Earthquake – Where are we up to? – July 8th update

Getting the supplies through

Earthquake relief has been continuing although it has become more difficult since the monsoon began about 2 weeks ago. The team at Lalgadh has now delivered over 200 tonnes of supplies to five village areas in Sindhupalchowk, four village areas in Sindhuli, and one village area in Ramechhap. Some of these villages like Golche in Sindhupalchowk have been within a few kilometres of the Tibetan border.

The walk home

The death toll in Nepal is now nearly 9,000 people, with more than 800,000 homes destroyed. After the second earthquake, 100% of the homes in many villages in northern Sindhupalchowk were destroyed. Getting the relief supplies to these areas required off-loading from the big trucks onto smaller trucks, and then onto tractors. In some places the people needing the supplies had to walk several hours to an agreed distribution point and then carry 40 kilos of food, blankets and

Lady facing a 3 hour walk uphill with baby and 40kg of supplies

tarpaulin back to their village. The monsoon is causing more landslides which make travel and transport more hazardous, but it has not stopped the Lalgadh team from working hard to get the supplies through. The people receiving this food and shelter are quietly grateful as they stoically endure the walk, the rain, and all the hardships of losing homes in most cases, and family or friends in some cases. Ramechhap and Sindhupalchowk have been devastated by this tragedy, and will probably never be the same again.

The next job is to start distributing the roofing sheets that have been purchased to help families in particular difficulty, to construct new shelters that will get them through the monsoon until the later part of the year when they can take stock, and consider rebuilding their homes and making to  a new start. It is very hard for those of us privileged to live in a “safe” part of the world, to understand what it means to live with uncertainty about what tomorrow will bring, as a normal part of life.

The Lalgadh Team

Once again we honour our team for their tremendous work in getting these supplies through to people desperate for the support that they bring. We are also very grateful to all those who have contributed to the funds that have enabled us to purchase and transport the supplies. So far we have delivered well over $150,000 US dollars worth of supplies, and have purchased more plus the roofing sheets. None of this could have happened without your generosity.

Please continue to pray for the safety of our staff, and for the people in so much need of help and encouragement in these days.

If you click HERE you will be taken to a video that Dr Clugston has made showing some of the damage.

To donate, click on the “Give.net” button to the right of this window.

The walk home