Nepal Revisited – Day 29

The countdown is on and the work continues…

Today we started the morning off by packing 285 Hygiene Kit supplies into buckets in preparation for a distribution tomorrow morning in Thakre, Dhading.

Nirmal was able to source all the products locally through market contacts he has and has done a fantastic job to keep within budget. Nirmal – you are a legend and a great asset to the team – Thanks heaps for going the extra mile. Due to t he amount of items in the bucket they will be pretty much be full and they contain a wide range of products as can be seen in the picture.

Late morning Richard & I headed to the Shelter Cluster in Jawalakhel so that he is aware of where the meetings are being held and also so I could introduce him to a couple of contacts that we have. This mornings meeting went on longer than usual as they had a lot to cover, including an update on the slower than expected distribution schedules due to the on-going fuel shortage and unofficial blockage at the border.

After the meeting we headed back to the house to finish off the Hygiene Kits and stack them into the room which only a couple of days ago was full of quilts. This will be the last distribution that I am a part of – we only really have CGI distributions now left to coordinate, which hopefully tomorrow I will be able to confirm with a partner organisation so that two projects can be signed off and completed. As it stands we still have about 8 projects to finalise.

After a late lunch I shot off to International Office of Migration (I.O.M.) to drop off some paperwork and get a clear understanding of what they require in the Memorandum of Understanding that has been sitting in the to do pile for the past couple of weeks. Tomorrow morning I’ll be able to get this completed fully and signed off and sent in for approval. Finally!

In the evening over dinner it was great to catch up with Basanta from Runchet, Gorkha, to get an update on the CGI requirements for the school, where they are at with the CGI for the village and receive letters of thanks and appreciation for all the work that The Salvation Army has done for their village. I’m hoping that we can continue the bond that we have forged over the past few months well into the future, and that it would be great to catch-up in a few years time in person and see how the village has moved on from the devastation of the earthquake.

All in all a full on day with another one fast approaching tomorrow…

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Nepal Revisited – Day 24

This morning we headed to Sister’s to pick up some cash & to organise additional funds from the bank. While Heather got her hair straightened Richard & I along with Nirmal headed off to organise the purchase of at least 50 more quilts.

Once they were purchased we headed back to the house to offload them, as we are awaiting word from one of our partners of a suitable location to send them, along with the others that we are storing for the time being. They are aware of a community in need who has had minimal assistance to date and they would come in very handy as the colder weather approaches.

Today I was also able to get in contact with Basanta from Runchet to follow-up on where things are at with the CGI sheeting that they are waiting on. The supplier has advised that they should have the complete order in stock some time this week and that the villagers will be able to pick it up next week and distribute it as soon as the stocks arrive. I also advised him to do a measure up of how much CGI they would need to fix up the school as when we visited I noticed that the tarpaulins they had been using were showing signs of deterioration and were fraying along the edges. Hopefully we have some funds that we can direct their way to assist with this.

In the afternoon we headed to the New Road market and spent about an hour there so that I could get some gifts for family as I head home on Thursday evening next week. It would have been very easy to spend at least the whole afternoon there if not the entire day as we only got to see a fraction of the stalls and shops that are on offer.

Over dinner we caught up on the local news, especially information on what is happening with the current fuel shortage. This article from the Himalayan Times entitled “Int’l community, India urged to address humanitarian crisis in Nepal” sheds some light on the extent of the issues facing the humanitarian aid response and the effects that the unofficial blockade is having on essential services and the economy of Nepal.

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Nepal Revisited – Day 21

This morning Richard, Heather & I headed into Jawalakhel so that we could introduce Richard to a couple of our partners; Mountain Child & Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF). After this Richard & I headed to the Humanitarian Staging Area which is located near the airport for a Logistics Cluster Meeting.

The two key items on the agenda were the fuel shortage and road closures and its affect on agencies. The fuel shortage is really staring to hinder the humanitarian aid effort, as organisations find it increasingly difficult to obtain petrol and diesel for their vehicles; especially for monitoring and evaluation, and distributions of much needed materials. (Refer to this article posted yesterday ’26 Oct’ in the Kathmandu Post.)

Also their are increasing concerns around the flow on effect to essential services such as hospitals, water treatment plants, sewerage plants etc. Many of the small businesses and cafes, restaurants and bars seem to be closed at the moment, some of which is due to the festival season. But the fuel shortage which includes LPG is obviously having a roll on effect as well. Many small stall owners and shops are running out of essential products and are closing for the time being as well.

While we were at the meeting Heather went and did some groceries and after the logistics meeting we headed across the road to the MAF booking office to confirm if they could fly to Sindhupalchok as we are intending to go and do a monitoring visit next week to check on some Temporary Learning Centres.

In the afternoon we spent some time catching up on paperwork and planning for the remainder of this week and into next week.

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