Emergency Response & Recovery

The Terai region of Nepal experiences a cold wave annually, causing the temperature to drop rapidly due to lack of sunshine, thick fog and cold winds. This results in reduced human activity in the streets and marketplaces, as people stay inside their homes. For the past few decades, cold waves have become a significant threat to the people of Nepal, particularly those living in the more than 20 districts of the Terai. According to the National Emergency Operation Center, 46 people across 15 districts, including Rautahat and Sarlahi, have lost their lives due to cold waves over the past three years. These waves also have a negative impact on agriculture, affecting people's livelihoods, especially small children, elderly people, and  pregnant/lactating women.

To assist those affected by the recent cold wave in Madhesh Pradesh, PIN and Aasaman have been awarded the START fund on 14 January 2023. The winterization package provided by the project includes blankets, warm clothes, and p-form, prioritizing households highly affected by the cold wave. The project has targeted households that are landless and have poor shelters and socio-economic status and have been settled in a highly prone area. The distribution also includes nutrition top-up/supplementary food for children under 5 ages and dignity kits/hygiene kits for women and focusing adolescent girls. The project has covered areas such as Yamunamai Rural Municipality, Rautahat, Kathariya Municipality - Rautahat and Kaudenya Rural Municipality- Sarlahi.

 

Landslide Emergency Response project is an emergency response to provide immediate support and increase the resilience of landslide affected communities of Dhading, Gorkha, and Sindhupalchowk districts. Led by People in Need (PIN) in partnership with PHASE Nepal, the primary focus of the project is to strengthen affected vulnerable households’ ability by providing temporary emergency shelter and WASH solutions to meet some of their basic needs. The project distributes temporary shelter materials (CGI sheets, tarpaulins), Non-Food Item (NFI) kits, Covid-19 sensitive hygiene/dignity kits and hygiene promotion, community WASH infrastructure support (taps/latrines), and Covid-19 messaging. 

Through this support, the project will be able to provide 100 households with temporary shelter, 180 Non-food items to withstand the winter, and 200 Dignity/hygiene kit to lactating mothers, pregnant women, and people living with disabilities. At least 800 households will have improved access to water and WASH facilities by the end of the project. 

The project will coordinate with the government and ensure that the landslide affected households and local authorities are linked with existing government social protection services including grants for landslide affected households to construct temporary shelters and safe relocation programs led by Nepal Reconstruction Authority (NRA), a government body. 
 

On August 12, 2017, heavy rainfall led to extraordinary flooding in India, Bangladesh, and southern Nepal. In Nepal, the flood-affected 1.7 million people from 35 districts. According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the flooding caused at least 143 deaths, the destruction of 65,000 homes, and the displacement of around 461,000 people. 
 
Within a week of the disaster, PIN worked with members of Alliance 2015, Concern Worldwide and Welthungerhilfe to distribute immediate relief to 11,600 households across three districts: Rautahat, Saptari, and Mahottari. These areas represent some of the hardest hit by the flooding and have historically low human development indicators and high levels of malnutrition. In the immediate days after the emergency, food and sanitation were the most critical needs, so the Alliance distributed 15 days’ worth of food and basic emergency household and hygiene items such as mosquito nets, water purification materials, hygiene, and menstrual hygiene management material. 
 

The School Leaving Certificate (SLC) Exam, held every April, is considered the iron gate for further education in Nepal. Just about half of Nepali students pass the exam on average, which is required for studying past class 10. Pass rates are much lower in disadvantaged rural and poorer areas, many of which are in areas badly affected by the earthquake where schools were destroyed and closed for weeks and school books and study supplies lost in the rubble. To help students from falling further behind, PIN implemented an emergency SLC preparation program in 41 schools in Sindhupalchowk and Gorkha districts, providing 1648 class 10 students with study supplies.
 

After the massive earthquake struck Nepal in 2015, hundreds of thousands of people fled their homes fearing aftershocks and gathered in surrounding areas, forming temporary camps. Transport and communications were severely disrupted for days. In the first few days after the earthquake, our priorities were to ensure that survivors had access to adequate humanitarian assistance. PIN supplied thousands of families with tarpaulins, ropes, corrugated tin sheets, and toolkits to help people repair shelters. Thousands of people received blankets, mattresses and solar lamps, which were often the only source of electricity. The team in Nepal transported material in helicopters even to the most remote mountain areas, which were completely cut from traditional markets.

As winter loomed, the most pressing humanitarian concern was how families living at high altitudes would survive. Many families lost all their possessions, leaving them without warm clothes and supplies like bedding to withstand cold winter temperatures. PIN’s main priority in Nepal became helping people prepare for extreme winter conditions. PIN established Site Management and Safety Committees and based upon consultations with communities, introduced knitting training for women in five camp sites. These trainings helped women learn and improve knitting techniques, which they then could use to produce better and more diversified products and potentially expand their livelihoods.
 

The earthquake seriously hampered livelihoods in affected areas by destroying agricultural land and wiping out livestock, hugely important assets to rural families. PIN implemented its signature Real Gift program in one VDC in Sindupalchowk where many livestock had been killed and many families were already struggling to get by with subsistence farming. The most vulnerable families in Gunsakot VDC received a Real Gift of two young goats per household. A total of 179 families received these gifts, which will help revitalize livelihoods in the community and restock domestic animal populations. A few of the goats have already had kids.
 

As a camp management agency, PIN facilitated the formation of Site Management Committees, youth committees, and women’s committees in the thirteen camp sites in the Gorkha district. PIN also helped establish Safety Committees in six camps in the Sindhupalchok district.

These committees facilitate a variety of site operations and activities. PIN equips the sites with basic fire safety measures, provides hygiene kits, and coordinates provisions of basic services with other agencies present on sites. PIN also provided non-food items to camp populations to help them prepare for the previous winter.

After consultations with camp communities, PIN introduced knitting training for women in five campsites in Kerauja and Laprak. These training help women learn and improve knitting techniques, which they then can use to produce better and more diversified products and potentially expand their livelihoods. PIN is also providing livelihood assistance through agricultural and veterinary training in Kerauja, Laprak and Barpak camps.

PIN supports the reconstruction of community infrastructure too. We have implemented a cash-for-work program in camp sites in Kerauja that employs local people to repair vital trails blocked and damaged by the earthquake. This serves a dual purpose, not only fixing damaged infrastructure but also recovering livelihoods and accelerating the local economy. As a part of camp operations, PIN is also assisting local users groups to bring electricity to a camp site in Laprak and provide temporary community centers to camp sites in Laprak and Barpak.