Nelson team boosts Nepal rebuild
Nelson man John Gully recently travelled to Nepal with a team of tradespeople from Nelson to rebuild a community centre.
Gully has visited Nepal twice a year for the past 30 years.
He went back in April to the Nepalese village of Khunde to rebuild ’’the Mani Lhang’’ which was destroyed in the October 2015 earthquakes.
The only thing that had miraculously survived the earthquake was an ancient prayer wheel, Gully said.
The community centre was more than 300 years old and the spiritual, cultural and community centre point for the village, in particular for the elderly who were not able to walk the few hundred metres to their Gompa (monastery), Gully said.
Gully owns Everest Treks, a company organising walks in the Everest region.
He said all of the company’s sherpa guides come from Khunde and the twin village Khumjung.
‘‘Their plea for assistance in the rebuild was an easy one to accept.’’
‘‘We raised $39,000 in cash which represents about 40 per cent of the total needed to fund the project.’’
The community centre was damaged beyond repair in the earthquake, Gully said.
He said donations came in all forms from a ‘‘huge variety of people’’ including Nelson Intermediate and the Whakatu Rotary Club.
Gully assembled a team of builders to help him on the project, including Nelson master builder Harry Taylor and Whitianga Peninsula Roofing owner Richard Vetter and a team of volunteers.
‘‘We had with us roofers, builders, a civil engineer, and several hammer hands.’’
ITM in Nelson provided the Makita tools and some of the other hardware needed and Tauranga’s Harkin Roofing covered the rest of the tools.
‘‘Working at this altitude of 3853m was quite difficult, despite acclimatisation days on our trek in.’’
‘‘Fortunately, we had power to the site for our corded tools; however, we will need a powerful generator for our future projects which will be in more remote locations.’’
Gully said other Nepalese communities have requested the assistance of the team for other building projects.
‘‘Not just for roofing, but for the building of houses to accommodate families who still live under canvas after losing their homes and no chance to find the money required to rebuild.’’
‘‘Our intention is to design and build a simple 70 metre dwelling with iron roof and cladding, wooden floor, plywood interior, polystyrene insulation and wood stove.’’
The local sherpa will continue to work on the community centre until it’s due to be completed in September.
‘‘This was an incredibly rewarding and meaningful project, the first of what we aim to make an annual plan.’’