GLUSBURN man Robin Ackroyd - who recently returned from volunteering in Nepal - is using his artistic skills to raise money for the country's earthquake victims.

Robin, 24, who is considering a career as an art teacher, is selling prints of drawings he made while he was in Nepal for the relief effort.

He and his fellow volunteers have also set up a Facebook fundraising page, Help us Help Nepal, for the survivors of the two major quakes that have hit the country in the past month.

Robin said: "It is a great tragedy and to know that so many of my friends out there are in danger has been very hard to watch from afar. Many of the places I got to visit only a few months earlier are now no more.

"The roads were already in a bad way and many will have been destroyed with the earthquake. Getting aid to the more remote places will be very difficult."

Robin volunteered with the charity Restless Development and was based in Charikot, a small rural town about 120 kilometres north west of Kathmandu.

It was badly affected by the second earthquake last week.

"It killed 34 people in the town. Luckily my host family are all ok, but their house is not. It must be such a worrying place to live. The town next to Charikot, Dolakha, has been almost totally destroyed.

"A lot of the places that my fellow volunteers were working in have also been very badly affected. It's even more tragic because it's happened to such a poor country. I've never met such giving kind people and they do not deserve this.

"They are are very resilient people and they will work harder together to look after one another. I wonder whether we could help Nepal by sharing ideas and technology and whether we could learn from Nepal by being a little more generous and self sufficient."

Robin, who worked in a school, said he was "blown away" away by the welcome he received by the Nepalese people.

"Smiles greeted me every day on my walk to the school," he said. "Nepal is a stunningly beautiful place, waking up each morning and looking out on the Himalayas will be something that I never will forget."