Relief Program at Chhampi

The children who have been victimized already and are in the shelter of Raksha Nepal have been tortured additionally due to the devastating earthquake. The building of Raksha Nepal has been cracked by the quake and the children were sometimes in an open space and sometimes on the ground because the experts have advised not to keep the children in the vulnerable building. However, while sitting on the ground was not also safe due to the storm, thunder and rain and sometimes the tarpaulin was also swept by the heavy wind.

We were worried about how to keep our children happy and encouraged. In the context, we managed a relief distribution program to the seventy households of Chhampi VDC ward no 8 in Lalitpur district. The VDC is now called Karyabinayak Municipality ward no 14 of Lalitpur district. The households were quake affected victims. The program was organized on an auspicious twelfth birthday occasion of our daughter Sagun (name changed) who is one of the sexually exploited victims and has been residing in our Raksha Nepal shelter for the last five years.

The relief was distributed by the hand of our daughter Sagun who was celebrating her birthday on the day of 24 May 2015 Sunday. The program was led by the ten daughters who are in the shelter of Raksha Nepal. The program made our children encouraged and gave hope that they are not only in trouble but also there are many people on trouble due to earthquake.

All the relief materials including packs of rice, lentils, edible oil, salt, beaten rice and noodles were packed and set on a vehicle at 12.45 PM from the office of Raksha Nepal, Lainchaur to the relief distribution spot Chhampi. Six staffs of Raksha Nepal, legal advisor, a camera person, seven students, two US Citizens who are our well wishers and two MBBS students affiliated with Norvic International hospital, Thapathali Kathmandu joined us while heading towards Chhampi.

The place was about 2 hours drive from Kathmandu passing from Chhapagaun and Tikabhairav along with the dust and gravel road. It was difficult for us to reach the Chhampi Village due to the bad condition of the road. However, we reached there with little difficulty. The village was almost destroyed by the tremor of 25th April, several houses were cracked, the majority of the villagers were of Dalit community and some were Tamangs. Many people of the village were on the road to welcome us and their eyes seem to be curious and their faces looked cheerful in a hope that they are going to get something which would be a big help to them in the critical time. However, in spite of the severe tremor, luckily there was no human death in the village, the people reported.

We all the team members looked the cracked and broken houses, we felt very sad. Some women were pregnant, and were also sitting under the tarpaulin for shelter. In one place, we found that ten houses collapsed and were completely destroyed. We asked the local people about the relief and help they got after the quake. They said that after the disaster, many people from different places reached there and had distributed the relief. One thing the victims of the earthquake could console themselves was that they were not deprived of pure drinking water. The pipes of drinking water were safe and the supply of water was regular.

The Raksha Nepal started distributing the relief stuffs at 3.30 PM for 50 households. At first all the people gathered in a place and the chairperson Ms. Thapa put remarks about why Raksha Nepal was there at that moment. The local people had provided the name list of household head and the name of household head was read by the staffs of Raksha Nepal so that they could come and collect the relief. Each household received a pack of 30 kg rice, a half litre edible oil packet, a packet of one kg salt, three packets of noodles, two packets of biscuits, and a kg of beaten rice and two metres of the mat as a relief package from the Raksha Nepal.

There were altogether 70 households in that place but on the day we had taken relief for 50 households only because we did not know the exact number of households. However, Ms. Menuka Thapa promised to send relief stuffs for the remaining 20 households on the next day. According as the last day promise, Raksha Nepal sent the relief for the remaining households on the day of 25th May 2015 to Chhampi.

The presence of women and children was dense in comparison to male members of a family during the distribution program. All of the villagers who received relief opined that they have received some kinds of relief from other organizations before, but the distribution package of Raksha Nepal was great in terms of quantity because before they have received only two- three kg of rice. We found the people to be very happy and they thanked us for our spirit and support we had given to them. The relief distribution program was over at 5 P.M.

At the mean time, a 18 year boy was found to be suffering from a terrible stomach pain. He was diagnosed as appendicitis, two days ago by a doctor; however, due to his economic problem he was bound to sit at home. We found him crying, sleeping on the ground with terrible pain. One of our well wishers, Kavya Rawat, daughter of Dr. Bharat Rawat, a senior cardiologist of the Norvic International hospital who had gone with us to the spot immediately contacted her father in Kathmandu. Dr Rawat asked her to bring the patient to the hospital and promised to do the treatment or operation without any cost. Then, Kavya put the ill person in her car and headed towards Kathmandu. Everybody applauded her wonderful deed.

To sum up, the program was a small effort to help the earthquake affected people. The villagers said that certainly Raksha Nepal’s attempt was very beneficial for them and they appreciated us. At last we returned from Chhampi at 5.15 P.M.

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