Nepal Earthquake #1YearOn

This time last year Nepal was struck by a series of devastating quakes and tremors that took a catastrophic toll on lives, livelihoods and infrastructure, sending the country into fear and heartache and it’s developing economy into chaos, for many months to come.

In the wake of the disaster, Our Sansar acted as a first-responder to supply the victims with emergency resources. During the past year we opened an emergency shrebuildelter for children and youth affected by the earthquake and launched a scheme to provide surviving families with long-term assistance to rebuild their livelihoods.

So this is where you come in.

One year after the earthquake, we realise that a tailored approach to helping families rebuild themselves is the best, most effective way for families to regain their independence and self-sustainability.

We want to micro-finance individual families, so that they can reopen their businesses, rebuild their shops, re-train, develop new skills, buy livestock and materials, gain new customers, and send children to school.

Background

On April 25th 2015, a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck the central provinces of Nepal, including the country’s capital Kathmandu. Hitting the beating heart of the country, it killed more than 8,000 people and left 16,000 injured. It destroyed schools and hospitals, toppled buildings and tore roads, rendering more than 2 million homeless and jobless.

On May 12th, just days after the first responders started clearing away rubble, a major aftershock with a magnitude of 7.3 struck the affected areas again, causing further destruction and suffering.

With Nepal’s mountainous topography, the effects of the earthquake and subsequent aftershocks were felt far and wide, high and low. Just hours after the earthquake hit Gorkha, it also set off an avalanche on the world’s tallest mountain, Mt Everest, lying on Nepal’s northern border. The avalanche took the lives of 21 people, making it the deadliest day on the mountain in history.