EARTHQUAKE RESPONSE UPDATES:

20 MAY 2015

New pictures in from the weekend trip to deliver supplies and assess damage:

15 MAY 2015

The homes in Barbare and other nearby villages collapsed on top of food stocks in people’s kitchens during the first earthquake. Some families still have gardens but other staple foods are not available. The funds colleceted by Change for Hope thus far has been used to feed over 1000 people in the area. The distribution manager said the number of people fed probably ended up being nearer to 1700 as they ended up bargaining hard and getting great deals on the bulk bags and jugs of rice, lentils, oil, salt and sugar out of buses.

As one woman was receiving supplies from the volunteers, she expressed her thankfulness, with tears streming down her face, saying, “I have never received, for free, a whole bag of rice (60 lbs)… the government only gives us a bucket full.”  The volunteers left this woman’s village after a day of aid distribution to take the buses out of Cherikot when the second earthquake hit. They were right near the epicenter at this point. Many structures were already collapsed from the first quake, but they continued to crumble during this second one, and now more roads became blocked by landslides and falling rocks and boulders and they could no longer leave from Cherikot. The volunteers then hiked 17 km to another town to catch a bus to Kathmandu. There was a great level of satisfaction among the volunteers that the 1000-1700 who just receive food aid from the busloads from Kathmandu will be sustained for a month on those supplies while the roads are cleared. Below, is picture is of some of the volunteers: Sandip (mentioned in a previous update, resides in Dubai), Rajan, Bikash (a photographer) and Chandra.

Below is photo a taken by Bikash.