Nepal Earthquake Relief

Robert Tyabji

Nepal suffered a series of catastrophic earthquakes in April 2015 and aftershocks continue to this day (November) to plague the already bewildered and traumatized population. An early CNN report went thus:

Kathmandu, Nepal, 28 April 2015 (CNN) : More than 4,800 people dead. More than 9,200 injured. Eight million affected across Nepal. One million children urgently in need of help.

Those are the startling numbers that indicate the scale of the devastation from the huge earthquake that struck the Himalayan nation on Saturday.

And some of the grim figures are likely to get even worse as hopes of rescuing any more survivors diminish every hour.

Heartbreaking scenes of suffering and loss are playing out across this shell-shocked nation as it reels from its deadliest natural disaster in more than 80 years.

As the country coped with the fallout of the quake, another natural disaster struck Tuesday afternoon in a popular trekking area north of Kathmandu, and up to 200 people were feared missing as a result of a landslide, a trekking association official said.

To contribute what we could, Hootoksi and I visited Nepal 6-12 October 2015

When is a vacation also not? When you revisit a country, you've lived in and loved, but have a mission to complete, with deadlines.

On the 25th April 2015 a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck Nepal with devastating consequences. Nearly 9,000 people died and the landslides and avalanches in the Himalaya Mountains rendered some areas completely inaccessible. Robert and I were shattered by this news and determined to help. For more, please click on our report, below.

Nepal Donor Report.

PS: Some of the difficulties we encountered

• Arranging for someone to live in our home and take care of my elderly bed-ridden parents while we were away – My cousin Lale happened to be visiting Singapore from Bombay and she readily agreed to do the job!
• Hand carrying US $ 9024 in cash through Malaysian and Nepali customs and Immigration!
• Changing the funds at the best possible rate in the open market without drawing too much attention to ourselves!
• Hanging on to the “Liquid gold” (diesel fuel for the journey) we had to guard it with our lives! At one point on the journey we were stopped by a gang of youths brandishing guns and khukri’s (Nepali knives) They saw the jerry cans for our return journey tied to the roof of the car and wanted the fuel. Our driver, well-versed in handling situations like the one we were in, smiled and cajoled them into believing that the jerry cans were filled with water for the lilly livered foreigners that he was transporting!
• Living in the village in a partially damaged guest house where the cold wind blew in from the gaping hole in the main wall and experiencing firsthand the great suffering and devastation brought about on these kind-hearted, simple and resilient folk whose lives are so tough to begin with!