THE Salvation Army team in Nepal is reaching out to remote communities which have not received outside help. One group headed to Sindhupal, where there is no power, taking shovels and axes to help villagers who are trying to excavate bodies that have been buried in collapsed buildings. The village is very difficult to reach because of landslides and floods caused by the earthquake.
Captain MacDonald Chandi, who is on secondment to International Emergency Services (a section of The Salvation Army's International Headquarters) has had to overcome similar problems on the way to Ramechhap, where he went with a team to conduct a needs assessment.
He reports: 'It took seven hours to drive there after struggling with roads that were uneven, stony and broken due to landslides. After safely arriving we saw that most of the houses were totally damaged and it was hard for the community people to live in them. They said they wouldn't want to take the risk of returning to their houses even if they were still standing.'
'Community leaders and a few family members we spoke with shared their sorrow and said that they are very down because they have lost their loved ones. Now they don’t have place to get shelter and they don’t have money to buy anything to cover them. Our assessment showed that there is a desperate need of tents or tarpaulins for people to live in until they can make proper houses.'
Major Lalnunsangi Ralte reports that Salvation Army team emergency responders are now are working in three camps in Kathmandu and also around their base, which is just outside the capital. While they wait for the arrival of further supplies including tents, they continue to distribute rice, lentils, cooking oil, salt and water.
They have now been joined by a camera crew from SAVN.TV (the USA Western Territory's Salvation Army Vision Network) and have been helped in their work with the use of a four-wheel-drive vehicle provided by a Japanese group. Team members continue to attended many United Nations cluster group meetings, ensuring that they respond to the places of greatest
need.
Report by IHQ Communications
International Headquarters
