Nepal’s Red Cross Society yesterday said there has been a significant progress on the recovery operations of survivors of the devastating earthquake that rocked the country last year as it claimed that 79% of the total funds received have been spent on more than 5,000 families.
“We are now making significant progress on shelter, which is the most urgent priority for many of the survivors,” said Dev Dhakhwa, secretary general, Nepal Red Cross Society.
“More than 5,000 families have already received the first tranche off Red Cross cash grants and many have started building their new houses,” Dhakhwa told reporters while launching this year’s World Disaster Report.
Since Nepal’s deadly 2015 earthquakes, the Red Cross Red Crescent has reached more than 3mn survivors with emergency aid and is now helping tens of thousands of people rebuild their homes and get back on their feet in various ways.
But owner-driven rebuilding of permanent housing, with Red Cross financial and technical support is only one component of an integrated recovery programme being implemented in the 14-worst affected districts.
“The various pieces of the jigsaw are now coming together and other concrete examples of what we are doing include rebuilding and upgrading health posts and hospitals and dozens of schools. Providing clean drinking water and proper toilets to quake-affected communities,” said Max Santner, head, International Federation of Red Cross Societies’ Nepal country office.
The Red Cross is also providing cash grants, seeds and tools to help people restore their livelihoods through farming or other ways.
Ensuring that local Red Cross chapters are better prepared to face future disasters in a further important priority, with the NRCS network of community volunteers playing a vital role.
“Helping communities to regain resilience is at the core of our work, so this gives extra relevance for us to the focus of this year’s World Disasters Report,” said NRCS chairman Sanjiv Thapa.
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