Extending Hope

What would we ever do without volunteers? We have been blessed with these in abundance;
students from the seminary near our warehouse, teachers from the school, church volunteers (some with children), the cook, the guard and even our driver has offered to help. They do everything from running errands, procuring needed items, packing hygiene kits, loading and offloading and managing distributions – all conscientiously and cheerfully.

Yesterday we were able to conduct our first of seven distributions. There is a lot that needs to happen before these distributions of essential supplies can take place. We must: obtain all the proper consents and documentation from various levels of government and police, acquire all the items to be distributed (the best combination of price, quality and availability – 1300 of most but 7,800 toothbrushes!); keep an accurate inventory in our warehouse, arrange the loading of trucks, carefully screen the beneficiary lists and choose a location to set up the distribution.

Picking a suitable location for the set up is one of our biggest challenges as there is minimal flat space in these communities. Manakamana is the name of the Village Development Committee (VDC) in the District of Nuwakot that has been assigned to us. The homes in the fifteen villages within the VDC are located on various levels of small flat areas on the mountain.

Each village of 20 to 130 households does tiered farming of rice and corn and each has goats and cows. Most of their homes are in shambles and are uninhabitable. They are scrambling to build any sort of shelter to keep dry and warm before the monsoons hit.

Another sizable challenge is the access to these villages. All of the roads are winding and steep and vehicles think nothing of passing on curves – there are no straight stretches. The main roads in Katmandu are wider but before long they become two lanes and then one, with vehicles having to negotiate a way to get by each other. This is not fun especially if you are in the car on the outside mountain edge. Amazingly bumpy, twisty roads are bus routes as well. Add to that hundreds of motorcyclists weaving in and out of traffic – only the driver is required to wear a helmet.

At last we get to share our story about the distribution. When we arrived, the team that had come up the night before with the relief goods had the site set up with all the items in the best order for ease of carrying by the beneficiaries. Each household representative signs in by signature or thumbprint.

Then he/she is given a bucket to collect the hygiene kit, a length of rope to tie down the tarp, cooking oil and salt. The lid is snapped on and then a tarp is placed on top of the lid.

A team of World Renew volunteers along with some local volunteers help the beneficiary carry the food items including a heavy (30kg) bag of rice through the exit where family members help to load up and carry their supplies home – way up or way down the mountain.

It was heartening to see the volunteers help the more elderly people carry their goods, and wonderful to see the smiles on the faces of the villagers as they received the relief items. The children were fascinated by all of this and we managed to coax them into singing the Nepal national anthem for us after giving them a rendition of “Mary had a Little Lamb” in two-part harmony!

We have seen much evidence that the people of Nepal are very hard working. Everywhere we go, we see signs of massive cleanup efforts where bricks, wood and anything reusable has been sorted in readiness to build. At this point many are busy trying to put together some sort of temporary shelter for the coming monsoons. Some have a tarp for shelter. Others are forced to share their animals’ shelters. It is imperative for those who were able to retrieve their seeds, to plant their crops of corn or rice before the rains. It is only after that that they can put their minds and energy into building more permanent homes. It is a source of disappointment to us that due to a variety of reasons such as availability and tie-ups at the border with India, that we are having difficulty obtaining corrugated galvanized iron (CGI) sheets to bring to the villagers to help them construct temporary shelters.

We have two more weeks here and will be overlapping with our replacements in one week’s time.
We do ask you to keep Nepal in your hearts, thoughts and prayers. Please pray for safety for our team as we deal with treacherous travelling conditions and ongoing earthquakes/tremors.