Sisters of Charity of Nazareth in ministry to Nepal after earthquakes
Sister and communications director Malini Manjoly, SCN, reports first-hand from Nepal with other SCNs in ministry.
You can Donate to the SCN Nepal earthquake relief and 100% of funds will go directly to SCN ministries in Nepal and help people in need.
[SATURDAY, MAY 30, 2015]
SCNs Rinzee Lepcha and Aisha Kavalakkattu distributed mosquito nets, bed sheets, toothpaste, brush, soap and washing powder to people around Koshidekha on May 30. The staff of the child friendly space assisted the Sisters in the distribution.
Sister Rinzee conducted a short evaluation with the child friendly staff to see how the children are making progress and to know the response of the parents.
Sisters visited Tripatia, Rotepink and Jhamire Villages. People were very happy to see the SCN presence. They shared with them all about their new ventures of building temporary shelters and storing whatever dry corn they retrieved for the monsoon season. It is amazing to see how people have moved on with their life and feel content with what they have been dealt. People feel safer. The unity among them is very visible in the way they have worked together.
Village leaders invited the Sisters to stay with them for a day to have a meeting to discuss long-term plans. Safe drinking water is a major concern in these villages. Most in this area are drinking river water.
SCNs Lisa Perekkattu, Philomina Bading and Rinzee went to Baniatar and Padamsal Villages to distribute blankets, buckets, water purifiers, bed sheets, tooth paste and brushes on May 31.
[THURSDAY, MAY 28, 2015]
Tin sheets were distributed to 173 families for temporary housing in Koshidheka. Early in the morning, SCNs Aisha Kavalakkattu, Philo Kottoor, Philomina Bading and Malini Manjoly went to purchase and load the tin sheets into two trucks from the outskirts of Kathmandu. In every village, people waited patiently for the trucks to arrive. Tin sheets were unloaded wherever the trucks could reach. Volunteers and the Jesuit scholastics were there to unload and help with distribution. The government provided security by sending eight army escorts with the trucks.
In Nepal, to begin any work in the villages, one has to obtain legal permission from local authorities. The local district officer invited Sister Aisha to meet him in his office. He acknowledged the immediate relief work that Navjyoti Center has done in Koshidheka. He is willing to give Navjyoti all the needed permissions to carry on relief work.
Sisters returned home around 9:00 p.m., exhausted but happy that finally the tin sheets were delivered and that people can use them to build temporary shelters.
[WEDNESDAY, MAY 27, 2015]
SCNs Lisa Perekkatt and Philomina Bading visited the school at Madanpur Village in Nuwakot District with the school staff. SCNs had distributed relief supplies immediately after the April 25 earthquake. People are in need of tin sheets or tarpaulins to repair the school buildings before the school reopens on May 31. The school has around 350 students from class one to ten. While they were sitting with the people in a classroom, there was a mild tremor and immediately they all ran out of the room. This has become common place here in Nepal.
Sisters also visited the place where four women were killed while they were having a women’s self help group meeting on April 25.
People are making temporary shelters with the old building materials from the damaged houses. Nepali people are hardworking, happy and just grateful that they are alive.
SCNs Aisha Kavalakkattu, Philomena Kottoor and Malini Manjoly went to Koteshwar to purchase tin sheets for villagers in Koshidheka. They returned empty handed since the truck had not arrived from India with the supplies.
In the evening, Sister Philo conducted an evaluation meeting with the Sisters. They assessed the works done so far and what could be done in the coming days as needed to bring solace to the people who are suffering.
[TUESDAY, MAY 26, 2015]
A welcome surprise to Lisa Perekkatt, SCN, was when one of the students at the Navjyoti Center school for the disabled, came to inquire about the condition of the school. She was happy to know that the Sisters are safe and she wanted to know when the school would reopen. Sister Lisa and her staff are getting ready for the reopening of the school on June 1.
Sisters Philomina Bading and Lisa distributed tarpaulins to people who needed them at Baniatar. They supervised a meal program for children at the child center. There were over 65 children present.
SCNs Philo Kottoor, Aisha Kavalakkattu and Malini Manjoly went with the Jesuit scholastics, Cyril Lakra, Lijo Placid, Phuljames Dungdung and Ronald Mascranas to the Koshideka area in Kavre District. The scholastics were introduced to the villagers who will stay with people to help with relief efforts. The Sisters had a meeting with the volunteers before they left to purchase tin sheets at Koteshwar. Tin sheets are not easily available since they arein great demand.
The volunteers have organized people to repair the earthquake-damaged roads for vehicles to reach villages with the relief supplies.
[MONDAY, MAY 25, 2015]
SCNs Philomina Bading and Lisa Perekkatt distributed tarpaulins and oil packets to 50 families at Baniatar, Kathmandu. They also fortified the cracked boundary wall with the help of Ram Adhikary and Mohan Dyole by giving wooden support from the road to prevent the wall from collapsing before the demolition to remake it. One of the engineers has given the Sisters an estimate to repair the cracked areas at Navjyoti Center, third and fourth floor (residence of women trainees) of the SCN residence and the boundary wall.
Today there were over 55 children at the child center at Baniatar. Parents seem to be happy and confident to send their children to the child center. The women have taken the lead to clean up the rubbles of their rented fallen houses to recover useful household items. Most of them have no place to keep their belongings as many families live together with relatives in small tarpaulin tents.
People who have not received any help continue to knock at Navjyoti Center’s door for tarpaulins and other assistance. From Panauti, Kavre District, Ek Bahadur came with a list of 100 households from three wards who still need tarpaulins.
SCNs Aisha Kavalakattu, Philomena Kottoor and Malini Manjoly visited the villages of Tripatia, Thimal Beshi, Rotepink and Koshideka. In each place, villagers gathered in groups to meet the Sisters and to make future plans. Thimal Beshi government primary school is totally damaged and at Rotepink, one of the school buildings is damaged. They would like for the Sisters to help them to rebuild these school buildings with the voluntary help from locals. The school will reopen on May 29.
In Tripatia, the people have begun to make temporary shelters with recovered materials from their lost homes and the building materials they received from the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth and NGOs.
The women at the village of Koshihekha were given sanitary materials. Sister Philomena distributed corn seeds to people in Rotepink village. Sisters returned to Navjyoti around 7:30 p.m., dusty and tired as they made plans for the next day.
[MAY 22–24, 2015]
SCNs Philomena Kottoor, Aisha Kavalakattu and Malini Manjoly visited a patient from the village of Koshidekha at the Nepal Orthopedic Hospital in Kathmandu, Nepal. She fractured her leg while cleaning up rubble from the May 12, 2015, earthquake. She had an operation the morning the Sisters visited with her. The Sisters wanted to show their support and also gave financial assistance for her treatment.
Sisters Lisa Perekkatt, Philomina Bading, Malini and Philomena spent time with children at Baniatar child center. A young girl from Tipling was happy to see Sister Lisa who had helped her while she was very sick at the hospital.
Sister Philomena distributed bathing soaps and washing powder for 45 women and girls at Baniatar.
Sisters are stocking up on supplies and food. Sister Aisha purchased corn seed for nine villages.
Navjyoti Center, the ministry site of the Sisters in Kathmandu, will need their solar batteries located on the third floor of the school, moved to a safe place due to a cracked staircase. They hope to have the building ready before the school opens on June 1.
“It’s scary to be inside the house.”
Continuous aftershocks take the Sisters out of the house quite often. Sister Malini says, “It’s scary to be inside the house. The 4.8 earthquake of last Saturday night was alarming. We all got out quickly.”
A magnitude 4.8 aftershock with its epicenter in Humla, near Surkhet District , brought back the memories of the two recent earthquakes.
High winds and thunder showers on Saturday, May 23, added to the hardships of people taking refuge in tents in the open spaces in Kathmandu and surrounding districts. Wind blew away tents and the downpours made belongings wet. Nights are chilly in the open. Sisters plan to distribute tarpaulins again to some of same villages they have already visited. “The suffering of the Nepali people does not seem to end,” says Malini.
She continues, “People live in constant fear. As they begin to reach normalcy, another tragedy strikes. Yet, we hear sounds of children playing on the roads and people seems to share light moments and move on with life in the midst of fear and tragedy.”
[WEDNESDAY, MAY 20, 2015]
Sisters ministering in Kathmandu, Nepal, plan to purchase 6,000 kilograms of corn seeds for 500 families in nine villages in Kavre District. Kavre is one of the severely affected districts of the earthquake of April 25, 2015. Sisters also intend to provide 15 tin sheets to each family and other building materials for temporary shelter before monsoon season begins.
Aisha Kavalakattu, SCN, went to Kavre to erect a large tent for the “child friendly space” in Rotepink. It was damaged during the second large earthquake of May 12, 2015.
With an engineer, Lisa Perekkatt, SCN, looked at the cracked Navjyoti Center building and the SCN residence, to see what can be done to repair it.
SCNs are in consultation with other NGOs and people from villages to plan for the reconstruction of homes for 500 families as a long-term project.
Sisters are grateful to Arpita Mundamattam, SCN, who returned to Patna, India, on this day, after providing her support to all Sisters ministering in Kathmandu. She visited many villages for relief distribution materials during her time in Nepal.
“We had a tremor of 4.4 magnitude. It took a while for us to realize that we were really experiencing the quake.”
All of the Sisters keep a bag ready with personal emergency items as they wait out powerful tremors. Malini Manjoly, SCN, experienced first-hand, the most powerful aftershock today. She says, “At around 2:50 p.m. we had a tremor of 4.4 magnitude. It took a while for us to realize that we were really experiencing the quake. All three of us ran out of the house immediately. Two of us carried our packed bags with emergency personal items.”
The Sisters are making great strides with their relief efforts, but the work is difficult, especially with the constant threat of aftershocks keeping everyone on edge. Continue to pray for everyone in Nepal, for those safety of the Sisters in ministry there and for all the victims of the earthquakes.
[TUESDAY, MAY 19, 2015]
Aisha Kavalakattu, SCN, attended the inauguration of the Nepal Jesuit Social Institute, a formal office to organize and carry on the relief and development work among the survivors of the earthquake of April 25, 2015. Sister Aisha will collaborate with the Jesuits of Nepal to find an office in Kavre District to carry on the relief work. Many remote villages in Kavre have not received any relief materials.
SCNs Lisa Perekkatt, Philomina Bading and Malini Manjoly went to Padmasal, Tharkeshwar, in Kathmandu to distribute nutritional food items to prenatal and postnatal women.
Donate to Nepal earthquake relief and 100% of funds will go directly to SCN ministries in Nepal and help people in need.
SCN Distribution of relief supplies in the remote village of Mache
[MONDAY, MAY 18, 2015]
In Mache Village in Kabre District 100 tarpaulins and 100 bags of salt were distributed. The village has about 195 houses. Until the SCNs arrived, not a single agency had reached them, since the village has no approach road.
“Because God dwells within you, you have come. Until today, no one came to our help. Though unknown, you reached out to us and we are grateful.”
Aisha Kavalakattu, SCN, learned of Mache from a taxi driver she had recently hired in Kathmandu. In conversing with the driver, she learned that the people in his village were still sleeping under the open sky. Two days later, Sister Aisha along with SCNs Arpita Mundamattam and Malini Manjoly and the taxi driver, Manthos, left with supplies from Kurji Holy Hospital, in Patna, India. People gathered at the main road when the Sisters reached. Mache is around 90 kilometers from Kathmandu and about a two and half hours drive.
Each family was given a tarpaulin and a bag of salt. One of the old men thanked the Sisters and said, “Because God dwells within you, you have come. Until today, no one came to our help. Though unknown, you reached out to us and we are grateful.”
The Sisters felt as though they were the instruments in the hands of God to meet the needs of His people. Sisters in Nepal say that they feel the presence and support of the SCN Family with whose support they carry on the same work that St. Vincent did during his time.
Meanwhile, Lisa Perekkatt, SCN, collected 300 more tarpaulins from the Jesuits of Kathmandu. She had to arrange for a military truck to bring them to Navjyoti with the help of one of the neighbors. The tarpaulins will be distributed to people in Kabre District. So far, no one has gone into these villages with any relief materials, since it is not reachable by road.
After Nepal earthquakes, Sisters host psychosocial support group in Kathmandu
[SUNDAY, MAY 17, 2015]
On Sunday, May 17, 2015, around thirty-five women gathered at St. Ignatius Church, Beniatar, Nepal, to share their traumatic experiences of the main earthquake and the continuous aftershocks. The same group had come together on May 12. The program could not take place on that day due to the third strongest tremor.
Ringemit Lepcha, SCN, led the group in a reflection and she conducted few physical exercises with the women. She divided the women into five groups where they shared their personal experiences. Many of them openly shared their fears and anxieties and the uncertainties of their future.
They shared that most of them experienced similar fears and said that while others ran away for their lives during the earthquake, the mothers thought about the safety of their children before their own lives.
The women left the Church with a light heart and with much joy. They expressed their desire to have such programs in the future.
Prenatal and postnatal women were given nutritional food items such as oil, soybeans, powdered milk and grams. SCNs Lisa Perekkatt and Philomina Bading are overseeing this distribution program.
Aisha Kavalakattu, SCN, attended the National Core-Team organized by the Bishop of Nepal, Most Rev. Paul Simick. The core team noted that the SCNs have moved beyond immediate relief measures to psychosocial support programs and that they created “child friendly spaces” at four locations.
Sisters Arpita, Malini and Ringemit made a short visit to Assumption Church, Dhobighat, and again met Bishop Paul Simick.
[SATURDAY, MAY 16, 2015]
Nepal earthquake relief: Sisters visit Jhamire Village
Thirty-six homes were destroyed in Jhamire village on April 25, 2015. People have begun to pick up the pieces and begin anew. Members of the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth have distributed rice, lentils, salt, and tarpaulins here. Pregnant women were given powdered milk and oil.
Sisters and their staff stayed in this village, providing a loving presence, counseling, and psychosocial support. Nearby, the school is lending a room to keep supplies and a second room for child-friendly classes.
Parents are afraid to send their children to the child center due to incessant aftershocks paired with strong tremors. The second major earthquake that hit Nepal last week, brought back the terrible memories of the first quake. Parents came immediately to pick up their children. They said that if they die, they would like to die together.
There are approximately 6,000 schools in Nepal. Of those, 15,100 classrooms in 45 districts are destroyed. Before the schools open on May 29, 2015, these will have to be rebuilt.
People live in fear with the continuous aftershocks, some mild and some strong. Most of them are living in makeshift tents. On the way to Jhamire, Sisters experienced two tremors. Sister Malini says, “We saw people running out of buildings. Twice we experienced strong tremors. We had to drive to safety and stop on our way back. People are scared.”
Donate to Nepal earthquake relief and 100% of funds will go directly to SCN ministries in Nepal and help people in need.
