clients, teachers can respond to student emergencies, and ordinary citizens can step up during natural disasters.

A Vision for the Future

We believe WFR training should be integrated into school curricula nationwide. The skills learned here aren’t just for wilderness enthusiasts—they’re life skills that serve everyone, everywhere. From urban emergencies where ambulances might be delayed to rural areas where medical facilities are distant, this knowledge remains relevant and potentially lifesaving.

Our gratitude extends to the Conscious Connections Foundation for providing this transformative opportunity. But our journey with wilderness medicine doesn’t end here. We’re committed to sharing this knowledge, training others in our communities, and building a network of capable first responders who understand that sometimes, when help is far away, we must be prepared to be the help others need.

Participants of the training, including CCN Director Kesang Yudron and Staff Member Igroom Lama

Photo Credit: Conscious Connections Foundation Nepal

The Takeaway

Wilderness First Responder training taught us that being prepared isn’t about expecting emergencies—it’s about being ready to respond effectively when the unexpected happens. In remote areas where we work and live, this preparation isn’t just valuable; it’s essential.

Whether you’re planning outdoor adventures, working in isolated areas, or simply want to be a more prepared community member, wilderness medicine training offers skills that could one day save a life—perhaps your own, perhaps someone you love.

When every second counts and help is far away, knowledge becomes the most powerful tool you can carry.

Introducing Conscious Connections Nepal: A New Chapter!

Written by Lisa Bower, Board Member

Hello, Conscious Connections family! We’re thrilled to reconnect with you and share some transformative news that has been brewing behind the scenes. After a quiet few months of dedicated work, we’re excited to announce our new partnership that will expand our impact in Nepal.

A Partnership Rooted in Shared Vision

In mid-December, Conscious Connections Foundation (CCF) took an important step forward by signing a Memorandum of Understanding with Conscious Connections Nepal (CCN), our new partner organization in Nepal. This collaboration isn’t just a formality—it’s a vibrant commitment to deepening our work on the ground. By joining forces, CCN now becomes an independent, registered non-profit in Nepal with the ability to receive funds directly from abroad, which means we can support community projects more efficiently and effectively.

At Conscious Connections Foundation, our mission is to invest in the power of women and girls to be key participants in their society. Partnering with CCN amplifies this mission, allowing us to work more directly with local partners and reduce administrative hurdles. In turn, CCN gains the flexibility to seek additional funding, ensuring that their programming can expand and evolve with the needs of Nepal’s diverse communities. Over the years, CCF has been dedicated to training women leaders, and we are thrilled to see several of them now stepping into influential roles at CCN—turning their skills into action and shaping a brighter future.

CCF and CCN with Drokpo Nepal staff. Left to right: Pema Yangkyi Gurung (MH Program Director of Drokpo), Sonam Dolma Lama (Director of Drokpo), Kesang Yudron (CCF board member and CCN Founder and Director), Denise Attwood (co-founder/Chair of CCF), Chunta Nepali, and Igroom Lama (CCN Staff Member)

What CCN Brings to the Table

Strengthening Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights (SRHR):
CCN is set to continue and deepen the critical work of CCF on SRHR, including: 

• menstrual health education

• training women to make reusable menstrual pads;

• distributing pre-made reusable menstrual hygiene kits;

• supporting women by exposing myths about menstruation; and

• continuing to engage and support members of the LBGTQI+ community and other marginalized groups across Nepal.

Boosting Livelihoods & Entrepreneurship:
In addition to health initiatives, CCN will further its work in livelihood and entrepreneurship. By supporting women and girls in skills development that provide reliable income, they’re not only fostering creative enterprise but also building pathways for economic independence.

Championing Education:
Education remains a cornerstone of sustainable development. CCN will continue to support education through scholarships and other initiatives, opening doors for Nepal’s women, girls, and marginalized individuals to a brighter future.

Addressing Climate Change:
In a world where climate change is reshaping lives around the world, CCN is also boldly stepping into a new arena. They will focus on helping rural communities adapt to environmental changes, with special attention to the links between climate change, women, SRHR, and economic empowerment.

While these initiatives might seem ambitious, the CCN team is embracing a step-by-step approach—ensuring that every project is both impactful and sustainable and learning is captured along the way.

CCF and CCN with the Nepal Disabled Women’s Association Kavre. Left to right: Sabitri Dahal (Consultant to Nepal Disabled Women Association Kavre), Denise Attwood (co-founder/Chair of CCF), Pampha Pulkoti (VP of Nepal Disabled Women’s Association Kavre) and Kesang Yudron, (CCF board member and CCN Founder and Director)

What’s on the Horizon?

As we look ahead in 2025, CCF and CCN have been hard at work outlining a clear vision for the upcoming year. In a detailed review at the end of 2024, we finalized the budget that will guide CCN’s projects over the next 1 to 1.5 years. 2025 will be our most ambitious year yet! Stay tuned for updates as we share more about specific projects in the coming months. It’s also important to note that while we have set long-term plans, CCN will retain the flexibility to provide emergency funding or adjust programming as new challenges emerge.

Moving Forward Together

CCF’s partnership with CCN is more than an administrative milestone—it’s a testament to our shared belief in empowering local communities and fostering sustainable change. We are also so excited to provide a leadership training platform for the incredible women now leading CCN - putting the women of Nepal front and center in shaping the future of the organization and their work in the country. 

As we embark on this new chapter, we invite you to join us on the journey.  Thank you for being part of our growing community of changemakers. Together, we are building a future where connection and compassion lead the way. Help us continue to support important work taking place in Nepal. 

What CCF does and how it does it

CCF sponsored Menstrual Leadership Training in Kathmandu

By Kimberly A. Maynard, Ph.D.
– CCF Board Member

I have personally worked with, for, and beside hundreds of international aid organizations in many countries. I have professionally examined the intention and value and, ultimately, the impact of international aid work. What does truly caring about our fellow humans around the world and “doing good” look like in an organization? We are in an era of extreme resource imbalance within a globalized economy. Through the media, we are privy to the lives of others in the far reaches of the world 24/7. It tears our hearts when we witness an earthquake destroy a whole village or a young girl destined to hard labor deep in the hands of poverty. We are the privileged, the few, the top end of the ladder yet what do we do to help? How do we express our humanity effectively?

How Do We Do Good Well?

After a career in the field and decades examining this personally, I have boiled it down simply to exemplifying good ethics. In the end, we are humans who want to favorably touch and be touched by other humans. This entails two things for me organizationally: 1) upholding an excellent partnership relationship with those we work with and 2) making an effort to think long-term and to act short-term in the best interest of the community and country.

Last year while trekking to each of CCF’s projects, I kept this in mind. Sitting in a circle in front of the Baseri Health Clinic along with the clinic’s oversight committee and staff, I asked myself this same question: what does “doing good” look like. The clinic was in need of repair. Children from the school next door had taken to throwing rocks at it, which chipped the siding. Some of the rooms flooded during the monsoons due to poor run off and an inadequate foundation. What actions could CCF take that would support the long-term ability of the community to have and uphold a quality clinic and not simply do a quick fix? That day in the circle, we agreed on a plan. CCF engaged a local contractor who employed Baseri young men to upgrade some structural components of the clinic. The contractor, also a committee member, took responsibility to guarantee the work would be maintained in years to come. After our meeting, the schoolmaster from next door walked over to me and thanked CCF for helping ensure that the community had such a viable health service. He said he would personally ensure that children learned to appreciate the value of the clinic and that they would no longer throw rocks.

CCF Takes A Deeper Look At What It Does

That trip prompted some navel gazing among CCF’s Board members. Clearly, CCF is greatly appreciated among the Nepalis with whom we engage and whose lives we touch. How do we articulate how that works? How can our ethics and methods be made more visible and consistent in our work? How can we ensure our integrity, transparency, and underlying values are inherent in everything we do? CCF has held strong values since its inception, such as trusting and working closely with specific Nepali relationships to guide its grant-making. However, up until now, these had been more intuitive than verbalized.

The Board formed a committee to look deep into this question. We held a series of introspective discussions unpacking what we stood for and how we operate. This invisible substructure developed into clear, discernible philosophies and standards documented in What CCF Does and How and agreed to by the entire Board. It states our underpinning beliefs, what kinds of projects we fund and why, and our guiding principles and is the foundation of all our operations. In it, is a set of seven criteria against which we measure each proposal in deciding what to fund in upholding this platform.

For example, our internal discussions pointed directly to our belief that when women and girls thrive, the world is better off. Yes, there are many deserving issues, and CCF has chosen to center its work on women and girls. For decades, I’ve had a sticker next to my desk that reads, “For every year beyond fourth grade that girls go to school, family size drops 20%, child deaths drop 10%, and wages rise 20%; yet international aid dedicated to education is declining.” Paul Hawken’s Project Drawdown uses big data to list the 100 most important, already existing solutions to reversing global warming. It measures how much CO2 is either not emitted or is captured by each solution. Educating girls is number six, family planning is number seven, and the two combined are number one. CCF’s scholarships and menstrual hygiene training are right in there.

I learned early on that giving money and food to the women resulted in the whole family surviving better. When girls get a leg up, their entire lives are transformed, they have more choices, and they give back to their societies. CCF has seen this transformation with Nepali women and girls since its inception. So, we made explicit that our work is to support women and girls.

The Process Is As Important As The Product

Yet, my experience has underscored it is not just what an international aid organization does does but how it does it. The process itself can often become the majority of the benefit. CCF has always invested in trusted Nepalis to guide our actions. Making this explicit through our guidelines grounds us in these precious relationships. This stems from the fact that every organization has to decide how directive it will be. Will it use its education and experience to proffer activities to a community or will it ask the community—sometimes without much subject matter experience—to decide what to do?

CCF has decided to walk beside and partner with Nepali communities, working collaboratively on issues of interest related to girls and women. In this, Nepalis collectively benefit from CCF’s involvement (not least of which is financing), while we in the West learn from working closely with the unique Nepali cultures and approaches to their circumstances. That said, CCF remains open to the understanding that there will be situations when it walks ahead and directs change. Similarly, there will be situations when our Nepali partners have more insight and should rightfully lead. We see this two-way, accommodating modality deepening and strengthening our relationships.

Around the World Benefits

Another significant component of CCF’s internal workings that emerged during our discussions was the value of our North American partners. We are immensely grateful for the financial generosity that continuously delights and strengthens us. Indeed, without our bighearted donors, we could not do what we do. And yet the relationship goes far beyond the funding.

Despite most of the world now having full time access to information, our understandings of and exposure to other cultures is always limited. CCF plays a unique role in bridging some of this gap personally. Recognizing this, we renewed our commitment to bring glimpses of the rich Nepali life to our donors and to the internet public through our website, newsletters, blogs, fundraising, and personal interactions with other Americans. We see this cross-cultural sharing plays a crucial role in linking communities and individuals across the planet and contributing to a broader sense of our global humanity.

To Hell With Good Intentions

As we all have witnessed, the challenge is not in holding good intentions as we set out to “do good.” The pages of history and the streets of villages around the world are literally littered with examples of disastrous projects of well-intentioned aid organizations. I can personally attest to many “unintended consequences” of poorly designed, ill-thought out, and failed programs.

Unfortunately, the international system rarely holds international organizations accountable for such projects. It is the community, the local population who must live with the debacle. Some of this is the result simply of poor planning and inexperience, exaggerated expectations, funding shortfalls and other such natural naiveté. Much of it, however, can be avoided by knowing the context in detail and thinking longer-term. By imagining both the spinoff benefits and potential problems that might arise from both the project and the process used, one can develop a more informative perspective.

CCF has adopted this long-term thinking in our foundational platform. For each proposal, we ask ourselves whether the project will likely have been a good idea a generation (20 years) hence. Without the benefit of hindsight, we do our best to imagine the enduring positive and negative implications of our actions. In the Baseri example above, in the short-term, the clinic was repaired before the monsoons. By using a local contractor (instead of one from Kathmandu) who then hired community laborers using largely local materials, money went back into the area’s economy, local workers developed some capacity in this form of building repair, and the skills necessary for maintaining the clinic are now resident in the community. A generation from now, these capabilities will hopefully remain.

Living Our Values

During this reflective process, we asked ourselves, “Change is happening all the time; what part of that change do we want to be?” While articulating our values and methodology doesn’t fundamentally change what CCF does or how we do it, it does elevate our work to a higher level. We are now visibly more accountable to ourselves, as we have an agreement against which to measure our actions. We are also more accountable to our Nepali partners, as our transparency is a commitment to right relationship. Lastly, we are more accountable to the public and to our donors who can track how we manifest our principles in our activities. By being explicit about our actions and values and putting our integrity on the line, we hope to attract North Americans intrigued by our work as well as Nepali partners and other opportunities that align with our approach.

Like many others, my years in the field have developed an attentive eye towards international aid. Our responsibility to our fellow humans obliges us to ensure our good intentions equate to positive long-term impact to the best of our ability. Dependency, colonialism, entitlement, and cultural bias are just some of the challenges we face with our generosity and true interest in helping others. It is with that sensitivity that I am engaged in and so appreciate CCF’s concerted self-reflection. While we never know the full impact of our efforts, with our ongoing partnerships with Nepali colleagues, we hope to cultivate a better, more loving world for all—one in which we each bring what we have to the table and engage deeply in each other’s lives such that we truly are contributing to a more beautiful world.