Every year, thousands of children fall victim to child sex trafficking in Nepal.
Tobias Vokuhl MCIOB is leading an ambitious project to build a safe home complex in the Kathmandu Valley where survivors can heal, resume their childhood and schooling, and safely prepare for a life of dignity and independence.
Tobias is determined to introduce sustainable building practices to Nepal, and has devised a way of using soil excavated on the site to make cement-stabilised earth blocks to build the complex’s guardhouse.
It’s a practice that he believes could reduce cost and waste more widely in the country.
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To raise around £30,000 needed to hire local people to make the blocks, and to pay for training and equipment, Tobias and his two teenage children, Ella and Jacob, are cycling 220km around the Annapurna Circuit in the Himalayas at the end of September 2025, reaching more than 5,400m altitude.
To support a project that is helping survivors, promoting sustainable construction, and providing local skills and employment, donate here: https://ally.org/vokuhl-family
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Tobias, I really applaud your goals to make the children of Nepal feel valued and to be able to lead a worthwhile life. I left Nepal on 25th March 2015 having trekked with my wife from Lukla to Namche Bazaar to reach the Hilary school and on to walk the Annapurna trail, only to hear of the 25th April earthquake on arriving back home in the UK. We found the Nepali people very generous and hospitable and made a personal donation not only to the earthquake appeal but also to our sherpa who had lost his family home and wished to send his children to school. The idea of the composite earth building blocks is interesting having worked on using pulverized fuel ash from power stations mixed with cement to make a temporary access road on a civil engineering project in 1966. You really are doing a worthwhile job and with all your family too! Keep pedaling to the end …… Stewart Jones MCIOB
P.S. Please keep us updated on the project’s progress – thanks.