On August 26, a glacial collapse in Tibet sent a wall of water and debris down the Bhotekoshi and the Trishuli, through Rasuwa, Nuwakot, and six more districts. More than 1,000 people are confirmed dead, at least 51 of them in Nuwakot, and nearly 4,000 are still missing. These are the villages our coffee comes from: home of Nuwa Estate, our partner on this land, and the farming families Nuwa has known by name since 2007. They are the people we work with and support.
Our partners have worked in this valley for decades, and our commitment to it will outlast the cameras. In October, we will be on the ground ourselves, documenting the mountain regions of Nepal: the people, the villages, and the rebuilding.
How to stand with the valley
Every disaster appeal asks for your trust. Ours rests on partnerships measured in decades, not news cycles.
Since 2007, Nuwa Estate has anchored this district: the Tenzing family farm, the schools its harvests help fund, the families whose livelihoods keep the forest standing. We are the estate’s long-term US partner, our foundation exists to serve mountain communities like these, and the flood came down their river.
The Nepal Flood Recovery Fund does one integrated work: emergency and rebuilding grants through our long-term partners on the ground, organizations we have worked beside for decades that are already distributing relief in the affected districts, and our October field mission, when we extend our own trip to document the mountain regions, tell the stories of the Nepali people, and work alongside our partners on the ground. This is not a disaster pop-up. We are invested in this valley for the long term, and the flood has made one thing plain: these communities need long-term solutions, not just emergency kits.
How the money is handled: Planet 5 covers the Foundation's operating costs, and we fund our own base travel personally. The fund pays only for relief and rebuilding grants on the ground and the direct field costs of the documentation mission, under a budget approved by the Foundation's independent directors. The fund is used to help the valley recover and rebuild, and every dollar is publicly accounted for.
Nuwa Estate sits at 1,400 metres in Nuwakot, one of the districts the flood passed through. The farm belongs to the family of Tenzing Norgay, and we are its long-term US partner, bringing its coffee to America exclusively.
Its sales already help fund schools in the same district. Our commitment is to the commerce, the coffee, the schools, and the people of this region for the long run. The flood does not change that commitment; it deepens it.
A donation is spent once. A US market for Nuwakot coffee pays every harvest, for decades, and every bag that leaves the district is income earned rather than aid received.
We are asking for long-term partners in that recovery, not a one-time gesture. Emergency relief matters this month; a working economy is what rebuilds a valley for good. That is why this fund pairs rebuilding grants with our October field mission, and why the strongest thing you can do after giving is simple: drink the valley's coffee.
Every dollar given goes through our foundation and nowhere else: rebuilding grants through our long-term partners on the ground, and the October field mission that brings the people and the rebuilding to the world.
Applied where the need on the ground is greatest. The fund is used to help the valley recover and rebuild, and every dollar is publicly accounted for. Online giving opens this week.
Pledge to the fund
Pre-order Everest Coffee, grown at Nuwa Estate in Nuwakot. Every bag is income earned in the district, harvest after harvest. This is the long-term answer.
Pre-order the coffeeWe welcome all gift sizes; all gifts go to the Nepal Flood Recovery Fund. Mountain Preservation Foundation is a Wyoming nonprofit corporation (EIN 42-4666179). Our federal 501(c)(3) application is in progress; once granted, exempt status applies retroactively, covering gifts made today. Gifts support rebuilding grants through our on-ground partners and the direct field costs of the October documentation mission; the fund is used to help the valley recover and rebuild, and all uses are documented publicly. Coffee purchases are transactions with Planet 5, not donations.
The people, the villages, and the rebuilding. Everyone who gives will be the first to see it: the photographs, the stories, and the progress, straight from the valley.
This is who your support stands behind: the growers, the schoolchildren, the partners we work beside, and the culture that holds these valleys together.
