Nepal Earthquake Response
INFORMATION
The International Child Resource Institute (ICRI), founded in 1981, is honored to have worked in 58 countries around the world on behalf of children and families. Through ICRI Nepal's National Center for Learning Resources (NCLR), Network for Children, Prisoners and Dependents (NCPD), the training and development of staff at the Balmandir Orphanage, and many other programs, ICRI has worked in Nepal for 13 years and acts as one of the NGO's working to move the country from great challenges to successful outcomes.
Six buildings serving children in our programs have been severely or fully destroyed, including the Balmandir Orphanage.
ICRI will stay the course to bring about lasting change that restores the physical, emotional and developmental well being of each child.
ICRI U.S. has agreed to assemble and rapidly send funding and to work logistically in locating materials in nearby countries, particularly India, that can be rapidly dispatched to the earthquake affected zone. ICRI will also continue to carry out emergency programs and to assist our ICRI Nepal programs in returning our 19 model schools, the many group homes and other children's programs to normality and greater growth for the future.
INFORMATION
We will work with the Nepal team that has close ties with the border region and with our ICRI India office to assist in arranging procurement and dispatch of materials by truck or airplane as available to assure that materials get rapidly to children and families most in need. What makes our team different is that we are committed for the long run to assure each day children and families are being helped, even if it takes years to accomplish the full recovery effort.
ICRI Nepal, led by Country Director Dhirendra Lamsal, will use the cash donations as per the local needs and priorities in badly hit ares in Sinduplachowak, Kathmandu, Lalitpur, Bhaktapur, Nuwakot, Gorkha, Kavrepalanchoak and Dhading.
Where Your Money Goes
Your donations will be used to provide:
Safe drinking water for people seeking refuge in the streets/shelters
Small tanks or big buckets to store water
Water purifying tablets
Sleeping bags
Trekking mattresses and blankets
First aid medical supplies
Medications for emergency treatment
Tent (temporary shelter) or Trekkers shelter
Clothes and slippers for children
Wellington boots (Rubber boots)
Torch/Flash lights
Emergency lights & Solar lights
Wheel chairs
Mosquito Liquid or nets etc
ICRI-Nepal has been collecting and distributing relief materials to the victims of earthquake from the 4th day of the earthquake. The relief material package for one family includes 30 kilograms of rice, 5 kilograms of beaten rice, 3 kilograms of lentils, 5 soaps, 2 liters of oil, 5 liters of milk, 100 liters of safe drinking water and dehydrating medicines. We have focused our relief distribution mainly in Balambu, Khokana, Kalaki and Sankhu. With this relief package, we have supported 295 people including 68 children of 73 families. Further on, we are continuously collecting additional relief supplies and sending out to families in other needy areas of Kathmndu, Lalitpur and Bhaktapur.
ICRI-Nepal installed an additional 50 temporary child protection shelters across the country, mostly in Sindhupalchowk, Kathmandu, Lalitpur, Bhaktapur, Gorkha, Dhading, Kavre, Nuwakot and Dolkha districts. It is estimated that each protection shelter housed around 40 children, totaling 2,000 children in 50 locations. The centers are equipped with indoor/outdoor learning materials, toys and games (Please see the list below). These shelters are facilitated by a trained local school teacher and/or psychologist so that the immediate needs of the children are responded to at the level required. We provided nutritional food for the children and counseling for the parents and the community people. We collect children from within the community or from temporary group shelters at 10:00 AM and bring them back to their parents or relatives at 2 PM. In between, they get nutritional food and engage in various activates such as art and crafts work, games, dance, and reading and writing. The sole purpose is to support their recovery from trauma. From our ongoing experiences, we can say that those children who have been kept in a safe and protective environment can better express their feelings surrounding traumatic events. Parents, guardians, teachers and care takers who look after children also need strong support at such times to help meet the needs of the children.
While many large disaster relief agencies and NGO's undoubtedly help thousands to receive urgent medical care following the recent earthquake, long term sustainable projects that benefit the lives of children and families who have lost everything are best delivered by organizations like ICRI Nepal, who have a strong community network and highly respected local leadership.
Please donate now so that:
The ICRI Nepal network can significantly aid the emergency relief efforts currently in Kathmandhu.
That when those relief efforts pull their resources out of Nepal, our staff and our network will begin rebuilding the schools and lives of the children we serve.
There are times where making the right decisions regarding children and families can change their lives forever. This is clearly one of those times.
UPDATES
JUNE 15, 2015
• In the last few weeks ICRI-Nepal has been providing ‘Trauma Healing Services’ for children in five locations/areas of Kathmandu, Lalitpur and Bhaktapur districts in Emergency shelters that hold 50 children per shelter. The purpose of this trauma healing service is to respond to the immediate psycho-socio-emotional needs of children in the areas affected by the disaster.
• It has been observed that these children have started expressing their emotions through dance, games, play, art and craft works.
Children in our Temporary Child Protection Shelter of Naxal, Kathmandu make sculptures during the day.
• Under the leadership of ICRI Nepal Country Director, Dhirendra Lamsal, the shelters have been featured on the national television of Nepal (NTV) and various key staff were interviewed in an half hour report.
• As the temporary shelters (services) are now being merged into the regular/permanent school system as the schools begin to open, it is essential that ICRI continuing to train teachers to deliver ongoing long term trauma care, pschyo-social support and counseling.
• ICRI Nepal will create an Individual Development Plan (IDP) for each child in our network, to make sure that we respond to their individual needs and provide long term care and support to individual children who need long term service.
ICRI’s second phase of Earthquake relief will be to redesign and rebuild the schools and group home that have been either partially or fully destroyed in the Earthquake (nine buildings).
During our 34 year tenure, ICRI have designed more than 300 schools and children’s buildings in more than 40 countries. ICRI will work with local architects and designs based on and demonstrating the latest cutting edge techniques in early childhood development. Found objects and designs that give opportunities to explore and experiment will be used, so that the outdoor ‘play’ environment plays an essential tool in facilitating early childhood growth.
ICRI is currently waiting for final structural damage reports from the government, detailing which buildings need a complete re build within our network. The wait for final reports, the ongoing aftershocks and upcoming monsoon mean that the exact timeline to begin the work of phase two is to be confirmed.
MAY 19, 2015
Note: ICRI-Nepal has been a longtime partner of Bal Mandir, and is working to disperse food, clothes and medicine for about 500 children living in 9 orphanages of Bal Mandir across the country.
4 year old Pemba Shrepa wanders in daze inside Bal Mandir, in Sifal, Kathmandu. She had never strayed far from her mother before the earthquake. In fact, this is the first time she has ever been this far away from her small village in Ragini-8 which lies to the of Okhaldhung’s district headquarters, Khalanga. Okhaldhunga is the mostly hit district by the earthquake in Nepal.
Pemba, her two elder brothers and a sister were brought to Bal Mandir, the government run orphanage, on Wednesday, after the Great Earthquake took their father’s and destroyed their home.
MAY 14, 2015
Following the second (35 seconds, 7.3 Reciter Scale) earthquake that terrorized Nepal on the 12th May, ICRI Nepal Country Director, Dhirendra Lamsal, paint's a picture of what life is like for some of the children ICRI serve, with the story of Rupesh Shrestha:
In Gongabu Bus Park Shelter of Kathmandu, a 4 year old boy named Rupesh Shrestha says, “Daddy! Is the corpse stinking?” when he heard someone saying “the corpses are stinking”, upon his visit to the area with his dad. There is lot of psychological fears among the children taking shelters in various parts of the country after the earthquake that shook Nepal on 25 April 2015. This will have serious natural psychosocial effect among these innocent children.
MAY 11, 2015: URGENT NEEDS OF CHILD PROTECTION SHELTERS
For a 10-year old girl living in Khokana, an earthquake means “all the houses collapse”. The April 25 quake that rocked the country in the afternoon has left Chnadrakala Maharjan of Okhere, Lalitpur, shaken. Many houses her neighborhood were flattened by the massive quake. Similarly, Rohn Prazapati (6 years old) of the same village witnessed death of his close friend while cycling at the time of earthquake. Now, he is very scared even to see and touch bicycle. For him, “Cycle is a death”.
It will take time before children like Chnadrakala and Rohan come to terms in the aftermath of such devastation. Seeing houses, schools, temples and other structures collapse and seeing death of a close friend and parents at such tender age simply terrorizes them. They continue to need relief assistance in coming several months. On the top of this, they need immediate engagement, proper stimulation and adequate play on a regular basis to stabilize their psychical and mental health as well as psychological and emotional well-being aftermath this disaster.
MAY 6, 2015
Relief packages are starting to come into the ICRI office and are now being shipped Nepal. While the emergency relief is only beginning and will continue for the coming weeks, ICRI is now beginning the transition into the second phase of our earthquake response:
Redesigning and Rebuilding Children’s Schools and Group Homes
• ICRI Nepal reports damages from 3 Network for Children of Prisoners and Dependents (NCPD) member group homes and 2 Nation Center for Learning Resources (NCLR) Schools.
• Under Privileged Children’s Programs (UCEP) Nepal has been completely destroyed by the quake, with minor cracks on the inside of their group home. This is a very large site, serving over 100 children.
• Cracks reported in 2 buildings of Parizat Nestling Home.
• The National Children’s Orphanage/ Bal Mandir’s North Side has been completely destroyed. The Orphanage homes over 500 children.
• Still awaiting detailed reports on many of our schools and group homes – funds needed to pay for engineers for this work.
ICRI Nepal will need to rebuild damaged buildings and make them earthquake proof using modern techniques. This is an opportunity for ICRI Nepal to rebuild children’s space utilizing the latest research into children’s neuroscience development to support their curious minds, benefiting generations of Nepali children. Community leaders will be engaged in the project and local companies will be employed. ICRI Nepal will integrate state of the art design with local building techniques and found objects.
APRIL 30, 2015: UPDATE FROM NEPAL COUNTRY DIRECTOR DHIRENDRA LAMSAL
• The death toll has so far reached 6,000 and more than 11,000 people are said to be injured by a large earthquake that shook Nepal on 25 April 2015. The government efforts to provide relief assistance have been slow and inadequate. Hundreds of thousands of people are waiting to receive the relief assistance in the districts.
• The threat of epidemic and other health problems, which often follow natural catastrophes, looms. Major hospitals are overcrowded with the injured, and they are finding it extremely difficult to cope with the pressure, particularly because of the shortage of medicines and various other facilities such as medical equipment, beds and materials/supplies.
• The National Center for Learning Resources (NCLR) and the Network for Children, Prisoners and Dependents (NCPD) which run under the umbrella of ICRI-Nepal have been providing assistance and support for the children and families of around 35 areas of Kathmandu Valley and other 55 locations of the 11 districts. More than 600 people including 200 children will be provided the relief package in coming 1 week.
• We plan to provide immediate relief assistance to 100 families, approximately 600 people, from the hardly hit areas of 11 districts including Kathmandu Valley. This includes; 19 NCLR working communities, 9 communities of NCPD’s member organizational operational areas and 5 locations of each district of 11 highly affected districts.