Rachel's updates

It's such a difficult time for Nepali people at the moment enduring real hardship due to violent protests related to the new constitution and the blockade on the Indian border. This has led to dire food, fuel and medicine shortages, rocketing costs, reduced transport and dangerously overcrowded buses and long queues for fuel, people waiting many hours, and a thriving black market. All the post earthquake reconstruction work has also been affected and delayed. This article sets out the situation very clearly.

http://time.com/4077751/nepal-fuel-crisis-india-winter-constitution/

NIDA (Nepal Indigenous Disabled Association) - Kamala

Friday was an emotional day at NIDA then later at Kamala’s home. Kamala (see her story in previous blog) has just got her new prosthetic leg and also some support towards her living expenses thanks to generous donations from friends in Blackburn given through NIDA. I was adorned with the ceremonial silk scarf which is a Nepali custom to mark gratitude on such an occasion.

Then on to Kamala’s home. It was a lovely time with her and her husband. I was though, distressed to see the conditions which she is living under with her husband and nephew (her dependant), after the house where she had a room was destroyed in the earthquake. She was telling me that rent prices have rocketed, no landlord wants a disabled person living in his property, the only room she could afford was on the fourth floor with a shared toilet down two floors which she cannot manage with her disability. Even for putting up this shelter on her landlady’s land she has to pay quite a sizeable rent. 

 When I return in January I will be working with NIDA on a funding proposal to obtain a 10 year lease on some land on which they want to build temporary shelter accommodation for ten people who are at present living in very poor conditions. I have roped Finlay in to give us some advice on this as he has a lot of experience of writing funding proposals.

ASHA NEPAL

Due to current dire fuel shortage I have been unable to travel the long distance to the ASHA NEPAL office during the last month – I have really missed seeing them all. Instead I have been working from home to give support for writing  their strategic planning document and action planning for the next three years. Speaking to Smriti Khadka, the director, on the phone it is clear the stress she is under trying to keep 50 women and children fed under the current blockade crisis. It is also difficult to keep the programme activities going when the staff have difficulty in travelling to work from any distance.

Asha Nepal Staff (Smriti - front, 3rd from left)

RESCUE NETWORK NEPAL (RNN)

RNN  provides basic training in first aid to volunteers living in roadside communities throughout Nepal in order to address the ever-increasing rise in accidents and deaths on the roads. Before the 1950s there were only a handful of vehicles operating in the Kathmandu Valley, the network of tracks in the rural areas and hills being used primarily for foot traffic. In the past few decades however, with a dramatic expansion of the middle class, education, economy and population, there has been a massive increase in the number of vehicles on the road. In addition, the many new roads that twist along the hillsides and mountains are almost all poorly constructed and unsafe. Nepal Police statistics report a four-fold increase in the number of deaths due to road accidents in the past decade. In 2014 the number of fatalities were 5,036, a significant increase on the previous year. In Nepal, where hospitals are all too often far away and an ambulance, if available, may take a long time to arrive, knowing how to dress wounds, splint bones and protect the body and spine from further damage, especially during transport, can be the difference between life and death.

We have just completed the report of their first three years of activities and are now submitting a proposal to fund the next three years.  In total RNN has carried out 61 trainings, 275 rescue stations are already established and 1262 people have been trained as volunteers to provide first aid to victims of accidents on the roads and in communities - in total over 1,200 people have been treated.

After the earthquake, with funding from United Mission to Nepal and Tear Fund, RNN were able to assist through their links with communities in 20 rural VDCs (like borough councils). Relief packages, ongoing provision of basic traditional foods, water purifying equipment, mosquito nets and hygiene supplies were distributed to  over 1,000 households. RNN has funding to carry out training and awareness raising in order to improve preparedness, maximize assistance and so reduce the impact of future disasters. In addition, they will be providing food and more substantial shelter (GI sheets) for longer-term relief according to need.

RNN current work is, like other organisations seriously frustrated by the blockade and fuel crisis; they have had to cancel planned trainings in distant places and reschedule work nearer to Kathmandu. Whilst I was there on Thursday am their top floor office swayed in yet another earthquake tremor 5.2 on the richter scale and Laxmi, who I work with immediately shouted ‘oh no, my son’ (of her young child at school) a reminder of the ever present risk and fear of earthquakes.

I have so much enjoyed working with these three Nepali organisations over the past few months and I’m looking forward to returning to work with them in January.

RNN 'mock accident' First Aid training

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Trek to Far North Dhading, Ganesh Himal

 Trek to Lapa, Far North Dhading: 17^th - 23^rd October 2015 

Ganesh Himal

The main objective was to visit our DDRP (Dhading Disaster Response Programme) working area in the North of Dhading to meet local people, see how they are surviving and starting to rebuild their lives. The overwhelming feeling was of their resilience, even though many have lost their homes, livestock, means of normal livelihood and in some cases, family members, there remains strong community spirit and hope for the future. Many households are now living in extreme basic conditions in temporary shelters. Some have even moved to new sites because of fear of landslides (or their village has been swept away), leaving behind well-established community facilities, such as drinking water supply, electricity, school, church/community building, stone-built houses with toilets and cultivated land which had been carefully developed over many years. They are surviving on food drops from DDRP and the WFP(World Food Programme). They have just planted their winter wheat with seed provided by DDRP. Within the next two weeks we are distributing 8,072 blankets covering every house in our North Dhading working area. We planned to send out the same number of mattresses but due to the current fuel crisis in Nepal and the need for gas for the production of mattresses, these will be delayed which is a concern and very frustrating.

It was moving to witness people’s acceptance of their fate. This was demonstrated in surprising ways, eg Lapsit village in Lapa where 90% of houses are either destroyed or will need to be rebuilt – people were together voluntarily working on improving their access paths/tracks without any outside financial support form government or others. They were using tools provided by DDRP. Their custom is to help each other when rebuilding houses and that is what they are intending to do in the current situation.

Looking back towards Lapsit - extremely steep, narrow valleys and remote villages 

Another very remote community, Nebir  where our porter Dorje Tamang and Abina Lama, our office assistant are residents, are all now living in temporary shelters with very basic protection on a new site higher and away from their old village, which is now desolate because of their fear of falling stones/boulders from a new large landslide above the village. They now have to start from zero to rebuild their lives, yet there remains an incredible hope for the future – tiny babies, wheat newly planted, new temporary church building and a shelter in the making for their Pastor. Apparently most in that community have been Christians for over 25 years and live harmoniously with their Buddhist neighbours.

Our porter, Dorje, outside his temporary 'house' in the relocated village

Accessing many of these villages is extremely difficult as most are situated on high mountainous plateaus, below which are extreme stony slopes, prone to landslides with fast flowing rivers carrying water off Ganesh Himal. This inevitably involves walking down to the river, crossing suspension bridges (some damaged by landslides) then climbing back up to reach the village often over 1000m from the river. Some paths are also crossing active landslides, making it extremely difficult to bring in supplies/materials which will be needed for house rebuilding, even if it is locally sourced wood/timber from their forests. Our porter narrowly escaped with his life and lost 3 friends who were killed by a landslide during the earthquake whilst they were repairing the footpath. 

This bridge, like many, has had temporary local repair - quite scary! 

We visited the Health Post/Centre in Thulo Gaun, Lapa where there are over 200 households, met the staff who were vaccinating babies from the area. This is a joint programme between the Government and Himalayan Health Care, who provide additional medicines and occasional volunteer foreign Doctors who run health Camps. Again the same resilient feeling - part of the building was damaged yet the vital service was progressing normally.

This was easily the most difficult trek I have ever experienced, with gradients and paths to really challenge, overnight accommodation in very basic tin sheet shelters and bare boards with the sides open to the stars with only the most basic food. This experience gave us some idea at least of the hardship people are suffering especially with the onset of a bitter winter. My hope is that DDRP can really make a difference working with people to improve their lives in this area in this phase 2 after the good start we have made. UMN’s reputation is strong and they are highly regarded by people in the whole area who have received the relief they needed from the Phase 1 distribution. It was a unique experience for me and even though difficult and at times distressing, it was a privilege to have been so warmly welcomed and to share something of their daily lives.