The Cost of it All

How do we rebuild? what will work? what its important? where do we start?

Last week was tough for the team, heat, exhaustion and torrential rain hindered our efficiency. Not only that but we are all struggling to come to terms with how to deal with the enormity of the task at hand...we are not earthquake rescue experts...mostly just people trying to help. We are all learning by doing, by networking and by sharing.

Providing the people with food and medical needs was the easy part. Now we must start the huge task of getting people shelter.

Here is the information we have collected so far from the Sikhra Besi Zone. We are working village by village and this time around have taken food coupons to help with food distribution. We plan to distribute food ration every 2 weeks to each household with VDC's(Village Development Committees) on a rotation pattern as our transport load is 4 tonne.

A Standard Ration to feed a family of 5(Average) is:-

15kg Rice

2kg Dhal

2kg Soya Product

1kg Salt

1lt Oil

Initially, with our first distribution most households also got Tarps, rope, medical aid and Pius (Water Purification) where needed on top of food rations.

(The village has some items to supplement like Maize Flour, Potatoes, Ghundruk(Dried Spinach), Milk and Eggs which they are producing themselves).

VDC 5 (64 houses) & VDC 6 (143 houses) – near to base camp: Aid status - Medical Stable (Evacs provided on the 10th May but Bhutanese Helicopters) Food will be rationed today (11th May)

VDC 7 – (70 houses): Aid status – Supplied two weeks as of 01/05/15 . Medical Need Stable ( 2 people need evacuation but are refusing)

VDC 8 – (115 houses): Aid status – Supplied two weeks as of 08/05/15. Medical Need Stable

VDC 9 – (87 houses): Aid status – Supplied two weeks as of 04/05/15. Medical Need Stable

VDC 3 & 4 We will be assessing this week as they are very remote

VDC 2 & 1 Have good road access and are deemed Ok at the moment. CARNN organization has given food assistance here last week.

WHAT IS THE COST OF FOOD SUPPORT.

Just for food it costs us around USD$2000 per trip to the village, which includes 2 weeks supply of food, vehicle costs and local expenses.

We estimate we need to make 5 trips a month which is a total cost of US$15,000 just to supply food.

If you are wondering what your generous donations provide here is a break down of how little money it costs to supplement a family for two weeks.

30 kg of Rice – 1200NPR (US$12)

4 kg of Dhal - 85NPR per kg (US$3.40)

1kg of Salt -18NPR (US$.18)

1lt of Oil - 1150NPR per 10 liters (US$1.15)

2kg of Soy Product – 60NPR Per Kg (US$1.20)

Total Outlay per household: US$17.50. So even a donations of US$20 will feed a family for two weeks...

We estimate that we will need to support the village with food for the next 6 months. We are working on the hope that our supply will overtime decrease and their local production will increase eventually returning the village back to its self sufficient state.

REBUILDING COSTS.

Rebuilding is a huge task and to be frank, something we can never afford on this extent. So how are we helping? (Project Shelter commences from Today -11th May)

- Providing Materials and Manpower to create Semi Permanent Shelters sufficient for the coming monsoon and winter

- Helping to make the area safe and to Salvage what we can use

- Advising and Assisting with the Construction of toilets and sanitation.

- Helping the villagers to be aware of what monetary assistance the Government will give them and helping them to apply for such funds(Villagers are very uneducated and the Government is not being very forthcoming to rural areas...Money is there, we need to help the villagers to get it).

We also do plan to fund total rebuilding of the Schools in the area and extra things like proper toilets, Solar Energy and Environmental Sustainability making the village better and more efficient than before. To be able to do this we will need long term funding and the right connections and approvals from community groups, other aid organizations and of-course the Politicians of the area...Its a huge task...

The Entire NCRR Team would like to thank you all for your ongoing support and helping us to rebuild lives.