‘Seems like big family’: With kin and livelihood gone, relief centres in Nepal turn homes for the rescued

Bidur (Nepal), Sep 2 (IANS) After losing their families and livelihood in the devastating flash floods in Nepal, relief centres in the Himalayan nation are now serving as homes for those being rescued in the aftermath of the tragedy.

Among those rescued is a man hailing from Bihar, who has been running a barber shop in Nepal for the past 26 years.

Speaking to IANS outside a makeshift tent at a relief centre, he said that the deluge came all of a sudden.

“Around an hour earlier, police had announced that a dam had breached and asked people to immediately evacuate the area. But we didn’t really believe that such a thing would ever happen. It had never happened before, nor did we believe it ever would…we ran uphill after seeing a newly-constructed bridge getting washed away,” he said, adding that though his family is safe, they could not save their house, belongings, or shops.

“What remains is the cloth that I am wearing right now, the same one in which I ran for my life…whatever we earned for the last 26 years is gone now,” he said.

He added that the relief centre is taking good care of the rescued people who are being brought there.

Another person who was rescued from flood-hit Rasuwa said: “We fled from there due to the flood…My family… father and mother are no more. My brother-in-law’s family is gone. My brother-in-law and sister-in-law are all gone.”

NGO Karuna Care has been taking care of those affected by providing them shelter and essentials.

Karuna Care’s Chairman and CEO, Dhan Raj Ghimire, said: “This is a temporary holding centre, and it is called the Tamang Plaza. We have been here for the past four days. Since then, we have been catering to 130 to 150 people. In this centre, there are several children who have lost either father or mother, and two or three children have lost both parents.”

He said that the organisation is providing breakfast, lunch, dinner, evening snacks, clothes, sanitary pads, and everything required by the affected people.

“It is like a home, and it seems like a very big family,” Ghimire told IANS.

Joel, a volunteer with the NGO, said: “They have lost their families. We have 60 children, and most of them have lost their father, mother, their house, everything.”

Similarly, volunteers of India-based Nirpakh Aid Community are also facilitating rescue and relief work in the flood-ravaged country.

Its President Gurmit Singh told IANS: “For the past 3–4 days, we have been monitoring the situation here and providing essential supplies to people in need. Many Indians, particularly people from Punjab who had come here to work in tunnels, travel or undertake pilgrimages, are missing. We are visiting hospitals, police stations and other locations to gather information about them and share it with their families.”

Meanwhile, Nepal Health Minister Nisha Mehta said that the government is taking all possible measures to prevent the outbreak of any infection.

“Any outbreak will be a huge challenge, so we are trying our best to prevent that…The main risk is of diseases like diarrhoea, dysentery cholera etc. We are keeping medicines ready,” she told IANS while thanking the Indian government for sending aid and a forensic team for DNA testing of dead bodies.

–IANS

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