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

---