Why is a Leuven family travelling into Nepal’s flood zone to help rebuild its village?

Leuven residents Mira Dangol and her daughter Priyenka Gurung left Belgium for Nepal on 1 September, carrying about €1,500 raised through crowdfunding to help relatives and neighbours after catastrophic flash floods devastated communities near the Chinese border. The family, which lives in Wilsele, had spent days waiting for news from Dangol’s mother in the disaster area, according to VTM Nieuws reporting carried by HLN. They eventually learned that she was alive, but Dangol said very little remained of her home village.

Their journey has turned a distant Himalayan emergency into a deeply local story for Leuven. Dangol and Gurung intend to use the donations where needs are clearest, arguing that even a small contribution can make a meaningful difference. The precise village they are travelling to and the conditions along their route have not been independently confirmed, an important uncertainty because destroyed roads and continuing landslides have isolated parts of northern Nepal.

The response extends beyond one family. KU Leuven has released €25,000 for emergency assistance, divided between Médecins Sans Frontières and the Red Cross, according to Het Nieuwsblad. Rector Séverine Vermeire said the university’s thoughts were with everyone affected, while KU Leuven contacted students and staff connected to the region to offer support. Organisers of the Nepalese Teej and Dar festival scheduled in Wilsele also postponed the celebration and redirected its budget, together with members’ donations, towards relief work.

For Belgium-based readers, these initiatives show how diaspora networks often become an early bridge between a disaster zone and organised international assistance. They can identify individual households and urgent shortages quickly, while institutions and established relief organisations provide logistics, safeguarding and wider coverage. Rode Kruis-Vlaanderen has opened an emergency appeal and says its funds support Nepalese Red Cross partners distributing essential supplies. Its spokesman Jan Poté identified safe drinking water, medical care and shelter as immediate priorities.

The floods struck Nepal’s Rasuwa region and adjoining areas of Chinese-controlled Tibet on 26 August. The Associated Press reported that a collapse involving glacier ice and bedrock sent water, rock and mud through Himalayan river valleys, destroying homes, roads, bridges and hydropower infrastructure. By 1 September, Nepal’s disaster agency had counted more than 1,000 deaths and thousands of missing people, although casualty totals may change as teams reach isolated places. Scientists cited by AP caution that they are still reconstructing the precise chain of events; warming conditions increase Himalayan glacier hazards, but climate change should not be presented as the single proven trigger of this individual collapse.

Survivors’ priorities also complicate any simple story of rescue. AP found that displaced people were receiving food and basic supplies but still struggled to obtain medicines, cash and transport. Meanwhile, mass burials ordered as mortuaries exceeded capacity prompted objections from some residents concerned about identification and funeral rites. Authorities face the competing demands of public health, respectful treatment of the dead and families’ need for certainty.

The European response is operating on another scale. The EU Delegation to Nepal said on 3 September that emergency funding had risen to €2.5 million, including support for a Nepal Red Cross operation intended to reach as many as 20,000 people in Bagmati Province. The Union has also activated Copernicus satellite mapping, arranged a humanitarian air bridge and coordinated supplies offered through the EU Civil Protection Mechanism by Germany, Luxembourg, Latvia and Sweden. Belgian crisis-management commissioner Hadja Lahbib framed the need in immediate human terms: roads had been washed away, villages cut off and families left searching for loved ones.

Belgian federal guidance nevertheless underlines the danger of private travel into the area. The Foreign Ministry advises against visiting Rasuwa until local authorities declare it safe, warning of further flooding and landslides. It urges Belgian travellers already in Nepal to register through Travellers Online and notes that consular responsibility lies with Belgium’s embassy in New Delhi, supported only to a limited extent by the honorary consulate in Kathmandu.

For Dangol and Gurung, the next stage will depend on whether damaged routes allow them to reach their community and convert a modest Leuven fundraiser into useful assistance. For Nepal, the longer task is larger: finding the missing, restoring access and deciding whether repeatedly exposed settlements and infrastructure can safely be rebuilt. How the family’s funds are ultimately distributed, and when they can return to Belgium, remain unknown.