Nepal is one of the poorest countries in the world. A quarter of the general population lives below the poverty line and are subsistence farmers. Tourism and foreign exchange serve as the country’s source of much-needed foreign currency. Almost half of all children are undernourished or malnourished. Conditioned by its geopgraphical location, Nepal is highly prone to natural disasters like earthquakes, land slides and floods
On the 25th of April 2015, the country was struck by one of the most powerful earthquakes seen in the last 80 years. At least five strong aftershocks followed, especially in the rural regions. The official death toll is 8,699, with more than 22,000 people wounded. According to the Nepalese government, over half a million houses were destroyed or severely damaged and around 2.8 million people lost their homes.
On the day following the first disaster, a Malteser International Advance Team – joined in the following days by a further group of medical specialists – was dispatched to the crisis region to provide emergency relief. After providing initial emergency medical and psychological aid to the survivors, Malteser International is now concentrating its efforts on the population of the outlying rural regions: distributing aid materials (food, household items and building materials) to families in need and providing medical care to affected people by operating a temporary clinic and providing hospitals with medicines. Given the major scale of the disaster, our support for the country and people goes beyond our emergency aid; we are committed to helping rebuild their lives and implement projects in areas of health, shelter, water and sanitation as well as trainings in disaster risk reduction.
Isabel Brenn
+49-(0)221-96441-231
Email: isabel.brenn(at)malteser-international.org
Emergency relief missions are probably what comes to most people’s minds when they hear the words ‘humanitarian aid’, or ‘disaster relief’. However, emergency missions are actually just one part of a much bigger proces that goes on for years before and after disasters.
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In the Nepalese village of Pagretar, the 2015 earthquake rendered 95 per cent of the houses uninhabitable. Latima and her family lost their home too. Malteser International helped them to rebuild.
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