Inner Ocean Empowerment Project

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Inner Ocean Empowerment Project

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neighborhoods. As an international nonprofit, we honor the wisdom and traditions of the communities we serve.

We are a global nonprofit bringing holistic healthcare, trauma-informed education, and leadership training to underserved communities—empowering women and mothers as community health workers, from rural Nepal to marginalized U.S. Inner Ocean Empowerment Project (IOEP) provides unmatched, dynamic world service focusing on women’s health and education, global disaster relief, and holistic healthcare accessibility. We do this by building partnerships and providing culturally appropriate interventions that focus on sustainable solutions for vulnerable populations. IOEP strives to restore health, build resilience, and empower leadership in the communities we serve.

10/24/2026

A day in the Himalayas. 🇳🇵🌿

Today we hiked through rhododendron forests alongside the village shaman, making our way to Puga Bugam for a day of community healthcare.

There is something profound about walking these mountain paths with the people who know this land so intimately. Generations of knowledge live here—in the forests, the traditions, the relationships, and the ways people care for one another.

Our beautiful team of Nepali and international doctors, nurses, acupuncturists, herbalists, and bodyworkers spent the day offering care, exchanging knowledge, and deepening relationships with the communities who have welcomed us into their lives.

And at the end of the day, the children sang. ❤️

Their voices, carried through the mountain air, were a reminder of the beauty and humanity at the heart of this work.

So much gratitude for our extraordinary team, our hosts, and the communities who continue to teach us what it means to care for one another.

Turn up the sound for the ending. 🎶

10/17/2026

Serving. Educating. Empowering. 🇳🇵

Our first clinic day brought us to the village of Farsidol in the Kathmandu Valley, where we began the process of finding our rhythm together as a team.

We intentionally begin here, where the pace is a little slower and access to resources is greater than in the remote Himalayan communities we’ll be traveling to next. It gives our international volunteers a chance to settle into the work, learn from our Nepali colleagues, and begin understanding the complexities of providing healthcare across cultures and circumstances.

One of the things I value most about this work is the extraordinary collection of humans who make it possible. Our Nepali team brings years of experience, local knowledge, and relationships that are the very foundation of our programs. Alongside them are volunteers from around the world, each arriving with different skills, experiences, and a willingness to learn as much as they give.

After nearly 15 years of working in Nepal, I am continually reminded that meaningful service is not just about what we bring to a community. It’s about what we build together, what we learn from one another, and what remains long after we leave.

Tomorrow we head deep into the mountains of Sindhupalchok, where our year-round clinics and community health workers continue this work every day, whether we’re here or not.

We’ll be unplugging for a while as we make our way into the villages.

Grateful to be here. Grateful for the people who make this possible. And grateful for the opportunity to keep showing up. ❤️

10/15/2026

🇳🇵 Our First 24 Hours in Nepal: A Little Chaos, A Lot of Love, and Some Festival Magic!

We’ve officially landed in and our first 24 hours have already been full of the beautiful unpredictability that comes with working in Nepal!

First, a small miracle: ALL EIGHT SUITCASES of our medical supplies arrived with us! li Anyone who has traveled internationally with this much luggage knows what a victory this is!

(Granted, charged us a whopping $288 per additional bag full of donated medical supplies … Absolutely insane! But not to worry, we are filling out the paperwork to request a humanitarian supply waiver 🤞)

Meanwhile, two of our volunteers have had their flights canceled, rescheduled, and then delayed again. We’re crossing our fingers that everyone will be reunited soon.

Flexibility, patience, and a good sense of humor are essential companions in this work.

We’ve also arrived during festival season, which means Kathmandu is alive with celebration, family gatherings, and some truly incredible traditional foods! One of our favorites is sel roti, a traditional Nepali ring-shaped bread made from rice flour, often with sugar, ghee, and warming spices like cardamom. It’s fried until golden and crisp on the outside, with a soft, slightly chewy center.

Nom freakin’ nom.

Especially beloved during Dashain and Tihar, sel roti is so much more than food. It’s an expression of celebration, hospitality, family, and cultural continuity.

(There’s a whole teaching here about rice, nourishment, tradition, and the relationship between food and belonging.)

And of course, before we even begin our official clinic work, the healing has already started. Our first patients? The wonderful staff at the hotel where we’ve been staying for more than a decade. These are people who have become dear friends over the years, and caring for them is one of our favorite ways to begin each visit.

Because this work has never been simply about arriving somewhere to provide medical care. It’s about relationships, reciprocity, trust, and showing up for one another, year after year.

Tomorrow’s agenda: SUPPLIES 📦 🩺

10/13/2026

Eight suitcases of medical supplies. Thousands of miles traveled. One shared commitment to serving our beloved communities in Nepal. 🇳🇵❤️

We are en route to Kathmandu!

As we soar over the magnificent Himalayas, our hearts are filled with gratitude, anticipation, and a deep sense of responsibility for the work ahead.

This journey feels especially significant. In the wake of devastating floods and landslides, so many of the communities we have worked alongside for nearly 15 years are facing tremendous hardship.

Over the coming weeks, we’ll be reconnecting with our Nepali team, supporting our year-round community clinics, delivering much-needed medical supplies, and working alongside our local partners to provide relief and care wherever it is most needed.

And yes, we managed to bring EIGHT suitcases filled with donated medical supplies! 🧳💊🩺

To everyone who donated, contributed supplies, helped us prepare, or sent their love and encouragement: you are part of this journey, too. We carry your generosity with us.

Stay close. We’ll be sharing stories, updates, and glimpses into the beautiful communities and people who make this work possible.

With love and gratitude, from somewhere above the Himalayas. 🏔️❤️

10/04/2026

🇳🇵 In one week , our teams will be on the ground in Nepal.

In the weeks since devastating floods and landslides swept through communities across Nepal, we have been working closely with our friends and partners on the ground to understand how Inner Ocean can be of greatest service.

Foreign aid organizations are still largely being kept out of some of the disaster areas because of the ongoing risk of additional flooding and landslides.

But after nearly 15 years of working in Nepal, our work doesn’t begin when we arrive—or end when we leave.

Our friends, colleagues, community health workers, and local partners are already there. And we are able to support them.

Right now, we are helping create care packages that can be carried into devastated communities, including:

☀️ Solar batteries
💧 Drinking water + water sterilization supplies
🩸 Sanitary pads
🩹 Basic first-aid supplies
🥫 Packaged and canned foods that don’t require cooking

Food access is especially challenging because many affected communities currently have no propane, amid a broader nationwide shortage that may impact our own program as well.

And every one of you who donated to our Nepal Flood Relief campaign helped make this response possible.

Thank you. Truly.

We also know this is only the beginning.

We were in Nepal in the immediate aftermath of the 2015 earthquake, and we learned firsthand that recovery is measured not in days or weeks, but in years.

The headlines eventually move on.

Our commitment has always been to stay.

Over the coming weeks, we’ll be sharing updates from the ground as we continue supporting our year-round clinics, local health teams and community leaders while responding to the evolving needs of flood-affected communities.

And once we touch down in Kathmandu, we’ll share our satellite phone tracking link again so you can literally follow along with us on the map. 🗺️❤️

Thank you for being part of this work—for trusting us, supporting these communities, and helping us show up again and again.

Nepal, we’ll see you soon. 🇳🇵

09/03/2026

WE’RE HIRING! ❤️🇳🇵

We’re looking for a wonderful human (local to Boulder County area) to join the Inner Ocean Empowerment Project team for the next few months—and help us pull off one of our most important year-end fundraising campaigns yet.

For nearly 15 years, we have had the tremendous privilege of working alongside communities in Nepal—training Community Health Workers, supporting locally led clinics, responding in times of crisis, and building relationships that have grown deeper with every passing year.

This year, those relationships are calling us to do more.

Recent flooding has deeply impacted communities we love and have worked alongside for many years. As our team prepares to return to Nepal this fall, we are also preparing for an ambitious year-end fundraising campaign and silent auction to support both immediate recovery efforts and the long-term community health programs already rooted in these communities.

And we could really use another set of hands.

We’re hiring a Seasonal Fundraising + Community Engagement Coordinator to work with us from now through the end of December.

✨ $25/hour
✨ Approximately 100–150 total hours
✨ Flexible schedule + lots of remote work
✨ Local to the Erie/Lafayette/Boulder, Colorado area
✨ Temporary independent contractor position
✨ Possibility of an additional end-of-campaign performance/completion bonus

This person will help us gather and organize silent auction donations, connect with donors and local businesses, photograph and list auction items, work within our Givebutter platform, create simple graphics in Canva, coordinate local donation pickups, and generally help us keep all the moving pieces moving.

We’re looking for someone who is organized, resourceful, warm, creative, tech-savvy, good with people, and able to take something and run with it.

Previous nonprofit or fundraising experience is wonderful, but it is not required. We can teach the right person what they need to know.

More than anything, we’re looking for someone who cares about people and feels excited about putting their time and talents toward something that will have a very real impact.

We welcome applicants of all backgrounds and especially encourage people from communities historically underrepresented in nonprofit and global health spaces to apply. Lived experience, cross-cultural awareness, community relationships, and nontraditional professional paths are valued here.

And please don’t count yourself out because you don’t check every box. If this work speaks to you and you think you could be great at it, we genuinely want to hear from you.

Interested? Send us a DM with a little about yourself and why this opportunity caught your attention, and we’ll send you the full job description.

Not looking for work yourself? Sharing this post might be just as helpful. Somewhere in our extended Inner Ocean community, we have a feeling the right person is waiting to find us. ❤️

08/29/2026

Nepal is flooding. And for us, this is deeply personal. 🇳🇵

Devastating flash floods are impacting areas where Inner Ocean has worked alongside local communities for nearly 15 years.

People within our extended community are missing. Several of the specialty jeep drivers who have carried our teams safely through these mountains over the years are unaccounted for. Members of our Sherpa community are missing. Families are waiting for news of people they love.

These are our friends.
Our colleagues.
Our Community Health Workers.
Our drivers.
Our teachers.
Our family.

These are our people.

We have launched the Nepal Flood Relief & Recovery Fund to begin mobilizing resources immediately.

As we hear directly from our partners and communities on the ground, funds will be directed toward the most urgent needs—from food, clean water, medical supplies, shelter and transportation to the longer work of recovery and rebuilding.

Our teams are already scheduled to return to Nepal this October and November.

The floodwaters will eventually recede.
The headlines will move on.
We will still be there.

If you are able, please donate through the link in our bio.

If you can’t donate, please share this post. Help us carry these communities beyond our own circle.

And to our Nepali community, near and far: we are holding you close. We are grieving with you. We are listening. And we are mobilizing.

🇳🇵❤️

08/27/2026

Nepal is flooding. And this is deeply personal for us.

Devastating flash floods are impacting areas of Nepal where Inner Ocean has worked alongside local communities for nearly 15 years.

The villages we primarily support are currently on the edges of the worst flooding, but the impact is already reaching deeply into our communities. People are missing and feared to have been swept away. Several of the expert jeep drivers who have carried our teams safely through these mountains over the years are missing. Members of our Sherpa community are missing. Families are waiting for news of friends and loved ones.

These are not distant communities to us.

These are our friends, our colleagues, our Community Health Workers, our drivers, our teachers, and people whose children we have watched grow up.

These are our people.

We have created a Nepal Flood Relief & Recovery Fund to begin getting resources where they are most needed.

DONATE HERE: https://givebutter.com/nepal-flood-relief-recovery-fund-ry8wrv

Our first instinct was to mobilize the mothers we have trained and certified as Community Health Workers. But many of these women are themselves in shock—grieving, searching for loved ones, or waiting for news.

Right now, they need their communities to hold them before we ask them to hold everyone else.

As we learn more from our partners on the ground, funds raised will help us respond to immediate needs such as food, clean water, medical supplies, shelter, transportation, and direct assistance to affected families—and eventually the much longer work of recovery and rebuilding.

Inner Ocean volunteer teams are already scheduled to be on the ground in Nepal from early October through November. We know from many years of this work that disasters do not end when the headlines disappear. We intend to be there for what comes next.

To everyone who has reached out to ask about our communities: thank you. Please keep Nepal close right now, especially those waiting for news of someone they love.

If you are able, please donate. If you can't donate, sharing this post is another meaningful way to help us reach people who can.

And for those who have felt called to serve alongside us in Nepal, we still have a couple of spaces available on our October team. The need for support will undoubtedly continue long after the floodwaters recede. Please reach out if you are feeling called.

❤️ Nepal Flood Relief & Recovery Fund

04/20/2026

We support two primary regions in Nepal: the high altitude Himalayan communities (mostly Tamang and Sherpa) then also as of only a few years ago, the Himalayan jungle communities (mostly Tharu) Indigenous communities. We come equipped to support a myriad of health conditions but are noticing some patterns among the different communities and climates. In this video we talk about some of the jungle community challenges specifically. There are always more and they tend to morph over time just like anywhere in the world. We will continue to share our findings.

04/01/2026

Luckily, our service immersions don’t attract “most” people, only those who are seeking a different way, those with an open heart and mind. We love offering deeply unique experiences so you return home transformed, and ready to challenge the status quo. We love inviting healers, leaders, and community service workers into our programs, so we can exchange wisdom with the local, Indigenous communities we have been serving here in 2013.

Address

Lafayette, CO

Telephone

+18044394374

Website

http://msha.ke/innerocean

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