The recent tragedy has brought forth the generous side of people, with many providing relief materials and countless others volunteering to go to the places hit hard by the earthquake and help the victims in whatever way possible. The Week talked to some of them regarding their experiences during the relief operations and the challenges they faced along the way. Here is what they had to say.
Nikun Shrestha, DJ/ Actor
After the earthquake, I volunteered for the relief operation conducted by FNCCI, and coordinated between the South African team and the locals at Harisiddhi. During the first few days you could hear the local people frantically trying to get help to rescue the trapped people. After some time the rescuers would say that there was no sound and movement. It was really difficult to work after hearing that. 
As we expanded the rescue operation to the severely damaged areas, I realized that you had to be on guard as well as be calm and patient at the same time. Even while we were busy with the rescue operation, many aftershocks came and every time it did, people would panic and start running about. While it’s a natural reaction, we need to know that it will only put us at more risk of injuries. Actually, a couple of my friends even got injured when people pushed and shoved.
Another thing I would like to say is that we shouldn’t believe the rumors that have the power to psychologically weaken us. It’s vital to maintain communication with the right sources, so that you can make decisions efficiently. They say little knowledge is dangerous, and we should make sure that we don’t get carried away and make reckless decisions in the process. This horrible experience has taught me a wonderful lesson though. We have the ability to handle any problem without relying on anyone, but I’m going to make sure I do it calmly.
Nagma Shrestha, VJ/ Former Miss Nepal
It’s challenging to visit a disaster struck area as it can overwhelm you physically and emotionally. In Sindhupalchowk, I felt helpless looking at the children who had lost their parents or siblings. Some of them were left mentally disturbed by the tragedy and we couldn’t figure out how to make things better for them. But I saw that they were eager to learn. They even requested me and Subhekchya (Khadka) to teach them, so we tried our best and by the time we left, there were around 43 of them and the involved organizations and local bodies had agreed to set up 100 Temporary Learning Center (TLC). As far as the plan goes, the TLC will take care of the education of the little children for at least six months, so there’s a little comfort in that.
Nepali community in Korea extends helping hands to fire victims
I was there for 12 days and it was, of course, very difficult, not only to see the condition of the people who were impatient to have food and shelter, but also to personally maintain hygiene. We didn’t expect a lot, but I found out that I hadn’t prepared myself mentally for the kind of situation that could arise. Shortage of basic materials proved inconvenient and now I think that had I thought through about all the possibilities, I would have been able to handle it better. No amount of preparation will be enough in these situations – there’s no one to take care of you and you’re pretty much on your own.
Shanta Nepali, Freelance Journalist
I’m still at Sindhupalchowk assisting the victims and at the moment the biggest challenge for us is the dry landslides. As it is, the roads up here are treacherous. There is only so much distance a vehicle can cover and we often have to walk two to three hours to reach the remote areas but the landslides are making it very difficult for us to reach the designated places. Especially after the second quake, the roads have been blocked in most of the places. There have been times when we have had to abandon our work and run because there were boulders rolling down the hills.
Sanitation and health are some of the other major concerns for everybody in the remote areas. Despite several campaign programs run by various organizations, people in the far off remote areas haven’t been made aware of such issues yet. For instance, there are cases where many people are living with their farm animals and that certainly is worrisome for all those living as well as helping in the area.
Prabal Gurung, Fashion Designer
Things have been pretty chaotic in all the places we have visited. It was unfortunate to deal with people who prioritized caste over critical needs like food and tents. People from ‘lower’ castes and thus deemed ‘untouchables’ like Kaami and Damai argued that people of ‘higher’ castes shouldn’t get relief materials, as they could afford it on their own. The ‘victims’ even went as far as to stop the vehicles from taking the relief materials to another place, saying they needed it more. It was so hard to make the people understand that we were not prioritizing any particular group as such.
As most of the things like tents aren’t available here, we had to order them from our neighboring countries. The enforcement of tax on relief materials slowed down our progress. We planned on sending out relief items only after we had figured out how much was needed where, so we first went surveying. On the road, the frequent aftershocks obstructed the vehicle and many times, we had to get the shovels out and clear the way ourselves. Once we distributed the relief materials, however, we realized that people had no idea how to use some of the items and needed to be taught. After we found that people were even consuming the sanitizers, we quickly decided to distribute the relief materials only after instructing them about their proper usage.
