Three months after the quake: Progress in Nepal

I visited Nepal last month to see how VSO colleagues have been supporting communities struck by the terrible earthquakes three months ago.

I was blown away – both by the incredible efforts of volunteers, and the results we are already seeing thanks to the generosity of caring VSO supporters who allowed us to double the scale of our work in the country when it mattered most.

Volunteers like Jessica stayed in Nepal after the quakes and are seeing progress – thanks to you

Keeping children in school and learning

Living through that first earthquake on April 25 must have been terrifying – especially for children unable to understand what was going on. Worse, the monumental damage caused to schools posed a very real threat of taking away the most vulnerable children’s chances of getting the education they deserve.

I visited a rural local school in Lalitpur District, with two very large red traffic light posters placed on it prohibiting entry. It was clear why: parts of the infrastructure had collapsed, whilst much of the rest is likely to require demolition and rebuilding before the school can reopen.

Thankfully, due to support from the many who have generously contributed to our emergency appeal, VSO has been able to support the construction of a temporary learning centre, and the school reopened in time for the start of the new school term. This is one of more than 100 temporary learning centres that VSO has helped to construct, enabling more than 17,000 children to return to school.

You’ve also helped us distribute essential teaching and learning supplies to 7,869 children at 75 schools, and offer psycho-social support to 11,250 children, parents and teachers.

Volunteer ‘Big Sisters’, who coach out-of-school girls back into the classroom as part of our Sisters for Sisters education project in Nepal, stand by a temporary learning centre

Relieving the strain on health systems

The earthquake has put dangerous pressure on rural clinics and threatened to lead to a humanitarian health crisis.

In response to this, VSO is supplying clinical volunteer teams, supporting the Ministry of Health to re-establish basic health services. Thanks to the generosity of our supporters our first team are already in place in one district with the second, third and fourth health teams departing for Nepal throughout August.

Volunteers: Heroes in a crisis

Volunteers already in Nepal prior to the earthquakes were already doing a brilliant job – now in this time of crisis they’ve really showed what they are made of.

I learned about how one of our existing international volunteers, Jessica, had been reassigned immediately following the earthquake to coordinate the relief and rehabilitation effort in one of the worst affected districts, Sindupolchowk. Whilst many relief agencies provided support like this during the earliest stages of the relief effort, most of it is now leaving Nepal – just at a time when need is greater than ever. We will do all we can to maintain support – in fact, the huge impact it’s had so far has led to a request for VSO to expand this support, in collaboration with Save the Children, to ten additional districts,.

Elsewhere, hundreds of new volunteers have swelled our ranks to help since the disaster began to unfold in April. VSO has mobilised more than 400 Nepalese volunteers since then, and I had the honour of meeting a group of 15 of them in Lalitpur District.

Those that I met had been talking with local people to agree their priorities in rebuilding their lives; debris management, water and sanitation training, psychosocial support, the provision of basic education materials and support for household reconstruction were all highlighted as main concerns. These volunteers were from all corners of Nepal and when I asked what motivated them to volunteer in this way, one of them stood up and read a poem:

“Let us join hands, that is how our unity stands” – Nepalese volunteer’s poem

We have had an amazing response to our call for volunteers to help rebuild Nepal so far – but we still need more people. Could you help?