The April 2015 Earthquake in Nepal with a magnitude of 7.9 caused big damage to the country and people. Around 8, 800 people were killed, 23 000 injured and hundreds of thousands became homeless. The 150 aftershocks made the situation even worse, especially the one on May 12th, that brought about another 218 deaths and injured around 2500 people. Many health facilities were unable to cope and handle the enormous amount of causalities. Beside the lack of trained staff the emergency supplies were also very limited.
The country is still depended on donations from all over the world. Medical volunteers are needed to help out the doctors and nurses in the troubled areas. With the help of skilled medical volunteers, more of those injured can have access to healthcare.
As it is difficult to get an overview of how to help Nepal, here is some information on how to volunteer, donate or where you find more general information about Nepal. Of course there are many other options but we hope this may help you to start getting involved.
The homepage from Humanity road helps relief groups to deploy their resources in an effective way. There are lists of location coordinates of communities in need and they also request specific medical services for the injured. You can find real time situation reports to keep updated.
If you want to do volunteering and you are highly skilled you can get involved through “Doctors Without Borders”. They’ve already sent eight teams out to help the victims in Nepal.
Another option to help is with the organization “Volunteer FDIP” - if you are a nurse a doctor or any other healthcare service provider you can volunteer with this organization. http://www.volunteerfdip.org/support-nepal-earthquake-victims
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies - The IFRC does not recruit volunteers to work overseas but a small number of National Societies do send some volunteers overseas and many do receive international volunteers. Therefore you could contact the National Society directly.
Another volunteering option is the “Project Hope”. They are deploying medical volunteers to Nepal and also have a disaster relief expert team who is coordinating with the WHO, UN and Nepal's Ministry of Health.
There is also a Facebook group: “Nepal Earthquake Relief Volunteer Coordination” where you can find posts about different volunteering options in general.
If you search for ways to donate reliable money to the Earthquake victims there are several options. CNN provided a good overview about different organization where you can donate money.
Even if it is just a small amount, putting all donations together will help a lot!
I hope everyone can do his or her small part to help the earthquake victims either as a volunteer or by donating.
- Jay
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