To say this mission was a bit of an epic is an understatement! The information received from the locals was not totally accurate, especially re the walk in to the village from the road, 2 – 2½ hours turned into 5 along narrow tracks and crossing massive landslides. This was also the most dysfunctional village we have reached out to. Sadly there was little community cohesion and although most of the villagers turned up at the trail head to help carry the supplies we had brought, it was mostly out of self interest, to ensure they received what they thought to be rightfully theirs. We were very sad to see this mentality, which is not the norm for such rural communities, and believe that in part, the ‘drop and run’ distribution of aid, without taking time to get to know and connect with the communities, alongside no management of the distribution of goods fairly and through the correct community channels is partly to blame, as this style of distribution has a habit of turning into a free for all out of fear of uneven distribution. Jeet Bahadur Tamang, one of the village headsman openly told us how difficult he found it to unite his community, due to a general lack of respect for the village elders making his and our work all the more difficult.
Having said that, we were successful in working with a small group from the village in building new drop pit toilets and restoring some linked to houses were the toilet pan wasn’t damaged. Through a group briefing we were also able to get them to understand the importance of hygienic toilets over open defecation, especially with the monsoon rains coming and thus the increased risk of cross contamination, sickness and infections. Unfortunately we didn’t achieve our aim of 40 – 60 toilets, but we left in the knowledge that we had completed some and the rest would be finished by the locals themselves.
While most of the team was busy building toilets, Dr Achyut, supported by a local health volunteer, set up a mini clinic and started seeing patients. Over the course of the day, he performed in the region of 150 consultations, seeing mostly women and children. Already there is a high prevalence of diarrhea and dysentery within this community – this being the main problem presented to Dr Achyut. On top of this the most severe case he saw was a 32 year old, pregnant lady with dangerously high blood pressure and showing signs of pre eclampsia. We advised that she needed immediate hospital treatment and offered to evacuate her out with us, but unfortunately her husband was unable to make the decision at such short notice. We just hope they will follow our advice and quickly, so as not to put both mother and child at risk.
Having completed our work we decided to try and make a start back to Kathmandu on the same day and so headed back down the hill to the bus leaving for home around 6.30pm. About 20 minutes into the journey, the area was hit by a 4.2 magnitude aftershock. Unfortunately for us, our bus was just passing a landslide area created by the first big quake and as the ground shook the rocks starting hailing down on us. Thankfully our amazing driver Parbin Kumar Shrestha, kept his cool, hit the accelerator and headed for safety at top speed. Unfortunately, we were not quite able to escape without any damage, as a huge rock hit the top of the bus penetrating the roof above the front passenger seats on the left side, smashing the windows and internal roof bars, before landing almost in my lap! Thankfully the iron roof bars took the worst of the impact, slowing down the rock sufficiently that I was able to move my feet and legs out of the way in time. Our driver’s helper, Padma Krishna Shrestha unfortunately was not quite as lucky, as the broken roof bar smashed in the impact hit him in the head, resulting in a wound that required 6 stitches. The driver also got whacked on his left arm by the same bar, resulting in a nasty scratch.
Despite all this, Parbin the driver still managed to get us out of further danger and not drive the bus over the edge of the road into the raging Balephi River below! Thanks to his skills and quick reactions we all lived to tell the tale, and limped slowly to a safe spot where we set up camp for the night, allowing Dr Achyut to treat the injuries and for us all to get our breath back and celebrate our near miss.
Despite the difficulties of this mission we were able to successfully deliver for 200 households in Pangarphu Village, in Gomba VDC, Sindapulchowk:
125 sheets of corrugated iron
215 tarps
20 sacks of rice, daal and beaten rice (approx 600kg of food)
143 bars of soap
100+ sachets of Oral Rehydration Salts
2 solar panels – one for the community centre and one for the local health post
10 pairs of work gloves
5 shovels
2 picks
3kg of nails
A Himalayan thank you to everyone who has contributed to this mission, whether financially, through the provision of goods, or manpower. I would especially like to thank all my team members for keeping their cool and staying positive under what were extremely difficult circumstances:
Dr Achyut Gurung
Galbo Sherpa
Prawar Shrestha
Tanka Gurung
Nima Dawa Sherpa
Deepak Sherpa
Krishna Rai
Pragan Tuladhar
Prabin Shrestha
Padma Shrestha
Bishnu Tamang
Gunga Tamang
Villagers collecting the supplies
The team building a toilet
Happy we are alive !