Sirmooree Summer 2015

40 / 60

39
28 June 2015
This week the international donor community pledged US$ 4.4 billion
dollars, 66 per cent of the total needed. They stressed the need for
transparency and accountability of the funds committed. Let’s hope that
with this much international interest the funds will get to where they’re
needed and not end up in some minister’s pocket!
The Nepalese government has been keen to announce the end of the
relief phase but many of the international agencies protested that it is
too soon. There are many people who have received little, if anything.
Tenzi Sherpa has been back to Rawadolu in Okhaldunga with a team of
Australian and Nepali doctors. They took tents and blankets provided by
a friend of mine in Bangkok. I contributed to the transportation costs. In
less than a week they treated over 1,700 patients before having to
retreat in the face of the advancing monsoon. We have finally had some
welcome rain in Kathmandu, but it meant that relief distribution to some
areas has had to be suspended.
4 July 2015
On Saturday evening Samundra Gurung, my contact point for the Kodari
victims, brought a relative from the nearby village of Gumtang. The 190
people there, including newborn babies, received two tarpaulins per
household from the government but they were very thin and got torn.
The rice the government provided has run out. A Buddhist group
donated 1,000 rupees per household but that did not last long either.
The villagers built temporary shelters with CGI recovered from their
ruined homes, but have had to move four times in the last two months
due to continuing landslides. They are now desperately short of food. I
sent them NPR 150,000-worth of supplies, mostly food but also solar
panels to provide limited lighting and charge mobile phones. That and
the transportation charges just about cleared me out of the money with
which I had intended to keep the Kodari IDPs going until the end of the
monsoon so I told Samundra I cannot continue to feed the 70 people
camped out near the Pepsi-Cola plant. I will introduce him to the Shelter
and Settlement Officer at the International Organization for Migration
(IOM), the UN arm responsible for people displaced by the earthquake.
To return to the Website please click here: