As if the April 25 earthquake in Nepal wasn’t devastating enough, another 7.3 magnitude quake rocked the fragile country on Tuesday, bringing the death toll to more than 5,000 people and the need for international assistance at an all-time high.
Mennonite Central Committee’s involvement in the rural areas of Nepal dates back to the 1950s, focusing on providing food security and production to those who need it the most. Now, given the recent devastation, they’re busy working through various partnership groups to get food and other emergency items to families in distress.
“Our main response is food assistance and typically a food package is three weeks of food for a family of five, non-perishables based around rice and protein and then some non-food items which would include blankets, kitchen sets and hygiene items and then temporary shelter, either tarps or tents,” executive director of MCC Ontario Rick Cober Bauman said.
MCC’s efforts reach some 1,550 households through their different partnerships. Helping Hands Nepal distributes resources to 200 homes. Another 250 receive assistance in Lalitpur through the Rural Institution for Community Development. The remaining 1,100 are helped by Shanti Nepal.
“As is often the case, MCC’s responses are stronger in rural communities because we have our main working partnerships with rural communities,” Cober Bauman said. “A lot of our work was in food security, so food production which is by definition rural work. We’ve been in three districts, Lalitpur, Dhading, and Okhaldhunga.”
Once the immediate needs, like food and shelter, are met, MCC will help rebuild the destroyed homes and buildings. And just like in Haiti, this time they’ll be built in a way that makes them less susceptible to damage in the event of another earthquake.
“A lot of the speed of rebuilding will be very dependent on the resources available,” Cober Bauman said. “A number of buildings that were damaged have fully crumbled, that’s also going to add to the rebuilding time.”
Pre-earthquake, MCC has worked on providing greenhouses, nutrition, and small-scale cash crop projects. They help farmers build greenhouses to produce more than just subsistence crops, instead providing an income through the sale of produce. They run a baby-weighing campaign, which encourages mothers to check their babies’ weight gain by using a nutrient dense porridge after they’re weaned off breast milk. Lastly, they help families get out of debt from the people they’ve been leasing land from to grow crops.
In terms of donations, he says MCC has raised more than $1 million in Canada and the U.S. for relief efforts in Nepal. Of that, some $300,000 is from Ontario. He says a large portion of that is from Waterloo Region.
“This is a very generous community and we’re deeply grateful the region are generous and have a high level of trust in MCC’s ability to respond,” Cober Bauman said.
All of the Nepalese people and the staff that work for MCC were uninjured after Tuesday’s quake, and the previous 7.8 magnitude quake in April. He added their concern is equally for the people from the Nepalese community who work for them in various capacities, as it is for people like Luke and Leah Reesor Keller, MCC’s Nepal representatives from Waterloo. They didn’t have any new responses planned as a result of the most recent quake, but will be continuing on with the efforts that began after April 25.
“We are hoping that people will be reminded there is still a very serious disaster to which resources are needed,” Cober Bauman said. “We hope it serves as a reminder that we need to continue to be generous with our neighbours in Nepal.”
Fundraising efforts continue in the region for Nepal. A musical event, 100 Guitars Standing by Nepal, will collect donations on May 24 from 1-3 p.m. at The Registry Theatre in Kitchener. There’s also Sing for Nepal: A Grand Philharmonic Choir and friends Benefit Concert later that afternoon at 4 p.m. at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church. You can also donate at mcccanada.ca.
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