UMN invites you to consider holding a Candlelit Dinner in your church or in one or more of your church group meetings.

Why? For a number of months this winter, Nepal has only had four hours of electricity each day and four hours at night. There is a generator in Kathmandu but our cluster work and communications have been severely disrupted with little electricity during working hours and limited number of shared computers. Lost computer time reduces efficiency and this affects work with partners and beneficiary communities. Power cuts are less during the monsoon but next winter the cuts are likely to be worse.

We have decided to buy 26 laptops with 8-hour batteries to be spread amongst six clusters. Also, three clusters will have car batteries and re-chargers to provide power for the printers, lights and fans.

We thought the candlelit dinners would be a fun and appropriate way to raise funds for these and other additional cluster costs.

The whole evening should be candlelit with torches for restroom visits. Where possible the food should be cooked without using electricity. We suggest a menu of rice, lentils, curried vegetables and perhaps a little chicken followed by fruit salad. To be more Nepali, you could forget the chicken and the fruit salad and consider eating with your right hand only, i.e. no forks or spoons.

Please email Bibhu at funding.bibhu@umn.org.np to let us know if you can hold a candlelit event and whether you want us to send any prayer leaflets, leaflets on UMN's work and a Nepali recipe for use during the evening.