“The river banks are crying”
Raymond Lindinger, der Gründer von SOS Bahini, einer Hilfsorganisation in Pokhara, hat diese bewegende Mail an die BONO-Direkthilfe geschickt und um Verteilung gebeten. Darin schildert er, wie die Menschen in Pokhara das Erdbeben erlebt haben, wie dankbar sie für die Hilfe und Unterstützung aus aller Welt sind und wie wichtig es nun ist, dass alle zusammenhalten und nach vorne schauen.
First of all let me express my deepest gratitude to all of you for the concern, the empathy, the sadness and the compassion that have been expressed in the numerous mails that have reached us in the past couple of days! And more than this, the spontaneous offer to help and support us in these difficult times.
Personally I’m very touched by all the goodness and generosity and I’m filled with gratitude for having such good friends!
In my previous briefing I already reassured you that all of us, our beneficiaries and staff, all have been unharmed and besides a “good scare” and a couple of days of anxiety, we were extremely lucky!
Moreover our “Eco-Village” remained completely intact, and not even a single crack is reminding us of the disaster that struck Nepal last Saturday. Luckily it was on a Saturday when schools are closed in Nepal. Many of the schools are in bad shape and there would have been many more children killed or injured if the disaster struck on a regular school day.
Foto: Das Eco-Village vor dem Beben.
On Saturday we always have “Family-day” at our “Eco-Village” and all our beneficiaries are coming to have lunch and participate in all the activities that are organized on this day.
20 seconds and everybody was outside
It was around noon when the earthquake struck! All our girls were joyfully playing, dancing, singing, art-classes, games and the like. Only two weeks ago we organized an “Earthquake-drill” and in less than 20 seconds all were out in the open. The earth was shaking and moving; according to the news the quake had 7.5 on the richter-scale. It was scary and some of the children cried and the smaller ones sought refuge in the arms of their bigger sisters and us adults.
What struck me most is the fact that an half an hour later all the programs were running again and our girls were back dancing, painting and playing. I bit subdued maybe, but they returned to “fun as usual”.
This is one of the things I find most exceptional in this nation; the ability of the people to go on with life without much looking back or hesitation. The reason for this might lie in the fact, that the people of Nepal always had to struggle to survive and couldn’t afford to grief or lament, they had to go on with life.
Although Pokhara was close to the epicenter there we had surprisingly little destruction and casualties. To my knowledge there have been only two victims in the town itself and they died from electrocution. Some buildings and hospitals have been damaged but no buildings went to ground zero.
Rescue teams have not reached remote areas
The situation is much worse in Gurkha, a village around 80km east of Pokhara. Here was the epicentrum of the earthquake and the town was devastated. The same holds for many remote villages in the mountains that have been totally reduced to rubble. Until date no rescue teams have reached these remote and difficult to reach regions and many more casualties are to be expected.
More than 4000 victims have been reported until date, most of them from Kathmandu. This will not come as a surprise for all those of you who know Kathmandu and were able to witness the daring, irresponsible construction of tall buildings that took place in the past ten years. Many of them collapsed and buried hundreds of people.
Let alone the fact that many of Kathmandu’s historical inheritance and monuments have been destroyed. Amongst others Durban square in KTM and Patan and many of Bakhtapurs splendid monuments as well.
Hospitals are desperately trying to cope with the thousands of injured, those from KTM and those that are flown in from remote areas like Mount Everest where many mountaineers’ lost their life’s due to avalanches. Because of lack of space in the hospitals many patients are treated outside. International help is arriving, but far too slow and the chaos that is reigning in Katmandu prevents efficient action and help.
The river-banks are crying
As for the victims, thousands of them have to be cremated on the river-banks as the culture has it in Nepal. On this note I have to mention that children under the age of ten years are not cremated but buried in the river-banks.
A proper cremation is requiring around 150kg of fire-wood. Given that thousands of cremations are now taking place daily, there is a shortage of fire-wood. Sadly, many old trees, these giant temples created by nature, are now disappearing one by one.
All of you who know the chaos that is reigning in Kathmandu in normal times can imagine what is happening now. It’s hell!
500 Rps (5 Euro) for a 1.5 bottle of mineral water
There has always been scarcity of Water, above all drinking water in Kathmandu and I came to know that “business-people” are now charging 500 Rps (5 Euro) for a 1.5 bottle of mineral water. This is more than the daily income for more than 80% of the people in Nepal. Sadly corruption doesn’t stop during tragedies like this. But let’s us not talk about this now.
Besides an imminent shortage of water, food-shortage and medicine shortage is now looming. Prices for staple food like rice, beans, potatoes and oil are already rising. For the next month and maybe longer skyrocketing prices are to be expected!
What can we do?!? How can you help?!?
According to a statement by the UN-Children-Agency from almost one million children urgently need humanitarian assistance. My personal belief is that these figures are vastly exaggerated and we all have to be cautious with this claims that could be made by people who have a second agenda! Millions of $ and Euro are pouring in daily from the international community and it remains to be seen were all these monies are going to end up.
Nevertheless, the number of those who are in need of immediate help is huge and swift, direct and efficient action is needed.
With the “Bahini-Educare-Foundation” we are supporting destitute single mothers with dependent children. Currently we are supporting 19 such families with a total of 96 beneficiaries. We are providing food, medicine, clothes and education for these families. Many more are going to need help and this at least temporarily until the situations will return back to normal.
We will reach out to the most devastated villages and Gurkha is our first objective. A couple of Board-members and good friends have volunteered to organize the first transport of goods: food, blankets, medicine, water-sterilizing-tablets etc.
Our first trip to Gurkha is scheduled for coming Thursday/Friday and Surendra, our nurses and I will join to assure that the most needy and vulnerable will receive help and this directly from hand to hand. You can support this mission with your donation, and this either directly to the “Bahini-Educare-Foundation-Nepal”, or to one of our partner organizations.
1.) Cooperation-Humanitaire Luxembourg
2.) Bono-Direkthilfe Deutschland
3.) Chance Swisse Switzerland
4.) A 77 Italy
All above named NGO’s do guaranty that 100% of the donations will be directly transferred to our Foundation.
Thank you, merci, danke, grazie
Raymond & the TEAM
