In the UK the Disasters Emergency Committee is a coordinating body of 13 charities which work together at critical times to raise funds and ensure aid is delivered effectively. Since their launch in 1963 DEC have run 64 appeals and raised more than £1.1 billion. TV networks give DEC free time to broadcast their appeals. On Wednesday, DEC launched its Nepal Earthquake Appeal. Different videos are used by the BBC and the main commercial network ITV but both were fronted by Joanna Lumley. Here is the BBC version:
The British government agreed to match the first £5 million of public donations pound for pound, having already released another £5 million in immediate aid. In the course of the first day the public donated over £14 million (US$21 million), with matching government funds bringing it up to £19million, a record for the first day of a DEC appeal.
Joanna Lumley has a very personal reason for fronting the appeal. She has previously campaigned for justice for the Gurkha fighters in the British Army to have equal pensions and the right to settle in the UK. She explains her link and that of the British people.
Britain has had a deep bond with the land of the Gurkhas for over 200 years. My own father, serving with the Gurkha Rifles for 18 years, fought shoulder to shoulder with Nepalese soldiers during World War II and the Gurkhas still fight alongside our troops today. It fills me with a deep sense of sadness that death and destruction has torn their beautiful country apart.
The most heart-breaking part of all is that many of the people affected are already living in severe poverty, struggling to make ends meet on a daily basis. This earthquake – the worst for 80 years - has wiped out even the little they had. Mothers have lost children, husbands have lost wives and the numbers of dead are increasing day by day.
Even as you read this, the people who survived Saturday’s disaster are beginning to run out of vital supplies. In areas outside of the capital, many more are trapped, blocked off by landslides, and the wounded are waiting for life-saving medical treatment. The earthquake may have lasted little more than 60 seconds, but the impact will be felt for many years. The people of Nepal desperately need our help.
Reports have just come in that a plane carrying British Aid and
a team of Gurkha Engineers from the British Army has arrived after being delayed by congestion at the main airport. They will be working on establishing fresh water delivery. As well as the
200 years of Gurkhas as part of the British Army, there is another
deep connection with the British people.
At 11:30 a.m. on May 29, 1953, Edmund Hillary of New Zealand and Tenzing Norgay, a Sherpa of Nepal, become the first explorers to reach the summit of Mount Everest, which at 29,035 feet above sea level is the highest point on earth. The two, part of a British expedition, made their final assault on the summit after spending a fitful night at 27,900 feet. News of their achievement broke around the world on June 2, the day of Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation, and Britons hailed it as a good omen for their country’s future.
Rescue workers have gone to Nepal from all over the world. Today (Friday) a 15 year old boy,
Pemba Lama, was pulled from the rubble of a collapsed hotel by a Nepalese soldier aided by a rescue team from the USA and was treated in a field hospital sent by Israel. He was working as a tour guide as he has no father and his mother had to go abroad to get work to survive. The BBC News channel reports that later a woman
was rescued with help from several nations' teams..
The woman, called Krishna and in her 20s, was working as a maid in a Kathmandu hostel when the quake struck.
She was trapped in the rubble of a lower floor with the bodies of three people, including her uncle. One body had to be removed before she could be freed by rescue teams from Norway, Israel and France.
Their rescues after so many days have provided a little hope for the ongoing rescue and recovery effort in the capital. Outside the capital, relief work has to be delivered by helicopter as roads have been swept away by landslides triggered by the earthquake. Weather conditions have grounded them but aid is just starting to get through to the villages.
After the immediate needs for shelter, water and food are met, Nepal will need help to recover. A UNESCO World Heritage site has been badly damaged. These are the cultural inheritance of all of us and all have an interest in their reconstruction so that the Nepalese can again have a focus for their tourism outside of the mountain climbing community. The widowed and orphaned will also need long term support in rebuilding their lives. The DEC charities have specific policies to provide this.
If you do wish to donate, there are US charities that work in Nepal and are providing immediate relief. Cash is important as it means that charities can release aid supplies from strategically placed stocks. There is no comparable body like DEC and some of its member charities's US versions may not be attractive - the American Red Cross for example. On the other hand, Oxfam America is running a special appeal. Guavaboy in his recent diary recommends the American Nepal Medical Foundation.
8:56 AM PT: In a bitter-sweet irony, today the Gurkhas marched through London to commemorate 200 years since they first joined the British Army and to honor those who have sacrificed their lives in the service.
Captain Lok Bahadur Gurung, who took part in the march, told the BBC it was a "proud and sad day".
He said: "Proud in a way that we, the Gurkhas, are celebrating 200 years of our service to the British Crown, and sad in a way because of the earthquake that hit Nepal on Saturday.
"We could not cancel this event because of the recent earthquake. It was planned a year ahead and we, the soldiers, we had to go on with the situation, and bear it."
Captain Gary Ghale, formerly of the 6th Queen Elizabeth's Own Gurkha Rifles, said communicating with villages such as his native Gorkha was very difficult.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/...