Ögonvittnesskildring av konsekvenserna efter översvämningen i Nepal

Floods at Koshi River and its victims

A lady rushed horrifyingly carrying a baby in her shoulder from the flooded river and left in front of me saying something in her language and again she entered into the river. I could not understand her. From her gesture, I came to know that, she was requesting me to take care of the baby until she returns and not let the boy go near the river. Before I could speak she disappeared. The baby was shivering from cold because it was raining. I could not keep the baby warm. As last option, I asked the baby to sit on the floor (pitch road) and covered him by my umbrella which eased a bit to him. I have been able to block the cold wind blowing from the river. It was about 6:30 in the morning. I was totally confused with the situation. I neither could leave the child alone nor had patience to wait for better. To my great surprise, after half-an-hour, the elderly woman came with another baby on her lap. She happily embraced the baby and thanked me for the help. At this point I felt great relief and surprised to see the motherly love, care and concern to her children.

In the meantime, a lady with a year old baby at her lap came to me asking for help. The baby was unconscious. She wanted to take him to hospital as soon as possible. Unfortunately she had no money in her pocket and means of transportation to reach the hospital which is 10 KM away from the place. As we were thinking to take him to hospital in our vehicle few people came rushing to us to rescue a mother who just delivered a baby girl on the road nearby. We rushed both group to Emergency ward at Inaruwa hospital and provided with some money for necessary treatment as temporary support.

The villagers were carrying their babies on their shoulder and their belongings, rags, animals, chickens, whatever, they could carry with them. People were crying in great pain upon the loss of their family members, children, cattle and property. The fortunate got shelter in their relatives' home and majority are given shelter at schools and temples at Inaruwa. This is the general picture seen there. However, the desperation was prevailed every-where. On-top of it people were roobed in the villages by the people from the other end.

With the breakage of the Koshi dam, about 35 thousand villagers of four VDCs are displaced from the villages. These villages are Sripur (12500), Haripur (8238), Paschim Kusaha (9870) and Lauki (4211). Out of this number about 45 % are below the age of 16. These people are kept in 9 different shelter (schools, temples and campus) and being supported by different INGOs, like Plan Nepal, World Vision, RRN, Red Cross Society, Uddhoyog Banijya Sangh and Officer's club of Inaruwa. If ill-fate continues and spurs at Rajabas on northern part breaks, it is likely that more than these villages will face the consequences.

We visited some shelters and contacted Chief District officer and Local Development Officer who is coordinating the whole program. They requested us to establish primary medical center in one of the shelters immediately. To meet the immediate need of the people, our medical team established a center at Bhagawati High School with some general medicines. From tomorrow, few youths will be assisting our village nurse in managing the program. However, the LDO has requested us to provide clothes to the children of the camps and if possible to the children and parents of one of the camps until they are rehabilitated to their villages.

Conclusion:
It is no-doubt, an ill-fate of the people and country as a whole. Many children, women and elderly people have lost their lives besides their property. The horizon is infinite for them and present and future is very much uncertain. We can see the people crying with anguish and children with hunger. The whole atmosphere is chaos. The mothers, staff and children of the village, youth facility, social center and teachers and students of Hermann Gmeiner School Itahari have joined their hands by contributing some amount for this cause.

Ramesh Tamrakar
Village Director
SOS Children's Village Itahari

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Elisabet Andersson
Generalsekreterare SOS-Barnbyar Sverige
070 - 378 73 90

Niki Westerberg
Informationschef
070 - 374 2575

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