Nepal suffered a devastating earthquake with a magnitude of 7.8 on 25th April 2015, which was followed by aftershocks, more than 9000 lives were lost, 22000 were injured and more than half a million were left homeless. In the aftermath of the devastating Gorkha earthquake, ACN launched a long term program called “Disaster Resilience Assistance Programme”. ACN was one of the first organizations to respond with all its capacity and it reached out to 15,000 affected families with emergency relief packages in its early relief phase. ACN’s intervention came in three phases. Relief, Recovery and Reconstruction and Rehabilitation.
Four years after the devastating earthquake, we would like to share a video of ACN’s long term programme in response to the devastating Gorkha earthquake of 2015. See, how ACN had been able to support the poor and disadvantaged communities in their rehabilitation by reconstructing community infrastructure, fostering livelihoods & health and develop resilience for the future disaster.
We would like to thank all who partnered with us. We are glad to serve the affected communities.
ACN#Marking the 4th year of the devastating Earthquake of 2015
Asal Chhimekee Nepal conducted a two-day free health camp in Bhujawa, Sarawal-6, Nawalparasi from 7th to 8th April 2019. The health camp was organized with the objective of free medical check-up for the people of Bhujawa, Sarawal including the basic medicines required for an early recovery. The camp was organized at Janata higher secondary school in coordination with Sarawal Health Post. A Gynecologist with nurses, paramedical personnel, and ACN staff delivered the service at the camp. 527 people benefited from this camp. Among them 50 were identified with Pelvic inflammation diseases, 3 with lymph on breast, 20 cervical cystitis, and 5 uterine prolapses. Identified 5 uterine prolapse cases were referred for further treatment.
On 31 March 2019, Nepal suffered its first ever recorded tornado that struck Bara and Parsa southern districts of central Nepal. According to Home Ministry, death toll reached up to 27 and 668 people were injured. In response to the tornado, ACN team traveled to the disaster-hit area to assess the situation and need analysis. After assessment of the situation and need analysis, ACN team found out that tornado affected people received emergency food items but lacking basic materials to cook food and continue their living. Post to the need analysis activities, ACN decided to provide cooking gas cylinder, burner (stove) to 112 affected households. In addition, 5 affected households also provided with food items, gas cylinder and stove, tarpaulin, mattress, and mosquito net. These 5 households belong to so called untouchable cast groups and they were marginalized from the relief material distribution program conducted by other agencies.
ACN is thankful to all those who were involved in the assessment of the situation and purchase and distribution of relief materials in Tornado affected area in Bara and Parsa district.
Incessant one week’s pouring monsoon rainfall worst of last 15 years, since 10th August 2017 has triggered worst flooding horribly affecting 35 districts of Terai regions; including Nawalparasi. PCC/ACN in coordination with NIS, local community, local & central government and other related stakeholders; was able to extend helping hands for those flood affected families of Nawalparasi in three phases with essential relief materials ranging from food items, health promotion items, special hygiene kits, winterization pack, maternal and infant health kit, tarpaulins, food safety barrel, sophisticated water filters and water purifying medicines, trauma healing campaigns etc.
1st phase = 611 Households (within a week of flooding)
2nd phase = 923 Households
3rd Phase = 1252 Households (especially designed for disabled, single-women, pregnant & postpartum women)
Total population = Approximately 17,000 (including women and children)
School materials were distributed to around 700 students of Shree Laxmi Higher Secondary and Sailaputri Higher Secondary Schools in Gorkha. The set included school stationery items, bag and sanitary items for girls.
These schools were left out in the first distribution and the District Education Office requested PCC/ACN to help in this. Children and the schools appreciated this support.
There is a little presence of “healthcare” in rural Nepal. Health Posts are the pillars of health services that the government provides in these areas. Most of these facilities were turned into debris by the Earthquake of April,2015.
Shrinathkot is not an exception to this situation. The small facility that the government ran was beside the Village Development Office, both were destroyed. The local government and the community had been coordinating with ACN for the rebuilding of these facilities.
Finally the day came. This November, the foundations of the healthpost were laid in the presence of local governing bodies, the community and staff from ACN.
ACN will be taking the responsibility of the building project for healthpost.
Following is a collection of pictures from the programme
Total household covered during food and non-food distribution was 933 household of around 3000 population benefitted by the distribution scattered at 9 camps and living in temporary shelters from the past 6 months after earthquake hit on 25th April, 2015.
According to the report gathered from survey in the camps, lives of people was miserable and especially newly delivered women, children, old aged people. For the distribution ACN got request letter from affected people and recommended by respective village development committee and District Administration Office.
ACN supported displaced people of earthquake and landslide by providing them food and non-food supplies to save lives from starving by distributing relief materials from 19th to 20th October, 2015 for displaced people at 9 different camps having temporary shelter in Dhading Besi camps living there from past 6 months. PCC/ACN provided rice, lentil, cooking oil, salt, sugar, bitten rice, spices, tea on food items and blankets on non-food items and bath soap, washing soap, toothpaste, comb, nail-cutter, toothbrush, pyush (water guard) and sanitary pad on hygiene and sanitation kits for basic survival.
2 heavy trucks were loaded with the materials and extra medium size 14 trucks were hired for distribution at 9 different camps.
During the distribution a team of 25 members (PCC- 3, World Concern- 3, ACN Staff- 8, Media-2 and Volunteers- 9) were involved in the delivery and distribution of the relief materials for 933 households who were living in 9 different camps (Dhansar Pakha, Daam Gade, Tato Pani, Pokhari Rato Mate, Kusunde Chaur, Tallo Aahale Dhola, Chanpe Danda, Bhuwalpala Dhola and Alche Danda). Next day on 29th October, 2015, distribution team was divided into 3 to 5 members each with one leader to lead the distribution. Relief materials were distributed to each household directly.
The list of materials each household got is listed below:
S.N
Materials
Unit per HH
Rice
25 kg
Lintel
2 kg
Oil
2 Ltr
Salt
1 kg
Sugar
2 kg
Bitten Rice
2 kg
Spices
1 packet
Tea leaves
1 packet
The following is a collection of glimpses from the programme
Teachers’ Training on Teaching English and Basic Disaster Risk Reduction Training
7th October, the RC Complex, a popular venue in Pokhara for seminars and trainings, was reverberant with enthusiastic murmurs of a herd of people. But the indistinguishable chatters were not native to the Pokhara’s dialect. In midst of village-style Nepali, one could hear some English sentences followed by friendly chuckles. The day was the finale of three days long training programmes, entitled “Teachers’ Training on Teaching English” and “Basic Disaster Risk Reduction training”.
The trainings were friendly, the trainings were funny, but most of all, it was an emotional moment for everyone. The Participants from 11 schools had 14 english teachers (for teachers’ training) and 21 participants including 10 women (for Risk Reduction Trianing) were all from Shrinathkot, which at this point, we all know was a badly affected region by the Earthquake we saw, a few months ago. May be this was a milestone for everyone who participated; as a point of time where they realized: now, we have crossed the “being a victim” phase and started the “we are rebuilding” phase.
The trainers for “Basic Disaster Risk Reduction Training” were invited from the Red Cross Society Kaski. Mr. Khimraj Sapkota and Hari Bandhu Aryal both were not new to the people of Shrinathkot, as they both had been there during their emergency rescue efforts at the time of earthquake. The training covered important topics like Risk, Vulnerability, Coping capacity, Mitigation, Resilience, Early warning system and rehabilitation.
The trainers for the Teachers’ Training on Teaching English Dr. Arthur and Mrs.Hillary Jones, both with a huge background in teaching English, explained how this was going to help the teachers of Gorkha, build a sustainable and progressive community. Shrinathkot is topographically challenged and economically backward region. Eventually, the products of schools in Gorkha will have to compete with the products from major cities in Nepal for jobs and also, further studies. English is a prerequisite for career in the modern world. Hopefully, teachers from this training can produce students with good, academic English, which will help the community have hopes for a better future. And also, if these teachers can go back and train other fellow teachers from surrounding villages, this can benefit exponentially.
In the certificate distribution ceremony, the participants shared how encouraged they were by the enthusiasm of people from outside their village to help and rebuild them, and that they were confident, they could learn more from trainings like this in the future and certainly try their best in rebuilding their community, only this time, stronger and more resilient than before. May be they can; may be they will.
Someone said, “I consider ourselves lucky to have the Earthquake” In the certificate distribution ceremony, Rajendra Dhakal was very excited to share his feelings about the training. For one thing, he started by sharing how had been enrolled in the training. He was on a visit in a neighboring village while he met a friend and talked about the rehabilitation going on in Shrinathkot, the friend asked which organization was working with them for this process and he told Asal Chhimekee Nepal. The friend was very happy know and told him that Asal Chhimekee was a good organization and that he was very certain that positive changes would surely be brought about. So, Rajendra decided to recommend his own name for the training and thus he was here.
Rajendra said,” I have learnt a lot from this training. I learnt with excitement about various topics in English, but if there is anything I have learnt the most, it is that I know nothing about English. And I am certain there will be more for us in the future. Not only in school related aspects, but I feel, we have been touched by Asal Chhimekee Nepal in everything. Now, everything is being rebuilt. Everything we are trying to build now, if completed, will be better than what we ever had. Sometimes, I think to myself, it was a good thing for us that the Earthquake came and destroyed everything, because that made room for us to start building from scratch. We are very lucky have the partnership and expertise of Asal Chhimekee Nepal.”
The crowd seemed to welcome his thoughts and it seemed as if he had spoken the words from their own hearts. But ACN itself felt it had a lot to do; with so much appreciation from the community and the knowledge that it had a lot more to do, partnering, learning and teaching with this community. Everybody was happy but everybody knew there was a lot more to do. But that’s what milestones are for… congratulate you on how successful you have been in reaching the goal while also reminding how much further you still need to go, energizing with the success you have achieved.
Picture Gallery of the Event
A trainer at the the risk reduction training
A Trainee receiving Certificated from ACN
A Trainee receiving Certificated from ACN
A Trainee receiving Certificated from ACN
A Trainee at English Teachers’ Training shares her Experiences about the Training
Final ceremony for certifications
A Trainee presents his Group Task in front of the Class
Group Works
An English Teacher from Gorkha
Group Work for English Teachers’ Training
A Trainee at the Risk Reduction Training
Trainee at group work at the Risk Reduction Training
Asal Chhimekee Nepal (an endeavor of Pokhara Christian Community) has been working for the relief and rehabilitation of the people hit by earthquake on April, 2015. We have made a video about the relief and rehabilitation that we have decided to embark upon for a longer period of time.
Please feel free to subscribe to our Youtube channel.
Nepal, has been known to the World as the land of mighty Himalayas. But we know that has not been the topic about Nepal from the 25th of April, this year.
Till now, the death toll has been reported at more than 8,710 and rising as we discover new bodies. 19 districts of Nepal have been affected where 14 are assumed to be affected severely.
The communities and amounts of their support for Nepal are stories on their own. Emergency supports have been given by many from foreign agencies to Nepali individuals. ACN is not an exception in its attempt to try and rebuild what has been destroyed, in a spectrum from physical to psychological damage.
As many of us may already know, ACN, integrated with the Pokhara Christian Community has launched a full- phase relief and rehabilitation attempt. PCC/ACN: has been focusing on the Shrinathkot in building rapport with the communities there and helping government where possible. Last weeks were focused basically on exploring more about the VDC. Food supply continues if there is any desperate needs know to us. The update data of the distribution of the relief supplies has reached 8895+ households (approx. 38385 populations) and the coverage is as below:
Households
Population
Villages (VDCs)
Districts
8895 +
38385 +
41 +
7 +
We have compiled a short video to help understand what the situation is like …
Please feel free to share this video and subscribe to our youtube channel. We will have more to share in the future. Stay Updated.
ACTIVITIES CONDUCTED
Food Distribution:
Pokhara: 79 households were chosen for the second distribution in Pokhara. These households were mostly those who have relatives from Gorkha and Dhading staying with them.
Thumi village, Gorkha: Thumi is approximately 200 km from Gorkha and due to the rain was very difficult to reach. We had been told that it would not be possible to take food to this area directly, but we were very keen to do so. It took our team 6 days to get there. The trucks got stuck; the road was blocked by trees, mud and landslides. The team faced lots of challenges; they didn’t have enough food with them and found it hard to find places to stay. It was also difficult to find trucks and tractors to move the goods. However finally they did it and 1230 households in Thumi received a food package each. The packages included 30 kgs rice, 2 kgs lentil, 1 ltr oil, 1 kg salt- enough food for the village for a month. The villagers really appreciated the effort our team made to bring food to them and thanked them for the good quality and the quantity. This brings our total food distribution in phase one to 9500 households (45,000 people).
Feedback meeting in Shreenathkot, Gorkha:
The villagers told us that they were happy with the quality of the food we had supplied, the materials, the training, and the work with the children. They were also pleased with the way that ACN/PCC had managed to deliver services directly to the target communities. One leader asked whether we were there to convert them to our faith. We used that question as an opportunity to explain why we as Christians, were involved with the disaster relief and to explain about the collaboration of people around the globe who truly love them and have given generously.
Children’s health camp – Shreenathkot, Gorkha:
A children’s health camp was held for a week at Simle in Shreenathkot. Each day more than 100 children attended the camp. The team carried out various hygiene activities such as shaving their hair, bathing them and teaching them how to use toothpaste. They dressed their wounds and treating diseases such as scabies. They also ran fun activities for the children and taught them about nutrition. The team consisted of health workers and volunteers with special gifts working with children. Brother Altamir and Sister Ana came from Brazil to help with health activities and were extremely helpful in this camp.
Water filter distribution:
A 2 nd lot of water filters (from Water With Blessings) were distributed. The filters were given only to those who were willing to share with at least two families. Most people receiving filters were lower cast people who are most at risk from contaminated water.
Movements
Satoshi and Youki returned home to Japan. Altamir and Ana also returned to Malaysia – but we hope, they will come back to help when health post work starts. Brother Greg and Anthony with their wives from World Concern have arrived. They are helping us with project design and with setting up systems for future work. Tim, Sonia and Hannah who helped us especially on the Dhawa and Thumi trip also have left. We appreciate their support.
The next stage
Seed Distribution: 800 packs of composite vegetable seeds packs purchase have been ordered. People in the villages are currently engaged in planting rice and millet. When they have finished this, the seeds will be distributed.
Toilet construction: Janajagriti and Arkul primary schools have requested help to construct toilets. We plan to do this in the next few weeks.
Building approval for the health post and the Village Development Committee (VDC) office: The local community have raised money to buy land for a new VDC office and they have cleared the site using a bulldozer. Approval for this building is needed from the District Development Committee (DDC). We are now asking them about this. Unfortunately we still have not got permission from the DDC to rebuild the health post. We may have to bypass them and go straight to the Ministry of Health to gain approval and get the guidelines for how it should be built.
School construction work: This is a massive project as 10 schools need to be constructed. Consultations with the local community and the relevant government section will begin when we know what funding is available for this task.
Children’s health camp in September: Based on the need seen in the community and those expressed by the people, there will be another health camp in September. This camp will focus on treatment of disease, hygiene awareness for mothers, nutrition and psychological support and will be supported by Dr. Arian Gurung a podiatrist.
Finance
Of the NPR 50 million (USD 500,000) that has been raised so far approximately 50% has been spent. Thank you for your generous gifts and your trust in us. We stepped out in faith with only NPR 500,000 (USD 5000) and we are so thankful to God for His faithfulness and blessings to us.
A new fiscal started in Nepal on the 17th of July. We have therefore closed our accounts for last year and started afresh with the remaining funds.
Cost for future work:
The preliminary plan shows NPR 115 million (USD 1.15 million) will be required for the health post, schools, VDC Office reconstruction, community radio installation and livelihood support work in 2-3 years of time. A concept note on this is available on request.
AN URGENT NEED
Our future support in Shreenathkot relies heavily on our presence there. We have to make frequent journeys to the area which is approximately 100 km/5 hours driving from Pokhara and is only accessible via unsurfaced roads. Up until now we have rented a jeep each time we have gone to Shreenathkot or elsewhere, however this is not a long term solution, as renting a jeep costs NPR 20,000 (USD 200) per day. As we are now committed to working in the area for at least the next two years, we feel it will be more cost effective to buy a 4 wheeler jeep to support our on-going work in this region. This will be a big initial outlay (an Indian make costs approximately NPR 3,500,000) but it has become a necessity.
Special prayer requests for
Wisdom in formulating project proposals.
Funding assurance for the future work.
Approval from the Government for the construction projects.
The regular work of ACN which needs to be picked up and resumed.
Someone said, “I consider ourselves lucky to have the Earthquake”
Pokhara: 79 households were chosen for the second distribution in Pokhara. These households were mostly those who have relatives from Gorkha and Dhading staying with them.
Children’s health camp – Shreenathkot, Gorkha:
Water filter distribution: