Nepal Recovery Fund Established After Devastating Earthquake
Like you, our hearts are broken by the horrible devastation and loss in Nepal following a series of earthquakes and aftershocks. Thousands of lives lost, many more suffering injuries, cultural and historic buildings brought to rubble and entire communities left without safe homes or sufficient food and water.
As we have seen in the past, the immediate and ongoing needs are best met by those on the ground, who are closest to the situation. But they urgently need your support. Our sister foundation, IDEX (International Development Exchange) launched the Nepal Recovery and Resilience Fund to channel 100 percent of your donations towards priorities identified by community-led organizations in Nepal, including their partners ASHA Nepal and the Women’s Awareness Centre Nepal (WACN).
Together, ASHA Nepal and WACN already serve over 50,000 rural community members. Grassroots International has been honored to have a chance to get to know both organizations better over the past year, through collaborations with IDEX. A leader of ASHA Nepal recently joined Grassroots International partners in an agroecology learning exchange in Brazil, and a leader of WACN (Srijana Poudel, pictured here on the far right) participated with us at the People’s Climate March and People’s Climate Justice Summit in New York last September. In this immediate period, we anticipate that support for shelter, food, and water security will be most needed. Future needs will include rebuilding and recovery, as assessed by those most impacted.
After the earthquake in Haiti, Grassroots International’s partners in the capital and in the rural outskirts were among the most effective and responsive organizations on the ground, and also among least funded by big international aid organizations. That’s why organizations like ASHA Nepal and WACN – that are uniquely situated as trusted leaders and among the first responders to any disaster – need your support. ASHA Nepal and WACN work with networks of indigenous women in Okharpauwa, Chhaimale, Kavre, and other rural districts. For over 20 years, these organizations have been responding to community needs and will continue to do so well after international attention leaves Nepal.
We encourage you to support the Nepal Recovery and Resilience Fund housed by IDEX, which will reach the people most affected by this tragedy and support their long-term recovery as part of their broader grassroots organizing efforts.
Top photo courtesy of Krish Dulal, Wikimedia Commons