Our American team came together in April, 2015 after a 7.8 earthquake devastated Nepal. Katie had spent time in the country in '08 working at an orphanage, where our now partner and dear friend, Prakash Ojha, was the manager. Prakash started CASD Nepal in 2013 and asked Katie to be an American ambassador for the organization.

Immediately after the earthquake, Sean and Ben (friends since kindergarden) were anxious to get in the country and join the relief effort, but needed a local contact to do so. Prakash welcomed Sean and Ben to help lead his emergency efforts on the ground. Through the power of social media, we found Nicole, who was traveling in Myanmar at the time and looking for a similar channel into the earthquake zone. Together, they launched the temporary shelter building project in Ghusel that would eventually house 500 people who had lost their homes. 

In November 2015 we returned to Nepal to start building a water pipeline alongside the people of Khaireni, a small village 300 km west of Kathmandu. The project was completed in January 2016, and now all 30 families in the village have access to running water for the first time in their lives. In the spring of 2017, we began construction on our first community center in Malta, which will offer agriculture training, educational programs, and an office for the women's micro-finance group in the village. In the Spring of 2018 we ran a series of health clinics in partnership with an American doctor to bring diagnoses and treatment to underserved areas in and surrounding Malta.

CASD-Nepal, our partner organization, was founded in 2013 by Prakash Ojha. His direct connections within local communities allows him to work efficiently toward improving quality of life, health, education, and women's empowerment in under-served populations in rural Nepal.