The Global Citizen Foundation has donated funds to help rebuild Nepal after the devastating earthquake on April 25, 2015.

In October, Arnaud Joakim, a digital marketing manager at Arton Capital, and his wife, Grace Lin, an architect by trade, traveled to the rural village of Takure in the Sindhupalchowk district of Nepal, which was close to the epicentre of the 2015 earthquake. The area is still under reconstruction with the help of an organization called Conscious Impact. 

For two weeks Arnaud and Grace volunteered their time and skills to help in the fabrication of compressed stabilized earth blocks (CSEB) and participated in the yearly community meeting with the locals to demonstrate the use of the CSEBs. This eco-friendly and anti-seismic building material was used to reconstruct the first school in Bimire, a nearby village. This alternate building technique was introduced to the locals for their home rebuilds and will be used to reconstruct the Takure primary school. 

After their travels in Southeast Asia in 2013, Grace and Arnaud vowed to go back and aid those in need. Conscious Impact, founded by Orion Haas, Allen Gulla and Juliette Maas, is committed to serving the most affected victims of the 2015 Nepal earthquakes. Living within the community, Conscious Impact creates employment and educates the locals on this alternate method of construction. The volunteers become an integral part of the community and gained a better understanding of the people they were helping. This was a true cultural immersion.

For more information on Conscious Impact and their story, please visit http://www.consciousimpact.org/

Photos by John Arvin Española, Jonathan H. Lee and Grace Lin