On 25th April a devastating earthquake hit Nepal. Over 8,000 people lost their lives and hundreds of thousands of people lost their homes and have been displaced. Almost 1 million children were unable to return to school in May at the beginning of the school year, compounding the problem of a major disaster with the break in education for the next generation.

As a church we were able to raise over $300,000 to send to two strong development agencies who have teams on the ground in Nepal. Both World Vision and ACCIR (Australian Christian Churches International Relief) have been working in Nepal for a number of years and have strong capabilities to respond quickly and well in these situations.

Some of the things that they have been able to do over the past 2 months have included providing humanitarian assistance in the form of food, water, tents, blankets and other basic supplies to some of the worst hit areas in Nepal.   ACCIR are also in the process of working to prepare a plan to assist families to recover and rebuild after the quake with the families that they have been supporting.

Both agencies have placed child protection at the top of their priorities, working on building child safe spaces where children can be left while families rebuild and recover what was lost as well as providing education and support in this transition time.  World Vision has had over 2000 children attending these spaces over the last few weeks. ACCIR has also had volunteers on all of the road checkpoints looking for potential child victims of trafficking, working with the police to ensure that children are staying with their families and are not being trafficked across the country.

Both agencies have also had a focus on medical assistance which has led to hygiene, safe water and blankets being distributed alongside medical camps to screen injuries prior to admitance to the overcrowded hospitals. ACCIR has seen 2100 patients over this time and World Vision has provided more than 16 000 mosquito nets and 8000 hygiene kits.

Much more is still yet to do to help the families that survived this earthquake and your donations are also helping to develop the next stages of assistance in Nepal as the agencies move from relief to recovery.

None of this would have been possible without your donations and we are so grateful to have a church that gives sacrificially to help others. Thank you for your support and know that together we are able to make a vital difference to this recovery effort. Please continue to pray for the people of Nepal and those on the ground helping to rebuild lives and communities.

Darren Kitto
International Ministry Director