21 May Nepal Needs Your Help
This week came the news that we were dreading. Coronavirus infections in Nepal are starting to rise and the first two deaths have been reported. The government says it expects cases to increase rapidly but many provinces are not prepared.
At the same time, the country has been in strict lock-down for 55 days, with armed police patrolling the streets. Many families and communities are experiencing extreme hardship, like Rai’s family:
Rai (14) was visiting his sister in her rented room when the government suddenly announced the lock-down. He became stranded. Normally he lives at our care home, but his exams had just ended and he wanted to see his nephew.
His sister says: “I live in a small rented room with my husband and two-year-old son, but now my brother is here too. We had some food in our cupboards, but it quickly ran out. We tried borrowing money from our neighbours, but no-one would help us. We were refused credit from the only food shop that was open. My husband and I started skipping meals so that the baby could still eat.
Luckily Child Rescue Nepal were in contact with Rai and they said they could help us with food. But because of the lock-down, they couldn’t deliver it. By now we were starving, so my husband and I got up very early and walked for three hours with our empty stomachs. We were so relieved to get rice, lentils, oil, salt and soap.
We believe that in difficult situations, God comes to help – which came true for us. We feel totally blessed and overwhelmed by this support. This food will last us for a month but then what will happen? Nobody knows when things will get back to normal.”
We have already sent £10,000 of emergency funds to Nepal, thanks to the generosity of Namaste-UK, Hatemalo and many kind supporters.
However we are receiving new requests every day, and we still urgently need:
500 x food packages to feed one family for a month (£28 each)
10 sets of full PPE for community health workers (£71 each)
40 x 1 litre bottles of hand sanitiser (£18 each)
4,000 x pairs of surgical gloves (£5 for 100 pairs)
2,000 x surgical masks (£10 for 50)
500 x hygiene kits (£4 each)
4 x water tanks for busy junctions in Makwanpur – £420 each
Are you able to help us meet their needs at this time?
Last week we received this email from Rajkumar Malla, the Chairperson of Raksirang Municipality. Most people in his district are from the marginalised Chepang and Tamang communities. He said:
“The government lock-down has forced people to stay in their homes. But 71% of people in our community are daily wage earners with dependent children, so this has hit us really hard. We are a small rural municipality and we simply do not have enough money to feed everyone. We are asking all our partners to see if they can help us with food parcels until the situation gets better. Thank you for considering our request.”
If you are able to make a donation to help vulnerable people in Nepal at this challenging time, we would be extremely grateful. Food parcels, water tanks and protective clothing are urgently needed and will make a huge difference. We hope to transfer more funds very soon.
Thank you so much.
Joanna Bega
Chief Executive