Nepal Update by Julianne Stewart

4 May, 2015

Thanks to the timely generosity of ABM’s supporters, ABM sent a first tranche of $25,000 last week to ABM’s partner, ACT Alliance, whose members, including Lutheran World Federation, are responding to the 25 April earthquake. In the first few days after the earthquake, the ACT church partners distributed ready-to-eat food, blankets and emergency shelter to over 2,100 displaced families in informal camps in the Kathmandu valley. At the same time, they also carried out rapid assessments of the needs of affected people in that valley, and in a further five badly affected rural districts. More comprehensive assessments are currently underway.

Your funds will be used to assist ACT partners to:

• provide weatherproof temporary shelters to up to 12,000 displaced families
• provide emergency cash vouchers to up to 1,000 particularly vulnerable families
• assess needs and provide clean drinking water and sanitation facilities for up to 15,000 families and train people in their management
• care for and provide counselling to up to 14,000 individuals needing psychosocial support, by mobilising local networks
• distribution of nutritious food packs to up to 20,000 families
• identify needs for and provide emergency non-food items to up to 20,000 families (household items, hygiene kits, buckets etc)

ACT Alliance partners are working in the 11 most severely affected districts of Nepal. Large numbers of people in these districts have lost family members, their homes have been destroyed, and many have also lost their livelihoods in the earthquake.

ACT Alliance partners are all working very closely with the essential coordination structures in Nepal that have been set up to respond to the earthquake, to ensure a speedy response and the most effective use of resources.

A key element in the ACT response is to ensure that those most affected by the earthquake are enabled to play a key role in the longer term recovery process.

The disaster response work will be monitored on a monthly basis.

 

Julianne Stewart, ABM Programs Director, 4 May 2015