The People of Nepal - World Renew

(NEPAL) But for the Grace of God, this could be my granddaugther, Olivia. During the fourth week that I was in Nepal, I attended one of World Renew’s relief distributions, where I met Konsan and her grandfather. Konsan is six years old and helps to carry items home that World Renew distributed. As is the custom here in the mountains, Nepalese carry heavier things on their back, using a rope or the handle of the sack on their foreheads, leaning forward to balance the weight.

During the fourth week that I was in Nepal, I attended one of World Renew’s relief distributions, where I met Konsan and her grandfather. Konsan is six years old and helps to carry items home that World Renew distributed. As is the custom here in the mountains, Nepalese carry heavier things on their back, using a rope or the handle of the sack on their foreheads, leaning forward to balance the weight.

I thought of my six-year old granddaughter, Olivia, in Canada who does not have to carry the burden of food insecurity on her little head. Konsan's grandfather here carries the the 30kg bag of rice.

On this particular Friday, 135 families received inputs from World Renew. They are very happy with the tarp and rope and hygiene kits, besides the two weeks of food.

Konsan and her family are from the village of Mandada, in Ward two of the VDC of Manakanam, in Nuwekot District. There are 82 families in her village, where three people died during the quake. Their houses are very scattered on the upper part of the mountain. Seventy-five of the 82 homes were completely destroyed during the disaster and five were partially destroyed. That leaves only two houses left standing.

Here are three more lovely girls. They are from the village of Karki Gau in Ward 5. Out of 98 families in Karki Gau village, two people died and seven were injured. It is the same across every small village scattered across the many mountains of Nepal, totaling 8472 fatalities in all.

Out of 96 houses in Karki Gau, only seven remain intact — 87 are totally destroyed, and two are partially destroyed. These girls put on a brave face despite everything they have lost.

Both Mandad and Karki Gau villages are located along the Trisuli River which is the border with another district, Rasuwa. They are located approximately two and a half hours drive away from Kathmandu. These two villages however are on the upper ground. For the last hour of my journey to visit them, the roads were very rough. At one point, I had to get out and walk part of the way.

In each of these villages, 95% of the people are from the Tamang tribe while 5% are Dalit. The people are used to walking two to four hours to get to where they need to go. World Renew is selecting as central a place as possible for our distributions in order to reduce the distance that people walk.

In Mandada 60 out of 65 toilets were destroyed by the quake and 64 of 80 toilets were destroyed in Karki Gau. Their water source is a spring, but that was also damaged and the water flow has been reduced by 50% since the earthquake. Mandada has a water committee and a health promoter, who are trying to help people avoid diseases despite these challenges. World Renew has hired a water engineer and aims to fix the broken water sources and latrines, but shelter is the first priority. In a meeting with the nine ward leaders, every person expressed their deep concern for shelter

The parents of these girls have done their best to build makeshift shelters out of tarps, bamboo, old zinc, and other things that they could salvage. With the monsoon season coming in July, they know that there will be torrential rains and these shelters will not be sufficient. World Renew is providing them with a more robust shelter kit of 14 sheets of corrugated iron sheets, some tools for sharing and a kilogram of nails or screws.

While I visited these communities, I couldn’t help but notice the children. These boys like to climb trees. Like Zacchaeus, they observe the World Renew distribution from a height. They act silly, like monkeys. Right next to the tree stands a house in shambles. It is a symbol of what their town has become – so much destruction and rubble. It is going to take some time to reconstruct, but having World Renew show up gives them a glimmer of hope as we start the response.

At the time that I write this post, I have returned home from Nepal. I expect to return in late June to continue developing World Renew’s response.

Blessings,