‘It was like being in the middle of a war zone, an eerie sensation of imminent death where all you can depend on is your human instinct to survive,” Suparat Phranoret, a co-ordinator for the Thai Volunteer Service Foundation, said when describing her experience of being in the middle of one of Nepal’s most deadly earthquakes that brought the country to its knees on April 25.
The catastrophic event has so far taken more than 6,000 lives and counting, and left the popular tourist destination in grief and shambles.
Suparat, 30, was on a staff exchange programme with Nepal’s Informal Sector Service Center, which works on social and human rights issues, when the earthquake hit. Her faith in Buddhism helped her in the darkest moments, she said, as it gave her the courage to participate in the relief work in the days after the quake.
“In the eight months I was there on the volunteer programme, we received no information about an impending earthquake, but we did experience slight tremors in the capital regularly,” said Suparat, who returned to Bangkok last Friday. “My Nepalese colleagues told me that the country had experienced earthquakes in the past, but much lower on the Richter scale, so this was the reason why most of us were ill-prepared for what was to come.”
Suparat was one of the lucky survivors that happened to be outdoors when the earthquake struck on the balmy Saturday of April 25. She had left her residence in downtown Kathmandu to visit a friend when loud noises of a building collapsing, followed by shouting and moaning, were heard. Seconds passed, and the earth below her shook violently, throwing her to the ground. She managed to find a shed to protect herself from falling debris, but an overwhelming sense of fear made her unable to move.
“During the earthquake I saw people scrambling to leave their homes,” she recalled. “In a bid to survive, people did everything possible to live. It was heart-wrenching to see old people left behind because family members could not carry them out in time. People could be seen jumping from high-rise buildings, while families with homes with high walls were throwing their children out for fear that they could not escape in time. The scene was one of utter chaos.
“I went to help people that were buried under the rubble. Luckily, the building where I lived was still standing, but I tried not to stay indoors for long periods. Both the rich and poor were living on the streets because of a fear of aftershocks. We erected tents in front of my building. Everyone was able to pull through because we were in it together.”
Suparat said that the earthquake survivors urgently require tents, dry food, drinking water and warm clothes. Relief efforts will take a long time and require professional management and expertise, and that is what Nepal needs the most.
People shelter outside their homes.
Survivors get medical attention.
Thailand has contributed its share of aid experts. A team of 19 medical workers from the Ministry of Health are now in Nepal. The Engineering Institute of Thailand has dispatched members to help inspect the foundations of the remaining buildings to gauge their safety. Private companies have also sent expertise, such as Thai Com, which has contributed communication devices and satellite channels to revive the much-needed communications system around the country.
Architect-turned-aid worker Supana Sophonpanich, who works on a part-time basis with the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), is one of many who are now in Nepal to lend a hand. “My first response was, ‘Gosh, it’s really happened’,” said Supana, who has worked on many relief aid projects including in Myanmar after Cyclone Nargis, in Haiti after the major quake, and the Philippines after Haiyan.
“Rapid urbanisation, lax building-code enforcement, and the obvious inattention to quake-resistant design in one of the world’s least-developed countries has made the Kathmandu area, which lies close to a major fault line, exceptionally vulnerable. That’s why the impact has been devastating.”
Supana, through IOM, one of many international relief agencies presently in the country, is helping build shelters and offer know-how on restoring damaged buildings. In the past, 70% of her work has involved co-ordination for shelter response, and so she has not always had the opportunity to meet victims of natural disasters.
With close to a decade of experience in relief work, Supana said each assignment comes with its challenges, and so the need to keep focused on the task ahead has helped to emotionally detach herself from the situation.
“The infrastructure is a shambles, my work will largely focus on building shelters, so they have proper roofs over their heads. The situation now is that residents are too afraid to return to their homes. A number of buildings have been damaged, but haven’t collapsed. Therefore, we are talking about a rather large scale structural assessment that needs to be completed before people feel comfortable to return to their homes,” said Supana.
“So you have a number of people living in the open air. The monsoon season is coming, so we have two things to do: put people under roofs as soon as possible, and help those that choose to go back home.
“However, due to the nature of this work, we have to adapt quickly to our surroundings and start putting up shelters. The speed with which we are able to achieve this hinges on suppliers, logistics and road conditions. Building safer and stronger homes for residents is a goal we hope to achieve.”
Suparat Phranoret, left, with Nepalese children she met during the course of her stay in the country.
Nine Things To Know About Sending Help
1 Know the situation. Don’t trust everything you read until you have triple-checked where the money you are donating is going.
2 Know the charity organisations. Check out who’s doing work on the ground, their reputation and track record. Look for an organisation working on what you believe to be the most important — be it food, health or shelter or with a focus on providing aid to children or those with disabilities.
3 Don’t go there, at least not now, unless you’re an aid worker. Wait until the situation has improved substantially. After things become stable, go and spend money in small communities and villages, and help them stand on their own feet by rebuilding their livelihood.
4 For now, give money.
5 Do not send things. If you cannot fight the urge to send stuff, at least choose someone you trust to receive it.
6 Fundraising. You can do it, but be aware that people will quickly get fundraising fatigue. Be transparent and work out beforehand where and how the money will be spent.
7 Wait a while and look for organisations that support long term development. Don’t exhaust your enthusiasm in a week, because Nepal will still need help even after the media has stopped paying attention.
8 If you are part of a private corporate company looking to contribute in a big way, do your research and start looking at possible partnerships with compatible humanitarian agencies.
9 Do not feel bad if you can’t contribute directly to the relief and recovery process of those affected by the earthquake.
