From April 5 through April 14, 23 volunteers with Habitat for Humanity of the St. Vrain Valley will be visiting the Morang District of Nepal, assisting with projects and building homes with a Nepali Habitat for Humanity organization. The staff and construction team from the Habitat organization in Nepal will guide and instruct Colorado volunteers on proper building methods and how to build with materials like bamboo.
In Colorado, Habitat for Humanity of the St. Vrain Valley partners with low-income families to build affordable homeownership in the St. Vrain Valley School District and Estes Park. The Longmont-based organization has been around since 1988 and brings people, businesses, civic groups, and faith groups together to work side-by-side with families to build homes.
Like all other Habitat organizations around the world, Habitat for Humanity of the St. Vrain Valley partners with a different international Habitat organization to give ten percent of unrestricted funding to. Their current partner is Habitat for Humanity’s national office in Nepal.
During the second year of each four-year partnership, St. Vrain’s Habitat organization plans a trip for volunteers to visit their international partner and assist them with projects and builds. According to Julie Gallegos, the associate executive director of Habitat for Humanity of the St. Vrain Valley, the organization was originally scheduled to visit Nepal in 2020, but the trip was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“Bringing people together is exactly Habitat’s special role,” Gallegos said. “Especially in these times when people are so divided. Habitat can break down those barriers.”
Gallegos said that Longmont’s Habitat organization is supporting the Nepali Habitat organization financially, but it’s also important to the organization to put in their “sweat equity.” Bringing extra volunteers to Nepal from Colorado will help to speed up the process on whatever build is in progress in the Morang District, Gallegos said.
“We can come back [to Colorado] and talk about what they're doing [in Nepal] and bring some of what we learn back to our community,” she said.
With 23 volunteers, this international volunteer trip is the largest Gallegos has seen in her 17 years of working for Habitat. Volunteers fully fund their own travel for international volunteer trips.
The volunteers going to Nepal are of all different ages and backgrounds: Some have worked in construction for years, while others have never worked with construction tools. Some volunteers have traveled the world, while others have never left the country. Despite their differences, though, the volunteers are all on the same page about what they are in Nepal to do, Gallegos said.
“We’ve had monthly meetings every month for the last six months to talk about intentions and about why we go,” she said. “We will be volunteers for an already-existing organization. We try to go with the right mindset. We are not there to fix or teach them, we are just there to work with that community.”
Sunanda Dangol, who is originally from Nepal, is on the board of directors for Habitat for Humanity of the St. Vrain Valley. Dangol is the CEO and founder of Nepali Jatra, an annual festival in Longmont that celebrates Nepali culture and heritage, and she works to generally promote Nepali culture and art to the Longmont community. She will also be attending the volunteer trip to Nepal.
“Sunanda is a voice for the Nepali community here in Longmont,” Gallegos said. “It is wonderful to have someone who grew up in Nepal going on the trip. We aren’t guessing about cultural questions because she has helped to intelligently answer them and to plan our visit.”
Gallegos said that when the volunteers return to Longmont from their trip, Habitat for Humanity of the St. Vrain Valley will do a “special Habitat build day” for the public, and will invite local Nepali people and volunteers who participated in the trip to Nepal to join. The event will celebrate the volunteers’ return and bring the Nepali community in the St. Vrain and Estes Valleys together. The date of the build is to be determined.
