Hong Kong helps Nepal: NGO founder fears what quake impact he'll find
John Wood, founder of international education charity Room to Read, visits the country for first time since two earthquakes damaged and destroyed thousands of classrooms. John will blog daily on SCMP.com about what he finds
I arrive at Hong Kong International Airport on Sunday night not looking forward to this trip, but instead kind of dreading it.
Most trips to Chek Lap Kok involve eager anticipation – of a quick holiday or a productive business trip ahead. But tonight, I am heading to my favourite country in the world (and that of many Hongkongers), Nepal, and I’m bracing myself for what I was going to see of the land hit by a massive 7.8-magnitude earthquake in April.
Three days in the quake zone lie in front of me, and there is little I can do to prepare myself for what will inevitably be a difficult emotional journey.
I first visited Nepal in 1998 when I was an executive with Microsoft; what I saw changed my life. A headmaster in a rural village in the Annapurna mountain range showed me an empty library "serving" 450 children and explained: “In Nepal, we are too poor to afford education. But until we have it, we will always remain poor.”