Immediate Earthquake Relief for Rural Nepal comprises of friends who might have started off independently but ended up together in Nepal Earthquake Relief work. Till date, they’ve covered nine districts and reached 44 villages distributing tents and food supplies. We share their story.
“We do not need to institutionalize to get stuff done. I had worked in development sectors in the past and have been frustrated with the kind of work that we don’t get done. For the first time, I was a part of action oriented group that actually took up responsibilities and left no stones unturned in working efficiently. We are cautious but prepared. As a result, we are a part of an amazing journey.” – Nischal Neupane
The beginning
“We were all working independently. I was in Gorkha. Rakesh was in Sankhu. We all worked parallely before. Then we thought, why not work together?” – Sudeep Ghimire
Immediate Earthquake Relief for Rural Nepal is a group of friends (and acquaintances turned friends) who gathered to assist. These motivated individuals are from diverse background but together they have already assisted people with relief materials worth around $23,000.
Motivation
“We were out of the house three days after the earthquake. I think it was pure emotion initially. We could either have stayed quiet or we could have worked. There is an emotional drive after you see people in need. You cannot not do something.” – Rakesh Shahi
“ What else could we do except help as much as we can.” – Nischal Neupane
“I was in Gorkha when we had the first earthquake. I was stressed out and frustrated to say the least. It was difficult to see the politics making rescue work difficult. I wasn’t prepared for that kind of catastrophe. It was unbearable, personally. So I had to do something. I could see villagers making a young child with a broken leg walk for hours for treatment. I knew I had to do something.” – Sudeep Ghimire
Resources and allocation
“The first place that we went to was through our personal contact. Abhishek, one of our members, talked about his village that was devastated by the earthquake. So we decided to go to that village in Nuwakot. We thought it would be most feasible to work when we have a local contact. From then on, we started getting calls from local people. They knew we were doing good work so they called and invited us to their villages. We started establishing personal contacts and then started making lists of all that was needed in a particular area. We then looked for resources. We used personal contacts and got materials from all around Nepal.” – Sushant Shrestha
“Most of our funds came from friends abroad. After the earthquake, they were forming similar groups there as we were forming here. They started collecting money. But they wanted people they could trust. We have had friends give us money because they knew we’d take it directly to the ground level. They knew we’d use the money well.” – Nischal Neupane
Approaching a geographical area
“We talked to the locals directly and went to a geographical area. In Chautara, we tried to go for assessment before we went with relief aid. But this meant losing time and resources. So what we did was we started cross checking with the Army, government organizations and other organizations. We coordinated to ensure that the place needed what the locals claimed it did. It is natural for local people to assume their villages is in need but it fell upon us to make sure there weren’t other places that needed it more.” – Nischal Neupane
“We tried our best to reach the most desperate places in Nepal. We knew Bhaktapur was being looked after by many groups and organizations. So we mainly focused outside valley. We tried to reach backward community who needed us the most.” – Rakesh Shahi
Co-ordination
“We coordinated with the local people obviously. Besides that, we had assistance from army personnel and members from Police. In Thulo Dhading, one of the places that had not received relief aid almost two weeks after the earthquake, we needed security to take the materials so we wouldn’t be attacked by desperate earthquake survivors. We had our own security in question. But besides some places, where political parties hindered our approach, most places had good coordination. At times, we worked with other groups that were providing relief, exchanging materials and information. We mostly coordinated to make resources available to each other. We provided tents to groups that needed it for their rescue work.” – Sushant Shrestha
Learning opportunities: About the country …
“I had mixed emotions when I entered Thulo Dhading. I was happy that the people were overwhelmed to receive what little we could give them. But exasperated that the little could make them so happy, that they were so desperate. I remember getting extremely emotional.” – Nischal Neupane
“I still have the images of broken homes and buildings. I remember the roads in places like Chautara and Nagarkot with buildings falling apart on either side of the road.” – Rakesh Shahi
“I realized that there is no government presence anywhere we went. People need to be aware themselves and they need to prepare for the worst. People have to rely on each other in a community and not on the government that is not there.” – Sushant Shrestha
“It is amazing to see how resilient people are. There were places where people were desperate but in most areas, people were ready to bounce back. It is so good to see Nepali people retaining their sense of humor despite the catastrophe. They still have their agricultural fields. They have source of income. Now all they need is to build a house in village and they are ready. Government on the other hand was not prepared for this to happen. The District Development Committee and Village Development Committee in Nepal are exclusively used for paperwork. They do not know about disaster response” – Nischal Neupane
“I think remittance helped a lot in villages. The migrant workers abroad can still send money and they have a good chance of getting back to normal lives because of the money they get from abroad.” – Sushant Shrestha
… and about yourself
“I realized that I was not indifferent towards things. Also, I was extremely action-oriented. I always concentrate on the future. What do we do next? I believe in taking the next step and concentrating in the future. As a team I think, it was good to see people take charge of their activities. Everyone picked up what they were best at and started working.” – Nischal Neupane
“I think we went from one moment of rescue to the other. It was extremely action oriented. It was really good to come together and work.” – Rakesh Shahi
“I realized what life is afterall. Death probably is the most important thing and everything is an illusion. All we did was work to reach people in need. We did not even have time to feel satisfied with our work. Somehow feeling satisfied felt selfish.” – Sushant Shrestha
Suggestions for the future
“We relied on local information too much. Sometimes locals can be misleading as well. Our experience in Dhading taught us this lesson. It is not wrong of them to want to secure for future. These are uncertain times. But we need to be more careful to provide the resources to those in dire need.” – Nischal Neupane
“Passion is important. But passion also brings fear. I think we need to work as neutrally as possible. For the first time in my life, I understood the meaning of action-oriented instead of result-oriented work. We did not know how to cope with this catastrophe but we evolved and we reached out to people.” – Sushant Shrestha
“Our activities keep on increasing. We started with materials but naturally moved on to talking about sanitation. We took responsibilities as they came to us.” – Nischal Neupane
I like this, mmh how to say that, admiration you have for the self-sufficiency and resilience of the villages. Good attitude for helping where they need it!