August Update

Much grief plague the Nepalese at this time as the grieving and burying process goes painfully on for those who lost loved ones. Fear has also gripped the locals which has snowballed due to the continuation of repeated aftershocks and the spreading of the tragic stories by locals and news reports.

While Nepal was being shaken by earthquakes and aftershocks the Nepalese people moved out and away from their houses for fear of the buildings and structures collapsing onto them. Tents and tarps became their temporary shelters during this period.

There have been sightings and reports that they are now slowly starting to cautiously migrate back into their homes, however those that lost their homes due to the devastating earthquakes are unfortunately homeless and there is a long list of the unfortunate ones who have no jobs or funds to rebuild.

Much anger has grown from the Nepalese locals aimed at an uncaring government who were seen to be doing too little and not allowing the aid agencies to help or access into the country.

Businesses that were housed in concrete structures were mostly able to mop up and continue trading but having said that, far too many Nepalese locals are now jobless due to loss of trade and the resulting economic downturn.  

Generation Fire provided large donations around the time the first earthquake struck.

Brian Williams of Nepal's Agape Ministries and Bipin Dhungana our Generation Fire leader for Kathmandu used these donations to provide much needed life saving food parcels to those who lost everything and who had no means of support.

Quantities of building materials were also purchased and Brian's team went into the mountain top villages that aid agencies had not gone to to construct metal and bamboo homes also church buildings and toilets for the most desperate homeless at the same time much welcome food and sanitary parcels were distributed to these locals and were well received by all.   

Most of the homes that fared worse were those that were built out of local stone or mud bricks which were bonded together with well, just mud!

Families, friends and neighbors were seen to rally together to help each other to rebuild these structures unfortunately they were rebuilding using the same building techniques as has has been done in the past. With no wire ties to lock or tie walls together or any concrete. The use of leveling tools was not evident either.     

Due to lack of government assistance or available funding recovery is a slow ongoing process. The local businesses who suffered structural damage to their premises and stock losses sadly had no or insufficient insurance and were forced to lay off workers. The economy is slowly turning over but it has been reported that Nepal has gone back 10 years in development as a result.