£90,000 Jersey aid to go straight to Nepal victims

Three charities to share funds as rescue operation continues
£90,000 emergency aid has been pledged by the Jersey Overseas Aid Commission
1.8 million people have lost their homes
Find out about a fundraiser taking place this weekend below

THREE charities helping the victims of the Nepal earthquake will receive an equal share of the £90,000 emergency aid pledged by the Jersey Overseas Aid Commission.

The British Red Cross, Oxfam and the Save the Children Fund will each receive £30,000 in funding from the commission to go towards their relief efforts.

Commission chairman Deputy Carolyn Labey said that Islanders’ response to the disaster had been ‘truly amazing’ after the 7.9 magnitude earthquake struck last Saturday. More than 70 aftershocks have been felt in the region, and according to the World Health Organisation, 1.8 million people have lost their homes.

Deputy Labey said that the commission was receiving regular updates from the agencies. ‘The commission still has direct contact with the communities it has worked with and has helped the families of the Islanders who were caught up in the disaster,’ she added. ‘Thanks to the commission’s structure, we are able to respond very quickly to emergencies.’

At least 6,300 dead

At least 19 climbers killed by avalanche on Mount Everest with many more missing

Epicentre was 80 km northwest of the capital, Kathmandu

The earthquake was a 7.9 magnitude – the largest in the region for 81 years

Aftershocks continue – there have been over 70 so far.

The commission is also working with the Gurkha Welfare Trust Jersey, who say that their network and knowledge of Nepalese culture and language will be valuable.

But Nigel Hodges, the chairman of the charity which supports Gurkha veterans living in Nepal, fears that rebuilding the country could take years. ‘I have heard good and bad news from Nepal,’ he said. ‘I have been told that a large number of buildings have fallen down. The houses out there are pretty flimsy as they are built from mud and rock. There have been a lot of injuries.

‘What is sad and difficult is that many of the rice fields have been washed away. That’s their livelihood, so the future is looking bleak.’

He added that clean water systems the trust had built could be salvaged and that Gurkha engineers were already carrying out repairs.

Islander Brian Stuttard, who led a Jersey Overseas Aid Commission project this year to build a clean-water system in the Dandakharka region, has said that the priority needs to be getting help to people.

His team learned this week that the area had been devastated, with seven children feared dead.

Mr Stuttard said: ‘Repairing the water system can wait – the priority is getting food, medicine and shelter to the people who need it.’

The project team were due to meet this weekend to discuss their plans for supporting relief efforts.

Meanwhile, two Jersey women who were in Nepal at the time of the earthquake have now reached India on a bus provided by the Indian military. One of them, Leonie Hervé, who earlier in the week told the JEP of her experiences when the earthquake struck, is now safe in Delhi.

She said that the charitable response from Islanders to the crisis has made her ‘proud to be from Jersey’.

Two Islanders have organised an exhibition called Namaste Nepal at Cooper’s Café, Castle Quay from this Saturday until Monday 11 May.

David Moody, a keen amateur photographer, and his wife Caroline, the assistant editor of the JEP, will be selling photographs they took while visiting Nepal to raise funds for the Jersey Disaster Appeal.

‘We were in France when we heard the news, and neither of us could sleep for thinking about whether there was anything we could do,’ said Mrs Moody.

‘We both came up with the idea of an exhibition, and both came up with the title Namaste Nepal before we had even discussed it.

‘The Nepalese people are so friendly and welcoming to travellers.

David and Caroline Moody

‘We met several families while we were there. Some we know are safe, others we will never know their fate.

‘One girl is the ‘face’ on our poster (above). She is called Anouska and she was three when this photo was taken last November.

‘She lives with her family in the foothills of the Annapurna Range just outside Pokhara.

‘We both want to return to Nepal as soon as is realistically possible.’

The exhibition is on at Cooper’s Cafe at Castle Quay, from Saturday 2 May until Monday 11 May.

FOR a small island with a population of 100,000 people, Jersey has a remarkable network of links with other communities, large and small, around the globe.

It is hard to go anywhere without discovering someone or something with a connection to home. Those friendships and relationships are formed in all manner of ways from business, travel and charity to family history, politics and sport.

Today we learn that a remote village with close links to Jersey has been devastated by the recent earthquake in Nepal. Seven children are feared dead.

Just a few months ago, volunteers on a Jersey Overseas Aid project helped to install a clean-water system in Dandakharka. It is not yet known whether the children they met, some of whom are pictured on the front page of today’s paper, are among the victims.

It will come as no surprise to those who live in the Island that Jersey has leapt to the assistance of the people of Nepal.

The Bailiff has launched a Jersey Disaster Appeal, the Overseas Aid Commission has pledged £90,000 to the relief efforts and is working with the Gurkha Welfare Trust Jersey to raise more money. Other individuals and organisations are also doing their bit.

This is Jersey at its best. The community spirit which is such a strong force in Island life is not limited to our shores.

We must again show our generosity in support of the victims of this latest natural disaster.

The women on the project were dressed in traditional Nepalese costumes to mark a national holiday

TWELVE Islanders completed the Overseas Aid project to provide clean water to two remote villages in Nepal in January and February.

They spent three weeks working in two Gurkha villages in the Dandakharka region, a five-hour ‘rocky and rough’ drive from the capital, Kathmandu, up into the mountains.

Tap stands were placed outside each house in the village

The spokesman for the group, Yvonne Judge, said that the greeting when they arrived was overwhelming.

They stayed in a house where conditions were basic – openings for windows but no glazing, no heating, a single light bulb in a room, and outdoor showers, which were cold.

‘But we were lucky because we had water on tap there,’ Yvonne said.

This is significant because the group were there to bring clean water supplies to the villages.

Working with the Gurkha Welfare Trust and alongside local people, they worked from 8 am to 5 pm every day to dig trenches for water pipes and fill them back in.

Yvonne added that women and teenage girls had carried concrete and other equipment and materials needed for water tanks uphill, 50 kilos at a time in baskets on their heads and backs.

Before they left Jersey, the group had raised £14,500, to add to the £30,000 grant from the Overseas Aid Commission.

How the funding was to be allocated was to be decided while they were there, and this was done by meeting the village committee on a field on the hillside.

The money paid for: