Nepal Earthquake Relief Work – 2015

Nepal has seen one of the worst natural disasters in this century and more than 8000 people were dead beside thousands were missing. The entire world came in support with rescue and relief aid. The devastation was so much across in Nepal and the relief aid did not reach to all. It became extremely difficult to get to the remote villages, which are up in the mountains because of the lack of manpower and volunteers.

A friend of mine whom I knew by name Jack Sharma who lived in a remote village called Thokarpa in Sindhpalchok district that was worst affected was very lucky to survive with his family. There were few deaths but unfortunately most of the houses in the villagers were totally destroyed.

The government and NGO’s were focussed on areas they could reach quickly with the rescue and relief aid. Also the roads to the villages that are high on the mountains were damaged because of the heavy rain and land sliding.

I managed to get hold of Jack Sharma and found that they were really struggling. I decided to help them out and wrote to all my friends asking for the helping hand to these villagers in Thokarpa. The urgent need was for relief tents as their houses were destroyed and had no shelter.

My grateful thanks to all my dear friends who immediately offered to extend their support to the villagers needs and I managed to buy few tents.

The next challenge was to get these tents across to his village. But everything being dumped at the airport, as they are not able to despatch all the relief aid to the people in Nepal due to lack of manpower and even the few cargo planes were being sent back.

Finally I made up my mind that I would take it personally these tents to the villagers into the mountains. So I took off on the 12th of May and landed in Kathmandu airport at 1:00 pm.

No one expected the timing to be so accurate because shortly after my plane had touched Kathmandu airport on the noon of 12/05/2015, the ground shook hard again measuring 7.3 on the Richter scale this time. An earthquake greeted me soon after I stepped into the capital. There was unrest and panic everywhere and people rushed out of buildings to find an open space for safety.

There were plenty of conversations about the contrasting scenarios in the city and the villages. Food and relief material that are sent for distribution in the villages are believed to be hoarded in the army bases or local groups and the poor have no access to them. So my mission was to deliver these tents personally to the villagers so that those who have lost their homes will have a little ray of hope. Getting to the village was a challenge in itself owing to the mountainous terrain and after a few hours of bumpy ride in the bus, the destination arrived.

What I saw here was a heart-wrenching scene. Devastated homes, villagers camping in the open in the biting cold at night, scarcity of food and an insecurity about when the ground will shake again. Amid the crumbling of buildings and uncertainty about the future, what remained was the quiet fighting spirit of the villagers. The demand was huge, however, and our supplies could only meet the needs of a few families. The village head drew out a list of those who needed the tents on an urgent basis and these included the elderly, the sick, pregnant women and little children. The tents were distributed and set up shortly afterwards. Before the monsoons hit Nepal in June, I am happy to report that there are a few who will benefit from some type of makeshift shelter till their homes are rebuilt completely.

Although the country has seen the worst, it does not mean another quake will not happen again, and the time and the intensity cannot be predicted. There are several reports that disaster relief is in full swing, but the situation in the villages is truly dismal. We left Kathmandu happy in one sense as our mission was accomplished but there is still a long way to go before the country bounces back to its former state.

The experience of this trip risking my life did not lower my spirit of what I have been doing but it inspired me that I should continue. So my personal visit has helped me understand their circumstances and the challenges of people in this village. It requires a long-term commitment of support and help is what they need to get to back to their normal routine.

An important thing that I would like to focus on is getting their school buildings up again which was totally destroyed by the earthquake. So with this thought, I am on a mission to see how this can be achieved and further I hope to find people who can join hands with me on this mission.

Thank you so much for your support extended to take these tents to the villagers of Thokarpa. If this action of GT FOUNDATION has inspired you and if you like to support by joining your hands with us, please do write?

You can also view some short video clips of the relief work

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSGFqFuCnLc0tXwLRpygrMw/videos 

How do we tackle the crisis?

While risking my life to deliver these tents provided immediate relief and hope, the journey revealed a dire need for long-term support beyond emergency aid. The scope of this mission has now expanded to rebuilding the village’s destroyed school to help children return to their normal routines, and this is possible with more people joining hands with the GT Foundation in this vital effort.