link to a video about how you can help
link to the official donation page
(please specify in the bank transfer narrative that you would like to donate to the "Dashinkali earthquake rebuilding project")
It was just another
regular day. I was sitting in class wondering what to eat for lunch
when suddenly the room started shuddering. At first I didn't know
what was happening but then one of my classmates shouted “earthquake”
and we all scrambled outside. The ground was swaying and all the
buildings were shaking. I was too shocked to be afraid. A piece of
the temple fell off and the wall toppled over. I could hear people
screaming from the village. The first earthquake lasted for about two
minutes. Once the ground was relatively steady again, we all went up
to the football field. The entire village was all standing there; the
buildings looked relatively unscathed and the people unharmed. As
Pharping sits on a large rock face, the tremor wasn't so severe,
nobody was killed. While we were sitting there, I checked my twitter
feed and saw that the 7.9 magnitude earthquake had gone viral, every
news station was talking about it and shocking pictures of the damage
were all over the internet. As the hours passed more tremors occurred
at regular intervals and the death toll went from a few hundred to
thousands with many still stuck under the rubble with nothing to do
but die slowly of their injures with no one to help them.
We slept in the library
that first night. I woke up to a bang and people screaming all around
me. I've never been afraid for my life before but in that moment this
panic came over me and I had ran halfway across the yard before I
realized I was screaming. One of the women who I was studying with
had tripped over someone while trying to get out and cut her lip and
gave herself a huge black eye. We all eventually fell asleep but were
woken several times to more tremors and I woke up the next morning
feeling exhausted and afraid. We spent the morning cleaning up and
buying provisions for the upcoming days. There were several other
lesser tremors during the morning, each one making my heart race but
now the feeling of the earth moving beneath our feel had become a
regular thing. The radio was predicting another earthquake so many of
us were too afraid to go inside even to go to the bathroom and to
grab a few things.
The thing people never
usually talk about is the waiting. The waiting and hearing about all
the horrific things happening around you with nothing you can do. All
transport to kathmandu had been closed off so we had no way of
helping them to move the rubble and even if we could, most of the
people were already dead anyway. About 1 o'clock another earthquake
struck this time with a magnitude of 6.9 meaning that many more
houses collapsed and there was even less shelter for people and more
and more families were out on the street with no clothes, food or
water not knowing if their loved ones were alive or dead. The phone
lines kept cutting out meaning that people couldn't contact their
loved ones and even if they could, there are many parts of Nepal with
no roads and no phone reception so they are unreachable. We have
gathered as much clothes, blankets and medicinal supplies as we can
spare and have been distributing them to people in need in the
surrounding area. This brings me to the most important part of this
post, how you can help the people recover from this monstrous
disaster. As Kathmandu is the capital of Nepal and also the most
severely affected, most of the foreign aid and donations are going
there. This is very good of course however it means that many of the
smaller towns are neglected and left to rebuild their lives for
themselves. Fortunately there is a strong sense of community in these
towns and this means that they are very willing to help each other.
Even though Pharping was not so badly affected, the neighboring
village of Jultiki, Dakshinkali-9 was badly damaged.
Out of the 95 houses, over 82 have completely collapsed leaving the inhabitants with nowhere to stay. This is a problem for several reasons; not only does it mean that they are homeless but also they have nowhere to go during the monsoon which leaves them even more danger of falling sick from the many infectious diseases that will spread through the water such as cholera, diphtheria and typhus. You can help them by donating to the “Dolpu Tulku Charitable Foundation” who have set up a trust fund in order for the community to be able to build temporary houses in the next few weeks and then to create new buildings that are completely earthquake proof after the monsoon. I can assure you in all honesty that this is a legitimate project where all the money will go to those in need as I personally know the people organising this project. Not only that, but several people who I have been studying with these past months will be staying on to aid in the reconstruction process.
here is is a Link where you
can donate. Please donate what you can every cent makes a difference. Please make sure you specify in the bank transfer narrative you would like the money to go to the "Dashingkali earthquake rebuilding project" Thank you
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| one of the many make-shift shelters |
