My memorable volunteer story begins on April 25, 2015.During that time I was at home and I was very sick. People from the VIN (Volunteers Initiative Nepal) office called me directly after the earthquake. At first, I thought I was getting some kind of support from VIN because my rented home was completely destroyed by the earthquake. When I arrived at the office, the leaders of VIN told me to check the volunteers community: how many people were affected by the earthquake. I went along with Kapil, Dinesh and Bhupi and there were 78 volunteers who had been working for the community at that time. After that, I was really worried about my family, how they would survive this terrible event without me.The trip was horrible because of the torn electric cables and crumbling buildings by the road.We saw a lot of people trying to save their remaining belongings from their almost destroyed homes. We saw many stray dogs, dead goats and cows lying on the streets. After the earthquake many people were forced to live in tents where there were no toilets, no bathrooms, you must go on the street. Because of this, the drinking water became polluted and many people were sick. This was very unhealthy and horribly tragic.We started thinking about how we could help these people. We built 600 shelters with toilets and we gave various instruments for health issues to those in need. I think we did everything we could. During that time I had no home, me and my family moved from my father-in-law’s house to another place that the earthquake left intact. But we fought and we’ll keep on fighting and we’ll raise up again. Life’s strong sometimes but you need to be stronger.Kishor Bhattarai, 31 years old, Local Facilitator of V.I.N.Credits: Boglárka Horváth; Dániel Hernádi
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