Standing With Our Friends in Nepal Following the Bhote Koshi–Trishuli Flood

It is with heavy hearts that we share news of the catastrophic flash flood that swept through Nepal's Bhote Koshi and Trishuli river valleys on August 26, devastating communities throughout Rasuwa and neighboring districts.

For us, this disaster feels deeply shattering.

For the past three years, our RootEd Global program in partnership with Utah State University Outdoor Programs has traveled into the Langtang National Park region, including communities such as Syabru Besi that have been devastated by the flood. Alongside our longtime partners at Insight Himalaya and Waves for Water, our students have worked with families throughout this region to implement household water filtration systems and expand access to safe drinking water.

These are not simply places we have traveled.

They are communities that have welcomed our teams into their homes and communities. They are people who have walked beside our students, shared meals and conversations with us, taught us about their families, and allowed us to learn alongside them.

Today, many of those communities are grieving.

The August 26 flood carried an extraordinary surge of water, mud, ice, rock and debris through the Bhote Koshi–Trishuli corridor, destroying homes, roads, bridges and other critical infrastructure. Search, rescue and evacuation efforts have continued in the days since the disaster, with some communities remaining difficult to access.

We grieve with the families who have lost loved ones, with those still waiting for news, and with the thousands of people whose lives have been changed in a matter of moments.

When a Place Becomes More Than a Place

One of the most powerful parts of global immersion is that a place on a map can become something entirely different once you get the privilege to know the people who call it home.

Over the past several days, we have heard from former students who are heartbroken by what they are seeing. They recognize the names of villages appearing in the news. They recognize roads they traveled and landscapes they walked through. More importantly, they remember the people who welcomed them there.

Many have reached out asking the same question:

What can we do?

That response says something important about why these experiences matter.

Our hope has never been for students to travel to Nepal, support programs for a few weeks, return home, and simply remember that they once went somewhere beautiful. We hope they leave understanding that relationships formed across cultures and borders don't end when the trip does.

Sometimes global citizenship looks like going.

Sometimes it looks like listening.

And sometimes it looks like standing beside people you have come to care about when they are experiencing unimaginable loss.

Our Partners Are Already Responding

We are incredibly inspired by our friends and partners in Nepal who have moved immediately into response efforts.

Insight Himalaya has been assisting with the response on the ground as evacuations and relief efforts continue. According to an August 29 update from Insight Himalaya, flood victims have been evacuated by helicopter to Nuwakot and Kathmandu, while local authorities, police and the Nepali Army continue search-and-rescue and relief operations.

Our second partner, Waves for Water (W4W), has a launched a Nepal Flash Flood Response. They are working with Insight Himalaya in mobilizing through W4W Nepal and India teams to address one of the most immediate needs following the disaster: access to safe drinking water.

Their initial response is focused on installing clean-water access points for people evacuated from Trishuli, Betrawati, Syabru Besi and Timure, including families currently sheltering at the Yellow Monastery in Kathmandu. These filtration systems allow displaced families to treat locally available water rather than relying entirely on bottled-water deliveries.

Collectively, we get to stand with the same relationships and systems that are part of a much larger emergency response.

How You Can Help

As search-and-rescue operations continue and communities begin the long process of recovery, there will be significant needs in the weeks and months ahead.

Those wishing to support immediate clean-water response efforts can contribute directly to Waves for Water's Nepal Flash Flood Response. Funds raised through the campaign support water filtration systems and other safe-water infrastructure for affected communities.

Those wishing to contribute to Nepal’s broader disaster response may also donate through the Government of Nepal’s Prime Minister Disaster Relief Fund at pmdrf.nchl.com.np. Youthlinc is also launching a Nepal relief fundraising campaign connected to our RootEd Global team traveling to the region in May. Funds raised will support the work of our longtime partners, Insight Himalaya and Waves for Water, as we continue listening to local partners and identifying how our team can most responsibly contribute to recovery efforts.

Youthlinc Nepal Flood Relief Fund – Can we do this?

We also recognize that recovery from a disaster of this magnitude will not happen quickly. We will continue communicating with our partners in Nepal and listening to what they tell us is needed rather than assuming what support should look like.

For the students and alumni who have reached out wanting to help: your care matters. The relationships you formed matter. And the fact that a community thousands of miles away no longer feels thousands of miles away matters.

To our friends in Nepal, and particularly to the communities throughout the Langtang region that have welcomed our teams year after year:

We are grieving with you. We are thinking of you. And we are standing with you.