A Second Quake in Nepal Measuring 7.3 Jolts Further Destruction

Quake in Nepal

Last night, around midnight, the ring of my telephone woke me up from a deep sleep. I have been working non-stop since my return from Nepal two weeks ago to finish my book, “Olga’s Promise.” and had fallen into bed exhausted a couple of hours before. It was Som, calling from my garden in Kathmandu, the “go to” place for earthquake shelter. Another quake in Nepal, this time a 7.3! He wanted to reassure me that the staff and the kids at J and K House were all safe. But this is devastating news from a country that is still suffering from the previous quake in Nepal less than two weeks ago.

There are many houses damaged by the previous quake that are now totally demolished, further aggravating the lack of shelter for millions during the approaching monsoon season. The beautiful old house I have been renting for a dozen years and that was our shelter in the last quake in Nepal, is standing, but some of the walls are cracked, and it needs a thorough assessment before anyone can live there.

The psychological trauma for millions of people is severe. They were just beginning to get their lives back together when disaster struck again. At the Nutritional Rehabilitation Home in Kathmandu, which we are using as a transitional home for hospitalized patients who were ready for discharge but had no place to go, the patients (mostly elderly and mostly disabled ) were panicked. Although the building is just a couple of years old and solidly constructed, they rushed down from the second floor to the ground floor, terrified. Half of them are sleeping inside on the ground floor, and half outside in tents. We have sent senior NYF staff as well as counselors from our Ankur Psychosocial Counseling Center to help with them understand and work through the fear. The NRH staff are all spending the night there to provide further reassurance. The high-school aged J House boys are also volunteering at the NRH to help with the elderly patients.

The three day care centers we have established in badly-hit areas of the Kathmandu Valley are overflowing with children who would otherwise have to spend their days playing in the rubble while their parents try to get their lives back together. We will continue to house them and provide nourishing meals, counseling, and instruction from volunteer teachers from private schools around Kathmandu. It is not clear when the schools will reopen.

Our staff in Kathmandu is working 16 hour days to provide relief supplies (tarps, tents, water filters, rice, etc.) to those who need it most and making plans, in conjunction with the School of Engineering at Kathmandu University, to supply inexpensive shelters with corrugated roofing before and during the monsoon. It is due in a few weeks, and will generate further suffering with mudslides, the spread of diseases, and general misery.

We need you as our partner, now more than ever. We are there, on the ground, procuring and transporting supplies, planning for the coming weeks of monsoon and we will be there long after the immediate relief efforts have waned… making a difference and helping people to rebuild their lives, their dreams and their futures. Your support makes this possible.

From the bottom of our hearts, thank you!

NYF’s Disaster Relief Response update as of 8th May

Thank you for your tremendous support following the devastating earthquake in Nepal. We are grateful for the hundreds of emails, cards, notes, and calls from our well-wishers and for the outpouring of donations that have helped us reach 13,000 people in the days following the earthquake.

Here is the latest from Nepal:

• We delivered food, tarps, tents and clothing to 1,847 families in six districts affected by the earthquake.
• We purchased medical supplies and equipment for three major hospitals: TU Teaching Hospital, Patan Hospital and Dhulikhel Hospital, reaching more than 3,100 patients.
• We temporarily converted two of our nutritional clinics in Kathmandu and Pokhara into recovery centers and cared for 115 earthquake victims, including mothers and their newborns.
• We used school buses to transport 100 earthquake victims from area hospitals back to their homes.
• We delivered new sleeping gowns and baby clothes to 100 new mothers, and delivered used clothing to an additional 200 families.
• We opened a day-care center for 50 children whose families have been displaced by the earthquake. In addition to stories, dancing, and art, the children are receiving psychological counseling and a hearty mid-day meal.
• We delivered 35 water filters to families

For one of the poorest countries in the world, the needs before the earthquake were enormous. The devastation from the earthquake will pose staggering challenges in the months and years to come.

Our work will always be guided by our mission. We will continue to provide freedom, health, shelter and education to Nepal’s impoverished children. But our immediate focus is on providing relief and shelter to the thousands of families who lost their homes. The coming monsoon season makes the need for sturdy tents and temporary housing urgent.

Please help us continue our vital work.

Thank you and Namaste.

Olga Murray and Som Paneru

Some Glimpses of relief activities photos

abc7news covers NYF’s Disaster Relief Response

Nepal Youth Foundation’s Disaster Relief Response has been covered by abc7news. Please watch the video to learn more about NYF’s immediate response to Nepal’s devastating earthquake, and interview with Olga Murray and Som Paneru. Many thanks to ABC7news! Read More…

Olga’s interview in CNN

Watch Olga’s interview in CNN where she shares about NYF’s massive disaster relief program

Click here to watch

NYF’s Nutritional Rehabilitation Home Offers Temporary Home to Injured Nepalis

Olga wrote today about some of the things that NYF has helped with in the last 48 hours…

Within hours after the worst aftershocks stopped, Som visited Teaching Hospital, Nepali’s premier and most efficient government hospital, and spoke to the senior doctors there. Within a few hours, there were 20 staff members in my living room to discuss what to do and how to get it done.

The hospital needed surgical supplies immediately to perform critical surgeries; Som authorized them to choose what they needed from the local surgical shops up to $30,000 and send us the bill. They needed immediately 200 mattresses and bedding to accommodate injured people sleeping outdoors on the bare ground or in the corridors. We had these to them within 24 hours. They desperately want to discharge patients ready to go home who cannot do so because they have no relatives to come for them, their houses have been destroyed, or there is no transport. They need the beds for injured and sick patients who are sleeping on the floor or outside, and they need the hospital staff to attend to these injured and sick patients instead of those ready for discharge.

Today, we are setting up a facility for these people at the Nutritional Rehabilitation Home, since there are only a few children left there, and it is a perfect place for this. It can accommodate a substantial number of beds, patients with orthopedic problems can sleep on the ground floor, there is an excellent, large kitchen with a staff trained to cook nutritious food, and a small medical unit. 40 former kamlari girls we are training as medical assistants are arriving in a few minutes from their training school in northwest Nepal to provide care. We have just ordered tents from a local, reliable tentmaker to house 1000 people, and provide them with blankets and mattresses.

And this is only the start.

TIME: Olga Murray tells about what she is doing, as an American, to help Nepal’s earthquake

Read More . . .

ABC 7 News: Nepal Youth Foundation prepares to help quake victims

Read More ..

Earthquake in Nepal

Like you, we are devastated by the news of the big earthquake in Nepal.

We would like you to know that Olga Murray, Som Paneru, and all the children and staff in the programs are safe, as far as we know.

While communication is very limited, we will continue to share with you what we know and how you can help.

Our hearts go out to the thousands of Nepalis who are affected by the earthquake.

Namaste.

‘OLGAPURI Village’ in-progress

On behalf of Nepal Youth Foundation, I wish all our children, donors, board, staff and well wishers around the world, a very happy and peaceful year ahead! On the occasion of this very first day of 2015, we announce that the new J & K House village, which is under construction right now, has been named as “OLGAPURI Village”. The word “Puri” means a ‘little oasis’ in Nepali. So, it is Olga’s little oasis for children. What could be better name!!

We also announce that the grand inauguration of “OLGAPURI Village” will take place on November 7, 2015. Here is a picture of “OLGAPURI” in-progress.

Som Paneru, President