Nepal Earthquake
On 25 April 2015, communities in Nepal were left in shock after a huge magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck, affecting more than 8 million people (OCHA) in 39 districts. Nearly 1 million were estimated to be children. The earthquake destroyed over 600,000 houses, infrastructure and services. Nearly 9,000 people were killed and more than 22,000 injured. Sadly, just 17 days later more lives were lost when another 7.3 magnitude earthquake hit exacerbating the humanitarian situation.
THREE YEARS ON: HOW WE HAVE HELPED
We responded with immediate relief followed by recovery efforts in ten of the hardest hit districts.
The goal was to meet the emergency needs, strengthen communities’ resilience and self-recovery, and restore a sense of safety for children and their communities.
Through three years of relief, recovery and rehabilitation efforts, we reached 573,688 people, including 248,259 children, from some of the hardest hit districts through education, child protection, infrastructure for disaster preparedness, health care, improved nutrition, water, sanitation and hygiene, shelter and livelihood support.
25 April 2018, marked three years since the earthquake and in the same month we closed our response.
This crisis has reached an end – but you can still give to our emergency appeal fund to help us respond quickly to the next emergency.
Accountability
A critical part of our work has been a strong accountability programme. We used a variety of ways to listen to communities and incorporate their concerns and feedback into our programmes. We wanted to ensure that the communities we leave behind are better prepared to withstand future shocks and can meet new challenges with greater confidence and resilience. Communities and District Government representatives attest to these achievements and we believe we have achieved our response goal.
Children’s well-being at the core
When a natural disaster occurs, children are always among the most vulnerable. Over a million children needed to find some normality after the earthquake. Feeling aftershocks and seeing their homes and schools damaged, created fear and anxiety in children. To support children straight after the earthquake, 35 Child Friendly Spaces (CFS) were set up to provide immediate psychosocial support and a safe area to play and learn. These nurturing environments have helped children to strengthen their resilience to deal with the risks they faced and the distress they experienced.
Schools were still closed months after the quake, so we established 62 Temporary Learning Centres (TLCs) where children resumed learning in a safe environment and returned to a regular routine. Teachers, volunteers and village committee members were also trained to provide psychosocial support.
Photo: Children playing in the Child Friendly Space (CFS) set up by World Vision in Gorkha District. © 2015 | Sunjuli Kunwar | World Vision
This crisis has reached an end – but you can still give to our emergency appeal fund to help us respond quickly to the next emergency.
DEC FUNDING: HELPING THE PEOPLE OF NEPAL
With funding from the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) appeal, in three years we helped around 108,871 people in the worst affected districts with health and nutrition, food, water, education and livelihood support.
- We gave shelter kits to over 9,500 people to keep them warm and dry, alongside 300 baby care kits, water purification tablets and hygiene kits.
- We provided10,000 people with water systems to access clean drinking water.
- We provided over 4,000 children with access to quality basic education in a protective learning environment.
- We provided 6,600 people with primary health care facilities, counselling and nutritional support service.
- We provided 2,700 families and 1,600 students with reconstructed latrines and 10,000 people with hygiene awareness sessions and/or materials and facilities.
- We set up 23 Women, Adolescent and Young Child Spaces to support the well-being and protection of over 2,800 pregnant and breastfeeding women, and children.
- We also gave direct cash assistance to 10,370 people so they could meet their basic, most urgent needs.
This crisis has reached an end – but you can still give to our emergency appeal fund to help us respond quickly to the next emergency.
Nepal’s young disaster managers
Sunday 23, Apr, 2017In the case of an earthquake, Swosthani, 14, from Nepal and her classmates know what to do. She is no longer afraid and has joined a World Vision school club that ensures children in the community are safe.
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From earth-shaking to high-flying | Helping Nepal's children to stand up and move on
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