News Out of Nepal Devastating
People are traumatized and living in fear of further tremors while searching for loved ones in the rubble. Health care professionals at hospitals in Kathmandu are overwhelmed as the number of injured in this disaster rises.
Dr. Laxmikant Palo, HOPE’s Regional Director of Southeast Asia, is located in New Delhi India where he is helping to coordinate HOPE’s initial disaster relief efforts in response to the Nepal Earthquake.
The news out of Nepal is devastating. The earthquake, and more than 40 aftershocks, have left more than 3,600 dead and 6,500 people injured and the infrastructure in ruins. People are traumatized and living in fear of further tremors while searching for loved ones in the rubble. Health care professionals at hospitals in Kathmandu are overwhelmed as the number of injured in this disaster rises.
From India, we have been helping to coordinate HOPE’s initial disaster relief response to get needed medicines, supplies and volunteer help to Nepal as soon as possible.
Kenly Flanigan, a volunteer program specialist from HOPE Headquarters in Millwood, Virginia, was in New Delhi when the earthquake struck. She is currently coordinating with Vishwa Prakash, from our program office in India, and possibly two Project HOPE nurse volunteers now in India, to travel to Kathmandu as early as tomorrow. Later in the week, they will be joined by Dr. Dalibor Tasevski, our regional GIK and disaster relief expert.
The team will ensure that Project HOPE is part of the in-county disaster relief meetings in Nepal, connect with possible on-the-ground partners and develop a plan to get volunteer help and medicines to Nepal as soon as possible.
This catastrophic event, as many others in the past, are the times in which Project HOPE rises to the challenge to provide support, deliver care, and offer HOPE to people in need. Unfortunately, we have been put to this test far too many times before…but fortunately, we have the experience to respond with precision and skill from both a short and long-time perspective.