A RESTAURANT worker from Galashiels has returned to devastated Nepal to deliver vital roofing to his remote village.

The Border Telegraph revealed how Ongdi Sherpa was in the country's capital Kathmandu when a devastating earthquake struck earlier this year.

It was Nepal's worse natural disaster in 80 years - leaving over 8,000 dead and hundreds of thousands homeless.

After returning to Scotland, the 35-year-old along with his wife, Alison, and six-year-old daughter, Tamzin, embarked on a fundraising mission to help the mountainous hamlet where his elderly parents still live.

Many organisations - including the Rotary Clubs of Selkirk and Hawick, the Parish Church and Trinity Church in Galashiels, the Taste of Spice Restaurant in Selkirk and Gurkha Nepaleae Restaurant in Edinburgh, and even the Oxnam Water Ladies group - as well as countless individuals helped Ongdi raise £7,000.

Last month the former mountain guide returned once more to Nepal - this time with enough corrugated iron roofing to complete 17 homes which are being rebuilt.

Ongdi explained: "Every house in my home village was damaged or destroyed by the earthquake.

"The materials from the collapsed buildings can be used again to rebuild the walls but there is a problem with roofing. Once the roofs are damaged they can't be re-used.

"Many of the houses now have bamboo on the roofs which needs replaced regularly. I wanted to take proper roofing out to the village and thanks to the people of the Borders I was able to do that."

Further aftershocks in the days, weeks and months after the initial earthquake on April 25 has hampered Nepal's recovery.

And in recent months a severe fuel shortage has led to a fresh humanitarian crisis.

Following the introduction of a new parliamentary constitution for the country on September 20, protests by Indian authorities and outlying Nepalese groups on the other side of the border have prevented tankers reaching the cities.

Ongdi continued: "There was one small aftershock when I was there but the earthquake threat has lifted.

"The big problem facing Nepal now is the lack of fuel - there is no petrol for vehicles and no gas for cooking.

"People are smuggling in fuel and it is being sold for crazy prices - 500 to 600 rupees a litre - on the black market."

Ongdi's home village of Dimbul in the mountainous Solukhumbu district, near to Mount Everest, is an 18-hour jeep ride and further two day-long trek from Kathmandu.

Having placed an order for the materials before he left Scotland, he collected the roofing from the town of Solang around a day's walk from Dimbul.

Dozens of villages came down from the mountains to help with the final leg of the journey.

Families spent a full day carrying the corrugated iron through the steep terrain to reach Ongdi's village.

And for several days they fixed the sheets to houses which had been rebuilt.

Ongdi added: "The houses are being rebuilt one by one - it will be another six months before all 17 houses are rebuilt.

"But they now have good roofing that will last a generation.

"The people of my village are delighted as they now have quality roofs that will last them for 30 years - it is one less thing they have to worry about.

"It may not seem like much here in Scotland but the roofing is a really big thing in the village."