A Devastating Disaster
The recent flash floods and landslides in Nepal are truly devastating, and our thoughts are with all those who have lost loved ones, homes and livelihoods.
It has been very heartening to receive so many messages asking whether the Kidasha team in Nepal are safe and how the disaster has affected our work. Thankfully, our main working areas are some distance from those worst affected, so the children, families and communities we work with have not been directly affected, and all our team and their families are safe.
However, the wider impact is likely to be felt far beyond the areas directly affected. Damage to roads, bridges, power infrastructure and other essential services will put further pressure on already fragile supply chains, potentially increasing the cost of food, fuel, transport and other basic necessities.
For the children and families Kidasha supports, this comes at a particularly difficult time. Many are already living day to day, with little or no financial cushion, and struggling with rising living costs compounded by the continuing Gulf conflict and its impact on Nepal’s economy and migrant livelihoods.
Children Face Risks Long After the Floodwaters Recede
We are also very concerned about the longer-term impact on the estimated 17,000 children living in the areas directly affected. As we saw after the 2015 earthquake, many families who lose their homes and livelihoods are likely to migrate to Nepal’s towns and cities in search of shelter, work and security, only to find themselves living in poverty in overcrowded informal settlements.
For children, displacement brings particular risks. Families can become separated, education interrupted and financial pressures intensified, increasing the likelihood of children entering hazardous work, living or working on the streets, being forced into early marriage or facing other forms of exploitation.
How Kidasha Will Help
This is where Kidasha and our local partners have an important role to play. As we did after the 2015 earthquake, we will be actively identifying displaced children and families arriving in our working areas and helping them access protection, education and other essential support.
We will also be working with Nepal’s national and local disaster-response and child-protection systems to understand where our experience, networks and resources can best contribute. We are not an emergency relief organisation, so our role is not to duplicate the immediate humanitarian response, but to help address the longer-term consequences – particularly for vulnerable children and families who might otherwise fall through the gaps.
Thank You for Your Support
As we have seen so often in Nepal, the effects of a disaster do not end when the immediate emergency passes. Our team will therefore be monitoring the situation closely over the coming weeks and months.
Thank you to everyone who has been in touch. Your concern and support are very much appreciated but, above all, our thoughts remain with the children and families whose lives have been turned upside down in just minutes by this disaster, and who will need support long after the immediate emergency has passed.
Janice Miller, Chief Executive