- Islanders continuing to support earthquake-devastated Nepal
- Local charity on the ground providing aid
- Charity art exhibition continuing this weekend
- Find out how Grainville students have been raising money below
ISLANDERS with connections to the earthquake-devastated nation of Nepal are continuing to support the victims of the disaster.
The 7.9-magnitude quake last week was the biggest to hit the Himalayan nation for more than 80 years and has claimed the lives of at least 7,000 people.
Among the Islanders helping with relief efforts is Janis Hall, who was in the country visiting the Kathmandu orphanage which is supported by the charity of which she is trustee.
Mrs Hall says that donations to her charity, CPS Nepal, have helped workers at the orphanage to provide basic aid to the local community.
She added that the orphanage is hoping to look after four more children following the disaster.
Mrs Hall was outside the capital city taking children from the orphanage out on a picnic when the earthquake hit on 25 April.
‘When it struck, we were walking up a forest path,’ she told the JEP from the UK.
‘We were very lucky that we were out in the countryside – it was the safest place to be.’
Meanwhile, a Jersey Overseas Aid team have said they are committed to supporting relief efforts in Nepal ‘into the distant future’ after they saw photographs showing that a village in the Dandakharka region where they had built clean-water systems earlier this year had been devastated.
Seven children are feared dead in the disaster.
Project leader Brian Stuttard said: ‘We have heard messages that they are short of food, so we are working on getting some rice out there for them.
‘We will try to support the village once the immediate relief effort is over. We are committed to supporting them into the distant future.’
And Sheri Burt, who was in Nepal’s second city, Pokhara, at the time of the disaster, has now teamed up with Guernseywoman Sarah Griffith, who runs the disaster relief organisation Bridge2. Ms Burt has become the Jersey representative for Bridge2, which is organising aid for the victims.
Meanwhile, the owner of St Helier restaurant Bollywood Bytes, Dr Sunil Kumar, has said that they will donate £1,879 of last week’s profits to the World Food Programme for victims of the earthquake.
For more details of aid programmes, click here or here
- AN exhibition of photographs taken in Nepal has so far raised £1,000 for the earthquake disaster appeal.
- Called Namaste Nepal, it was put on by two Islanders, David and Caroline Moody, who felt they had to do something to help, having visited the country last November.
- Namaste Nepal continues at Coopers Café, Castle Quay, until Monday 11 May.
- Donations are being accepted in the buckets on the counter, and all the images are available to buy.
GRAINVILLE School students got on their bikes and pedalled hard yesterday to raise money to help rebuild a village in Nepal destroyed in last week’s earthquake.
The 7.9 magnitude earthquake on 25 April was the largest to hit the Himalayan nation for more than 80 years and has claimed the lives of at least 7,000 people.
And Grainville has a particularly close connection to a village in the Dandakharka region, which has been devastated. Chairman of the board of governors Jeremy Johnson was a member of the Jersey Overseas Aid Commission team who helped to build clean-water systems in the village earlier this year.
Mr Johnson said: ‘Mr McGuiness, the head teacher, suggested that the Jersey Overseas Aid Commission team gave a presentation to the school on our return from Nepal,’ he said.
‘The dates were agreed six weeks ago. The fact that we gave the presentation only three days after the earthquake really did hit home, particularly in the light of a video put together by an old boy of the school, Phil Marshall, who was a member of the team. The video showed seas of smiling faces in all the places we visited.
‘We understand from the Gurkha Welfare Trust that the secondary school in Dandakarka, the local primary school and our village have been razed to the ground, with seven of the primary school children being killed.’
It was also learned last week that 87 of the 89 buildings in the village had been destroyed.
While taking part in the Jersey Oversees Aid project, Mr Johnson established a link with a secondary school called Shree gram sewa vidhyashram H.S.S. in the area and arranged for old Grainville School uniforms to be donated.
Students were also encouraged to get in contact with students from the Nepalese school to establish a cultural link.
Mr Johnson said that he was worried as he had been unable to establish contact with the school.
More than 40 students took part in the yesterday cycling event.
They kept two exercise bikes in constant use from 8.50 am to 3.15 pm – 770 minutes in total, with each minute representing seven lives lost.
The students have also held other fundraising events to support the British Red Cross Appeal.
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.
