It is called empathy. A person is genuinely moved by the pain another goes through and sincerely wishes for it to stop. If there is a way to help in alleviating this pain, then action is taken and considered as natural support.

Dear Nepal, there are millions of well-wishers who are now active and will be active in relieving your pain, surviving the agony of loss, and moving on to  new phases of life. Whether it be foreign rescue teams, medical teams, community-based organisations, federations, and action groups, donors at the levels of government or I/NGOs or individuals, the response is earnest. Those who cannot engage financially or through action care are sending in their prayers and encouragement. Everyone in Nepal and millions in the world have spontaneously become relief workers, in concrete and heartfelt ways.

Doing relief work

An example of a tiny contribution at the grassroots level: citizens of Luxembourg have donated Rs 4,616,696 through CARITAS Luxembourg (among other collecting centres), which has forwarded it to the local NGO Pourakhi, otherwise a partner in matters of safe migration.  Missions zentrale der Franziskaner (MZF), a collecting point for donations from German citizens, also added Rs 2,308,348 to Pourakhi’s budget. Danish Church Aid, as part of Act Alliance, gave Pourakhi 88,000 euros and other partners such as German AWO contribute to ensuring further procurement of relief items and delivery by Nepali NGOs.

The Pourakhi staff have been working round the clock to procure and store tents, mats, blankets, and ropes for shelter packages. To synthesise efforts with two of their major partners, Danish Church Aid invited Pourakhi to team up with FAYA, who then became responsible for purchasing and storing all food items (rice, pulses, oil, sugar, and salt). On meeting with the Chief District Officer of Dhading on  April 30, he confirmed that shelter and food were priorities and consequently allowed us to deliver directly to three VDCs aside from the initial one-door system.

From May 6 to 8, Pourakhi and FAYA have together delivered relief materials to three adjoining VDCs of Khari (1,200 households), Nalan (1,900 households), and Salang (1,200 households), or 24,000 people in Dhading. The local community in the selected VDCs was involved in ensuring order and fairness and legitimate distribution of shelter and food items per family by setting up nine distribution points according to the wards.

Such relief programmes are intended to pave the way for reintegration and construction programmes. The mid-term recovery phase may include cash transfer programmes, which empowers communities in their reconstruction purchase and prevents prices from hiking.

This contribution is no doubt small—covering a tiny geographical space and providing only minimal shelter items and food for a very limited time. It is a drop in the ocean. Yet, reading the news and networking with everyone, we realise how many drops are falling to create a wave of support. Considering our spontaneous learning at relief work and the disorganisation we encountered at first, we are gradually becoming more effective. The reconstruction phase needs to be a well-organised matrix of government-level, I/NGO level and community-based initiatives. We must avoid duplication of efforts, competition of interests, and ignorance of one another’s programmes. Strong policies and frameworks are needed to allow for independence, inter-dependence, synergies and also opportunities for free social enterprise.

For a nation

A country, like a person, has a physical body, a temperament, a soul, and a unique contribution to make to this planet, its natural and human systems. Like an individual, a country also faces crises, losses, disease, and many barriers it has to surmount. Just as people stand up again from the occasional rubble in their lives, so do nations. The degree to which we can transform pain and despair into future joy and freedom determines how we transcend our in-born temperament to conscious character. Somehow, crises push us forward, especially the tough ones.

Expressing sorrow and empathy, holding on to each other through the crisis, and engaging in relief is the task of the hour. As unity prevails, reconstruction will occur on the basis of commonality. May the tensions and political tearing-apart of contrary imaginations of state-building be levelled with this earthquake so that an enlightened expression of togetherness and administrative sense-making help the Nepali people recreate their rightful homes, at peace with one another.

Duquesne is the author of ‘Nepal: Zone of Peace’