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Photos courtesy of Dr. Brandy Strelec<\/em><\/p>\n It was supposed to be the trip of a lifetime. And it was, just not in the way Dr. Brandy Strelec expected. She and friend Kelly Hammond were part of a team planning to make the trek to the Mount Everest base camp in 2015, but after they arrived in Nepal, an 8.1-magnitude earthquake had devastating effects on the country and its people. About 9,000 people were killed, thousands more were injured, and millions were displaced from their homes. For Strelec and Hammond, their challenge shifted from the trek to just getting home safely.<\/p>\n The timing of the trek had been significant for Strelec\u2014she was one year cancer-free at the time and part of the purpose of the trip was a celebration of that milestone. Now, four years later and five years cancer-free, Strelec will return to Nepal for not just another attempt to make the trek to base camp, but to do some humanitarian work to help a country that is still recovering from the earthquake and its aftershocks. And this time she’ll have her husband Dave Van Gelder at her side.<\/p>\n Both are Rotarians, and Strelec has been building a relationship with a Rotary Club in Nepal to help provide water filtration systems for schools in the country. Thousands of schools were damaged by the earthquake and its aftershocks, and by flooding that struck Nepal in subsequent years.<\/p>\n “This country has been hit so hard,” says Strelec. “Because of the flooding, a lot of the schools were left with really disastrous water situations (with no) access to clean drinking water.” A Rotary district grant enabled them to send water filtration systems to four schools. “It\u2019s just sort of blossomed from there and grown into what\u2019s now becoming our next international humanitarian project.”<\/p>\n Van Gelder recalls meeting some Nepalese people at a conference in Atlanta a couple of years ago. “When we talked to them about the devastation of the earthquakes, they were so humble. They were more interested about us than giving any story of their families and anyone they know that would have went through that devastation. They seem like super, super nice people.”<\/p>\n He adds that he’s looking forward to experiencing a new culture and seeing where their fundraising will help.<\/p>\n For Strelec, it will be an emotional return. “I get emotional at the most random times since we\u2019ve now made the decision,” she says. “I am really excited to go back. I want to go back to where I was when the earthquake happened and the tea shop Kelly and I were at. I want to visit, I call him our tea shop man, and see if he\u2019s still there and in broken English talk to him about if his family is okay, because we never got to have that closure. Everyone was panicking and going their separate ways after it happened and trying to get to safety.”<\/p>\n And through it all, the Nepalese people were “so kind and supportive and generous while we were there. It\u2019s an automatic want to give back to them,” says Strelec.<\/p>\n\n\t\t