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Mission Rebuild Nepal

40 dated entries · 2015–2023

What happened, and when

  • 800

    Transition homes built and handed over

    Sipapokhare VDC, Sindhupalchowk. The total was checked house by house across all nine wards in June 2017 before the project was closed.

  • 6,100

    People given a month of food in the first weeks

    Four VDCs across Sindhupalchowk and Dhading, within two weeks of the 25 April 2015 earthquake.

  • Minimal

    Administrative cost taken from donations

    No board member, officer or US staff member has ever drawn a salary, and the organisation is committed to keeping administrative costs below 15 per cent. The costs that cannot be avoided are named rather than hidden: card processing of close to 3 per cent, a $30 charge per wire transfer, and Nepal field costs, priced into each house.

  • $2M+

    Raised and delivered since 2015

    Relief and reconstruction across Sindhupalchowk, Kathmandu and hospitals nationwide, including the plants and filling systems moved under the Oxygen for Nepal consortium.

  • 10,000+

    Expert hours given by board members and volunteers

    Engineers, overseers, field officers, project managers, doctors and village coordinators, none of them paid by the organisation.

  • 10

    Oxygen plants delivered to Nepal

    Built by Novair in France, shipped with high-pressure cylinder filling systems in July 2022. Four were installed by January 2023.

201513 entries

  1. Earthquake in Nepal

    The earthquake of 25 April destroyed almost every house in Sipapokhare VDC, Sindhupalchowk, one of the worst affected areas in the country, and left thousands of families across the district without shelter with the monsoon approaching.

    Rescue & Relief

  2. On the ground by the fourth day

    Mission Rebuild Nepal was operating from the fourth day after the earthquake, months before it formally existed. Dr Baroon Rai, an intensive care physician, took unpaid leave, raised about $20,000 and supplies from his own hospital and flew out. Dr Sandesh Pandit left Oregon carrying $30,000 of supplies. He, Dr Rai and Dr Madan Uprety met in transit and planned the operation on the way in.

    Rescue & Relief

  3. Relief reaches 6,100 people

    By 7 May the operation had run mobile medical camps in Sindhupalchowk treating 250 patients, distributed a month's food reserve to 6,100 people across four VDCs in Sindhupalchowk and Dhading, handed out 1,500 tents, and declared Sipapokhare a no hunger zone after reaching its entire population with relief packages.

    Rescue & Relief

  4. Second earthquake strikes while the team is in the field

    Board members were distributing relief packages at Bhotang, a remote northern VDC of Sindhupalchowk on the Chinese border, when the second major earthquake struck. The team had flown in the previous night with the help of the Nepalese Army, having set out on 11 May with four doctors, nurses, a physician assistant and a logistics team. Within a minute the mission changed from relief to emergency medical care. Dr Dikshanta Prasai and Yuvraj Sharma were nearly killed on the mountain. The helicopter that had carried the team to Bhotang crashed a week later.

    Rescue & Relief

  5. First accounts published

    Unaudited donation and expense summaries were put online within four weeks of the earthquake, with a public email address for questions about how the money was being spent. Publishing accounts, donor names and house-by-house records became standing practice.

    Organisation

  6. From Mission Critical Nepal to Mission Rebuild Nepal

    The emergency relief operation, run until then under the name Mission Critical Nepal, became a reconstruction organisation. Three days earlier the team had completed five model homes and begun buying materials for 200 houses at Sipapokhare VDC in Sindhupalchowk, a village where almost every home had been destroyed.

    Organisation

  7. Transition home prototype completed

    The first prototype was built in five days for $400, sponsored by the Nepal Education and Cultural Center, which funded at least 30 more. The following day the organisation opened sponsorship at $335 a home, expecting to reach that price through volume, with a stated goal of more than 700 homes.

    Rebuilding Sipapokhare

  8. Mission Rebuild Nepal formally constituted

    The organisation was founded in June 2015 and incorporated as a nonprofit corporation in Virginia, with its principal office in Fairfax County. A summary posted on 17 June records the week's work: the 501(c)(3) application filed with the IRS; bylaws, an accountability framework and a template memorandum of understanding written and published on the website; and the organisation's own bank and PayPal accounts opened. An administrative expense policy adopted on 22 June committed board members and volunteers to fund the administrative costs of the first 250 homes from a seed fund, so that donations went to construction.

    Organisation

  9. 501(c)(3) status approved

    The Internal Revenue Service approved the application filed earlier in the month, making donations from the United States tax deductible. On the same day the team reported seven houses finishing that week and 52 due within the month.

    Organisation

  10. Free legal clinics for Temporary Protected Status

    Pro bono attorneys filed Temporary Protected Status applications for Nepalis living in northern Virginia, Washington DC and Maryland at a session in Reston, Virginia. A second clinic followed on 25 July.

    Organisation

  11. Monsoon stops work at Adchale

    Bad weather and impassable roads brought construction to a temporary halt. Seventy-one of the 76 houses at Adchale tole in Sipapokhare were complete. Work resumed at the start of September.

    Rebuilding Sipapokhare

  12. First handover ceremony at Sipapokhare

    The first completed transition homes were handed to their families. The cardiac surgeon Dr Bhagawan Koirala was chief guest; Dr Arun Kunwar and Yuvraj Sharma spoke.

    Rebuilding Sipapokhare

  13. Border blockade halts construction

    The fuel crisis and the blockade of supplies into Nepal created an acute shortage of cement. With 100 houses part-built and no prospect of finishing them, the organisation announced it would complete those and then suspend the project. It bought cement from multiple sources at above-market prices and resumed work on 23 November.

    Rebuilding Sipapokhare

20166 entries

  1. Second handover ceremony, 368 houses delivered

    One hundred houses were handed over on the ground at Rajeshwori School in front of about 1,500 villagers, bringing the running total to 368. Dr Prakash Karki travelled from the United States as special guest.

    Rebuilding Sipapokhare

  2. Handover list published, house by house

    A searchable list of every completed house was published, showing which family had received it and which donor had funded it. At that point a further 250 houses still needed sponsors, then quoted at $450 each.

    Rebuilding Sipapokhare

  3. Kaalo Moso anti-fraud policy adopted

    The US board approved a policy, drafted by Ashok Oli on 11 May, setting out how allegations of financial mismanagement against staff, board members, affiliates or partners would be investigated and how anyone found responsible would be named publicly. The policy notes that the organisation's revenue had by then passed $400,000. A Nepali translation followed on 26 May.

    Organisation

  4. First 5K Run and Walk for Nepal, Salt Lake City

    The first annual 5K run and walk was organised by supporters in Utah, with Apa Sherpa, Utah Attorney General Sean D. Reyes and Rajani Thapa taking part. The Salt Lake Tribune covered the event. Proceeds went to the Sipapokhare rebuilding project.

    Rebuilding Sipapokhare

  5. Demographics of the households served published

    Mission Rebuild Nepal published an interactive breakdown of the people it had housed: more than 4,000 individuals in one village, among them minority households, single women, children and elderly people.

    Rebuilding Sipapokhare

  6. Final handover ceremony at Sipapokhare

    The last houses were handed to their families. The actor Rajesh Hamal attended; some villagers walked three hours to be there. The ceremony was covered by eKantipur and Online Samaya.

    Rebuilding Sipapokhare

20171 entry

  1. Every house counted, and the project closed

    Dr Dikshanta Prasai, a board member from Nepal, spent three weeks at Sipapokhare counting houses ward by ward across all nine wards and photographing each one. The count confirmed 800 delivered houses, with five to ten more part-built. Mission Rebuild Nepal declared the Sipapokhare rebuilding project concluded and turned to schools and a community hall. It also noted that about five donor names were missing from house plaques.

    Rebuilding Sipapokhare

20182 entries

  1. Second storey added to Rajeshwori School

    The organisation reported that it was close to completing an additional storey at Rajeshwori School, in the same village where it had built houses for almost every displaced family.

    Rajeshwori School

  2. Rajeshwori School reaches its final stage

    Work on the school at Sipapokhare was substantially complete. Donors Stephen DeFolo and Ben Amini were named in the announcement.

    Rajeshwori School

20192 entries

  1. SSDRC chosen as the 2019 recipient

    Mission Rebuild Nepal selected the Special School for Disabled and Rehabilitation Center, founded by Sabita Upreti, as the recipient of the funds it would raise that year, towards a new school building. The school then had 45 children enrolled, 26 teachers and staff, and more than 400 children on its waiting list. Secretary Ashok Oli had visited on 3 April.

    Special Needs School

  2. Gala dinner in Salt Lake City

    A benefit dinner at the Sugar Space Arts Warehouse, led by Anju Thapaliya Sharma and Sudeep Sharma, raised funds for two causes: a building for the autism school in Kathmandu, and the work of Sheroes Hangouts with survivors of acid attacks in India.

    Special Needs School

20202 entries

  1. Food deliveries during the Covid-19 lockdown

    With the national lockdown in force, the team delivered food to the households of day labourers, farm workers and rickshaw drivers who had lost their income overnight.

    Rescue & Relief

  2. PCR laboratory for Jhapa

    Mission Rebuild Nepal joined a community effort in Jhapa, in eastern Nepal, which raised close to $100,000 from several hundred local members to build a PCR laboratory and hand it to the government, giving the region access to Covid-19 testing. Jhapa Today reported Mission Rebuild Nepal's own contribution at NRs 200,000.

    Rescue & Relief

20218 entries

  1. Further NRs 1 million released to SSDRC

    On the strength of the progress the Special School for Disabled and Rehabilitation Center had made on its new building, the board voted to release another NRs 1 million towards construction and improvement, an instalment under the phased memorandum of understanding between the two organisations.

    Special Needs School

  2. Oxygen for Nepal consortium goes public

    The consortium held a press conference in Kathmandu, with doctors, a representative from each member organisation, government officials and the media present. Nepal's second Covid-19 wave had outrun the country's oxygen supply, and the consortium set out to procure ten plants from France and deliver them to government hospitals.

    Oxygen for Nepal

  3. Government agrees to pay for the airlift

    The Covid-19 Crisis Management Centre formally decided to fund the air cargo of the oxygen plants. Mission Rebuild Nepal announced the decision the following day, expecting to ship ten oxygen generators and five cylinder filling systems within two to three weeks.

    Oxygen for Nepal

  4. Change of government in Nepal

    Sher Bahadur Deuba became Prime Minister. The approval secured a month earlier had to be carried through a new administration, and the funding decision moved to the finance ministry.

    Oxygen for Nepal

  5. Ministry of Finance agrees to fund the air cargo

    The Ministry of Finance agreed to cover the air cargo and asked that it be drawn from the Ministry of Health and Population's budget. On 16 August the health ministry agreed to take the request to cabinet.

    Oxygen for Nepal

  6. Cabinet approves the airlift funding

    The Cabinet of the Government of Nepal formally approved the funds and directed Nepal Airlines Corporation to begin procurement.

    Oxygen for Nepal

  7. First air cargo tender fails on price

    Nepal Airlines Corporation published its tender. The government had allocated $275,000 for the airlift; the bid submitted came in at $357,000, and the tender failed.

    Oxygen for Nepal

  8. Tender reissued and awarded

    Nepal Airlines Corporation put the air cargo contract out again with redefined and relaxed clauses. Flash Freight was the sole bidder and won.

    Oxygen for Nepal

20225 entries

  1. Airlift cancelled five days before departure

    Flash Freight and the consortium had fixed 12 January as a hard deadline, conditional on the Ministry of Health and Population releasing payment to Nepal Airlines Corporation by the end of December. The payment process was still incomplete on 7 January, and the airlift was cancelled.

    Oxygen for Nepal

  2. Freight forwarder withdraws the quoted airlift price

    On 24 and 28 February, citing the conflict in Ukraine, Flash Freight told the consortium it could no longer airlift the plants for the price it had bid. The government payment had reached Nepal Airlines Corporation only weeks earlier, in early February, after a month of lobbying by Mission Rebuild Nepal.

    Oxygen for Nepal

  3. Force majeure claim rejected

    Mission Rebuild Nepal wrote to Nepal Airlines Corporation and Flash Freight arguing that the force majeure clause did not apply, because the war in Ukraine had not disrupted air movements in France or elsewhere in Europe, and sought remedy for the delay to the project. Flash Freight then agreed to ship the plants and filling systems by sea at its own expense.

    Oxygen for Nepal

  4. Consortium funds repackaging and authorises sea freight

    Novair had already crated the plants for air transport, and that packaging could not be used at sea without risking oxidation and voiding the warranty. On 11 March the manufacturer assessed a further EUR 32,000 for repackaging. Four days later every consortium member agreed to meet the cost and cleared Mission Rebuild Nepal to proceed by sea.

    Oxygen for Nepal

  5. Oxygen plants collected from the factory for sea freight

    Flash Freight collected all ten oxygen generators and the cylinder filling systems from the Novair works in France for shipment by sea to Birgunj, with an estimated transit of 70 to 75 days. The homepage status log dates the collection to 21 July; the Facebook announcement of the same day says the cargo was loaded and shipped the previous day.

    Oxygen for Nepal

20231 entry

  1. First oxygen generators installed in Nepali hospitals

    Three of the three generators funded by the America Nepal Medical Foundation were installed in hospitals, and a fourth plant, donated by Creasion, went into the Teaching Hospital. Six of the ten remained to be installed. Announcing the milestone, Mission Rebuild Nepal acknowledged that the project had taken considerably longer than planned.

    Oxygen for Nepal

5 projects

The same figures, project by project

Each project closed out with its own numbers. They are repeated here in full, sources attached, so a figure quoted anywhere on this site can be traced back to the work it came from.

2015Sindhupalchowk and Dhading districts, Nepal

  • 4 days

    From the earthquake to the first team on the ground

    Board members were working in remote Sindhupalchowk on 12 May 2015, when the second major earthquake struck. The organisation was not yet formally registered.

  • 6,100

    Individuals given a month of food reserve

    Distributed across four VDCs in Sindhupalchowk and Dhading districts.

  • 1,500

    Tents distributed

  • 250

    Patients seen at mobile medical camps

    Camps set up in Sindhupalchowk in the first fortnight.

  • 100%

    Of Sipapokhare's population reached with a relief package

    The VDC was declared a no hunger zone once coverage was complete.

The Rescue & Relief record

2015-2017Sipapokhare VDC, Sindhupalchowk, Nepal

  • 800

    Transition homes delivered

    Described by the organisation as covering all, or almost all, of the families in the VDC who lost their homes.

  • 9 wards

    Counted in person before the project was closed

    Dr Dikshanta Prasai, a board member in Nepal, spent three weeks in June 2017 counting and photographing every house.

  • 998

    Homes damaged or destroyed in the VDC

    Out of a population of about 3,700. An earlier draft proposal estimated 862 before the survey was completed.

  • NPR 43,497

    Costed materials and labour per shelter

    About $435 at the rate used in the project budget. Fourteen line items, from 7 bags of cement down to half a kilogram of nails.

  • Nov 2016

    Final handover ceremony

    The second handover, in March 2016, was held on the ground of Rajeshwori School in front of about 1,500 villagers.

The Rebuilding Sipapokhare record

2021–2023Hospitals across Nepal; equipment manufactured in France

  • 10

    Oxygen plants procured and shipped

    Supplied with high-pressure cylinder filling systems for government hospitals across Nepal.

  • 250 LPM

    Oxygen output per plant

    Novair generators, 15 Nm3/h, purity 95 plus or minus 1 per cent, with submicronic air filtration and continuous purity monitoring.

  • 4

    Plants installed by January 2023

    Three funded by the America Nepal Medical Foundation, and one donated by Creasion and installed at Teaching Hospital. Six remained to be installed.

  • $0

    Cost of the final shipment

    After the air-cargo route collapsed twice, Flash Freight moved the entire consignment by sea free of charge under its corporate responsibility programme.

The Oxygen for Nepal record

2019–2021Old Sinamangal (Pepsicola), Kathmandu-32

  • 45

    Children enrolled at SSDRC

    More than 400 more are on the waiting list. The current building cannot take them.

  • 100

    Children rehabilitated into society by SSDRC

    A further 30 are in inclusive placements in mainstream schools, and four completed vocational training and now work at the school.

  • 26

    Teachers and staff

    Some of them former students rehabilitated at the centre. The school charges no fees.

  • $60,000

    Construction target

    Nine classrooms, a toilet block and a canteen, built in prefabricated materials on SSDRC's own land.

  • NPR 1,000,000

    Second instalment released to SSDRC

    Voted by the board in March 2021 after reviewing progress on the building, under a memorandum that releases funds phase by phase.

The Special Needs School record

2017–2018Sipapokhare, Sindhupalchowk

  • 1 storey

    Added to Rajeshwori School

    The school stands in Sipapokhare, the same village where the 800 transition homes were built.

  • 2018

    Construction completed

    Final-stage photographs were published in August 2018. The work was funded by Stephen DeFolo and Ben Amini.

The Rajeshwori School record

Check it yourself

The documents behind the numbers exist, and you can ask for them

Nothing on this page is a summary of a summary. The bylaws, the accountability framework, the budget sheets and the partner agreements are all held on file and released on request.

Governance documents