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Massive earthquake of April 25 destroyed most of the houses of Simalchaur, Syapati-6, Bimire Village of Kavre. No human casualties have been reported. The village consists of 94 households with total of 565 people of which 305 are male, 260 female, 17 children under-5 years of age, one pregnant woman and one recently delivered woman. Total 61 houses have been damaged completely while 33 have been partially damaged.

Initial Preparation

We coordinated with Chief District Officer (CDO) at the District Administration Office to seek approval for relief distribution. Through the CDO, VDC Secretary, local police official, local school teacher and a community member well informed about the village were pre-informed about the relief distribution programme at Bimire.

Relief items were managed through listing of required items from the local informants and then purchased and packaged the required relief items. Some of the items (5 kg rice, 1 kg lentil, 1 packet salt, 5 packet instant noodles, 2 kg bitten rice, 2 packet biscuits, 3 wafers, 1 bottle mineral water, half litre soya bean oil 1 bottle water purifier (Piyush) and mattress). Affected people were also provided with medical supplies. 

          

Distribution of Relief Materials

A team of 20 members from HERD (including staff members, medical team and volunteers) distributed the relief materials with the support from the community. To distribute the relief packages, household heads from each household were provided with a coupon in coordination with local community leaders to avoid multiple relief packages to the same household. 

                     

Local Voices as Views

Locals were very much delighted to receive the relief aids as they hadn’t received any relief aid prior to our distribution. They expressed that they are having a tough time to meet the basic requirements. One of the residents informed, “In these eight days the only thing we have received in the name of relief is one kilogram of bitten rice and five tents”. The locals expressed dissatisfaction questioning how the entire village could live under 5 tents. 

Learning from Experience

Santosh Giri, Assistant Research Officer at HERD and a core team member of earthquake relief team in his own words - “The road was very bad and it took us more time to reach the place than we expected. As we reached late we had a little problem to coordinate with the locals. Earlier we were informed that the village consists of 60 households and to stay in a safer side we carried materials enough for additional houses. The best part was that we managed to provide relief aid to each and every household despite all difficulties.”

 

Contributors: Dr. Sushil Baral, Sudeep Uprety and Kritagya Regmi