Nepal’s COVID Story

I know this pandemic has hit every country on the planet and every person living in every country has their own hardship story. There was even a COVID positive person at Mt. Everest Base Camp. And that takes us to Nepal, home of Mt. Everest.

When COVID first came to Nepal it was during Chinese New Year of 2020. Amazingly Nepal was left safe. It could have been a disaster from then, last February/March. Everyone wore a mask due to pollution and that probably helped more than people know. 

 

We got locked-down right away and we all waited. I started feeding and helping people from then but everything seemed fine. The lock-down was worse than the virus at that point. Society held. Nepali took care of their own and when people returned to Nepal many had to walk home-from India. People and NGOs stepped up and even police departments served as places to fed returning neighbors. 

 

People so used to adversity share so freely.

Finally, we were able to go outside and everyone had to wear a mask. Nepal was managing quite well as I watched the cases in countries like the US climb. Then the vaccines came and everyone breathed a sigh of relief. We could see the end in sight.

That’s when the problems came. More people returned from abroad, mostly India. The government made a mistake and opened tourism too soon. The trekking guides and such were so happy to see tourists returning no one wanted to confront our guests with the quarantine rules. One by one many of these tourists and returning Nepalese became infected during all this movement and BOOM! The numbers began to jump to thousands of new cases in a single day.

There were not enough oxygen tanks or hospital beds. The vaccine didn’t come to Nepal in time. Although there was time to vaccinate many healthcare workers, some elderly and other front-line workers, some of the vaccinations were counterfeit and others may have been contaminated with the heat of India while getting here.

Another issue we really need help with is getting the first responders the protection they need. Ambulance drivers and police officers do not all have the protective clothing they need and many are refusing to go to work for fear of their own lives. There is an agency that’s making protective gear and providing them for only 1,400 Nrs., which is about $12 for an entire set. If you’d like to help by purchasing some of these just let me know. If you make a donation I will make sure the money goes to this instead of food.

Now we are all in lock-down again, of course, but it isn’t the same. Now the food situation is really dire. It happened so fast. There was no way for the Nepalese people to protect themselves from this ordeal. What could they have done? When the COVID positive people came many had the Indian variant. Without many shipments of supplies it’s been difficult on top of impossible for the Nepali government or the people to protect themselves.

As I mentioned, I found a few people I could help during this past year and I’ve found a lot of joy in helping one family, more than I thought possible. This family who have recently lost their father, consists of two teenage children and the mother. She fell with her husband and damaged her back before he died, but she doesn’t let that stop her from caring for her son. You see, he has two ‘clubbed’ feet and has to crawl on his hands and knees. The mother has to help him with things like toilet because they don’t have anything like a wheel chair or handicap bars or any kind of physical therapy type apparatus. I was attempting to help with that, but it’s been lock-down for most of this time. 

 

Can you imagine being in this situation, being born into a family in abject poverty?

For some reason, sharing with this family has really brought out my inner hero or something, but I’ve bonded with them and hope to be able to be there for them for many years. It's brought me so much joy that I’d like to help match other families here with sponsors in the west. But I cannot do that until after this crisis is over. 

 

It's heart-touching to see a blind person being led by a child or carrying their own food. You can see these things in the video.

I’ve been doing whatever I can; hiring people to work, have people staying in the home here with us, providing assistance to an older man who worked as a musician and sarangi salesman on the streets of Thamel, a shoe repair person who worked on a street corner, an older woman without husband or children, and provided masks to a police officer and nurse when there weren’t many masks here and even bought more things than I needed just to support the local businesses, but I cannot do much more by myself and there are so many who genuinely will not have food if we cannot bring in money from abroad.

For now, I’d like to invite anyone with a little money to help to participate in helping to feed some people here. We’ve connected with a small agency that’s feeding people, day workers like rickshaw drivers, blind street musicians and others who have no means to feed themselves during this time. 

 

There are ‘soup kitchens’ open now and agencies are making up bags of rice, lentils, oil and salt to last a few days to a couple of weeks for people, but each new day brings more and more people out to find food. Yesterday after feeding 600 people many had to be sent away hungry. So, I’m asking that if you could send a little money I’ll make sure the money goes to good use to help. Just $35 can feed a family for about 2 weeks, but for now, it’s come down to one day at a time for as many people as possible.

 

First the day workers and blind were given food to last a few weeks.

 

 

It's sad that the people were lined up for almost a km just for the food one can hold in one hand. Many were turned away.

There was an earthquake earlier this week with several deaths and injuries and that’s always a fear for Nepal. In 2015, for example, 9,000 people died in earthquakes. So many were left homeless, injured or dead with their entire village. Yes, villages were disappeared from landslides during that time. I guess you could say Nepal knows hardship, but if you can help, even just a little, it would mean so much.

Each year we have flooding in the lower elevations and that time is coming very soon. That means more homeless, more food insecurity, more COVID spreading and death. One of my Nepali family staying with us left to work with a tourist doing a film documentary during the time we had no lock-down. He ended up getting COVID while he was away and quarantined for 10 days before coming home. Both of his parents got COVID and his mother had to be hospitalized. One of his aunts died from the virus during the same time. We learned this morning that the young man who delivers our groceries is ill with COVID. 

Here’s how you can help. If you can trust an old, retired, American widow you can send the money through our agency’s Paypal account or if you prefer sending to a Nepali person who’s been helping to feed people in an organized way throughout this pandemic you can send to him. He could also put you in touch with a family to help on a more personal level if you prefer for after this crisis passes.

Just send anything you can to https://gofund.me/01433799 which uses my Paypal (HelpChangunarayan@gmail.com) or contact this NGO directly to help. Menz Foundation Food Cloth/bank. Free food. 

Menzfoundation@gmail.com Satghumti, Thamel +977 9851044798

I’m also looking for people who can collect money for Nepal. If you can do anything else please let me know so I can work with you. I’ll help you even if you need me to give money to a friend you already have here. 95% of the people here need help in one way or another, so anything you do will help more than you know. Send inquiries to me, Amanda Summers at FrugalTravelsNepal@gmail.com