Watch: Libby launching the Heartquake project
It’s with a considerable beat of my own heart that I announce HEARTQUAKE to the world!
This online compendium came out of the ruins of the awful earthquake that beset Nepal April 25th, exactly two years ago. Bec Ordish of the Mitrataa Foundation who took part in immediate rescue works in and around Kathmandu with her students, asked me to help form afar in another way. This was with guiding some poetry writing to help traumatised young people come to terms with the terrifying circumstances they had to face.
HEARTQUAKE (the title of a student poem) comprises poetry and artworks, first-hand accounts and reflections, and is is a testament to the hopefulness of young Nepali people, their communities and families. On request, both the Nepali Ambassador in Canberra, Mr Rudra K Nepal, and the Australian Ambassador in Nepal, Mr Glen White, both wrote warmly of the student responses in their Forewords for HEARTQUAKE.
Some Newcastle students whose family had experienced an earthquake there, also offered some of their poems for the compendium. We hope it will link us through word and image and through the always inspiring strength of the human spirit. Please take some time to ponder these young people’s heartfelt efforts.