Earthquake Relief Fund
What Empower Nepali Girls is Doing
One of the thousands of damaged homes that collapsed in the Everest region of Nepal. Mostly made of wood, stones and mud, many families and children are now left homeless, sleeping outside as the monsoon rains begin.
For the past 15 years Empower Nepali Girls has been focused exclusively to specialize in helping children who are greatest risk to be forced into early marriage, indentured servitude, neglect, or sex slavery. We have provided scholarships, support, mentoring, and other assistance to more than 300 girls who have the greatest need and also the most potential for educational advancement and professional careers.
After the devastating earthquakes that occurred in April-May of 2015 we have expanded our mission and effort to provide medical care, housing, and basic services to those most desperately in need, especially among families who have lost their homes and everything else. Dozens of our scholarship girls are now homeless. A half dozen of the schools we serve have been completely destroyed, a half dozen others have suffered catastrophic damage. Trails to some of the villages have been wiped out by landslides, further isolating people and making it difficult for them to access safe water and sufficient food. It will likely take at least five years for Nepal to rebuild and recover from the more than 100 quakes and aftershocks that have destroyed much of the infrastructure and older buildings. Most of our children live in homes built from rocks and mud, materials that crumpled and liquefied after the 7.8 and 7.3 earthquakes, especially those who lived near the epicenters.
Jeffrey Kottler, Founder of ENG and psychologist, and Babita Gurung, social worker and General Secretary of ENG, are conducting psychotherapy sessions with families that are experiencing stress and trauma symptoms
Thanks to our generous donors and supporters, we have raised sufficient funds to send teams of medical and mental health professionals to Nepal to lend assistance and provide needed care. We have purchased food and water and clothes to distribute to those who had yet to receive any aid from the government or charitable organizations. We have helped with sanitation efforts to prevent the spread of dysentery, cholera, and other diseases that will result from so many dead bodies buried under the rubble and so many people crowded in tent cities. We have treated more than 1,000 patients with infections, wounds, and acute symptoms of trauma. And we intend to remain more active than ever to help families, and especially children, to resume some semblance of a normal, productive life in one of the poorest countries in the world.
Posted 5/2/2015
Even though a week has passed after the earthquake, more information about the extent of the damage of the disaster continues to come to light. Here is what we know from our team: Food and medicine continue to be in short supply in Kathmandu and throughout the country. Concerns of sanitation and communicable diseases are pressing given that most of the infrastructure is still unstable. And unfortunately, Nepal itself has acknowledged that the country was ill-prepared for this disaster and despite the massive global aid effort underway, it is challenging getting basic supplies to the people who need them. We also have heard and seen images of homes and schools of the communities we work with lying in rubble. The Empower Nepali Girls team in Nepal, with your support, has been nothing short of amazing in providing immediate aid, distributing supplies such as tents for temporary housing, setting up aid stations for people to come for help, and helping to sanitize some of the toilets and facilities to help prevent the spread of disease. The leadership of Pasang, Babita, Kumar and all our volunteer staff in Nepal leaves me speechless, we are so fortunate to know people like this who are part of ENG.
Every day, I receive message from friends and strangers praying for Nepal, wanting to help, and also feeling helpless after seeing scenes of devastation across the globe, and I can relate. And then I hear from Babita about her work in distributing sanitation materials, I see a note on Facebook from Kumar imploring people he knows to help in the aid stations and contact him if they need help, and I see Pasang and our team comforting families standing next to the remains of their former home, and I realize that none of us is helpless in this situation. If we cannot be there in person in Nepal to help the families suffering, we can be part of the kind hands and generous hearts of our amazing volunteers by donating money so we can get them the supplies they need to distribute, to help them get to the villages in the coming months to rebuild the schools and homes of the families and communities we work with. These people are making the difference in lives every day. Our organization has been helping in Nepal for over a decade, committed to providing education and support with transparency and efficiency, and now is the time we need to redouble our efforts knowing that these families will need even more from us than ever, and that you are capable of empowering our team in Nepal with the resources, support, and love they can distribute on your behalf now and in the future. Please donate, encourage others to give so we empower ENG team in Nepal with the tools to help even more.
Sameer Shamsuddin
Posted 4/26/2015
Since Saturday, on hearing the news of the devastation in Nepal, seeing the images of centuries old structures reduced to rubble, people trapped beneath wreckage, and seeing a country that was thriving and bustling with life just hours earlier, struggling to gain a foothold to return back to normalcy, it’s impossible not to imagine how long Nepal will need to recover from this disaster.
In light of these terrible events, Empower Nepali Girls has set-up a relief fund for earthquake support.
With our relationship to the people and communities ENG supports, we hope that in parallel to the efforts of so many aid organizations, we can also help to alleviate some of the immediate suffering and long term of impacts of this calamity in one of the poorest nations in the world, least equipped to handle this adversity.
The first 48 hours has been astounding in the outpouring of donations and support for earthquake relief. Thank you. We are grateful to have heard from most of our staff in Nepal that they and their families are not injured. Given the geographic diversity of the scholarship girls ENG supports, we do not yet know the situation of most of the girls in the organization, but our team is working to get that information, and we will provide it when possible.
ENG will be utilizing the donations earmarked for earthquake relief by apportioning some of the donations to providing food, water, medicine and supplies to people in distress. These will be distributed by our ENG volunteers in Nepal that are able to provide assistance, despite the impact this earthquake has had on their own lives. ENG will also coordinate distribution with some medical and support teams that are mobilizing to the worst impacted areas.
In the long term, your donations will go into helping ENG families rebuild their lives after this tragedy, by helping to provide assistance for living such as housing, medical, and temporary livelihood supplements, to ensure the girls, families, and schools we support have a path to return to their lives prior to Saturday’s events. Our ENG team in Nepal will help recommend assistance and disburse aid as we learn more about the condition from the outlying neighborhoods and villages.
ENG will also establish scholarships for new girls whose family situation has been impacted as a result of the earthquake, girls who may be orphaned and without a family member who can support their education.
Given our plans to help Nepal, your continued support and help in raising awareness of our efforts are needed and appreciated. You can donate directly on-line and designate your funds for earthquake relief by entering “Earthquake” in the comments field.
We will post updates on Facebook and our web site as we have more information.
Thank you for your support, help, thoughts and prayers for the people affected in Nepal,
Sameer Shamsuddin