A crippling loss of dignity

The window of opportunity to provide vital relief to people in Nepal affected by the earthquakes is closing quickly, as urgent funding requirements remain unmet. To date, barely US$ 59.5 million, or 14 per cent, was received against the $423 million humanitarian appeal, launched by the United Nations and partners on 29 April. “If we don’t act quickly, the implications will be severe,” Jamie McGoldrick, Humanitarian Coordinator in Nepal said “We can only expect misery, a crippling loss of dignity and the real potential for more deaths especially in the rural and remote areas.” On May 15 I saw this post by UN, Nepal on its Facebook page

According to an international agency about 10 billion worth has been lost and now the death toll has surpassed more than 8,500. In the beginning week we watched news coming from all over the world and donation pouring in, as people have opened their hearts and given generously. at this very moment, there are people who are talking about some huge fund raise campaign in foreign lands and at the same time sharing links about the salary of charity organizations CEO being higher than the salary of James Cameron, British Prime minister.

How much raised in the name of Nepal to rebuild and reconstruct is one thing, but the truth is here people are sleeping under tents at night and many government offices are being run under tents during days. Billions of Rs is needed to rebuild and reconstruct. As 600 thousands houses needs to be rebuild and reconstruct in 13 major hit districts. Among all this there are 20 thousands schools that are waiting to be rebuild and reconstruct. More than that, people are mentally shaken due to thousands of death, devastation and on top of that hundreds of aftershocks. We have never heard of this kind of earthquake before in our life and no where on earth. This double quakes will cost us 50% of our total GDP, this means it will take long time to recover from the shake as well as from aftermaths of aftershocks.

According to the report by Agricultural bank 10 billion worth of agriculture product have been affected. Nepal is already a poor country and most of our budget has always been relied on foreign aid and loan from international banks. No doubt, we are buried deep under huge loan.

More than a dozen countries and INGO have come forward to help Nepal to rebuild and reconstruct. Locally, many organisation have been busy raising funds. In fact every newspaper have a new account to raise funds, every television channels have an account to raise funds. Still the news in Kantipur - according to which total collection locally was 225 million Rs and UN do not give us the good picture of givings. Today [May 20, 2015], I read in the editorial of Himalayan times, “The government should provide, free of cost, a number of models suiting various sizes of pockets and families in each VDC and municipalities  that the victims homes to be built on free of cost by the government.” Our government have tremendous pressure to meet the needs of earthquake victims to provide immediate roof for those who have became homeless and those who needs to be moved in temporary shelter before the rainy season starts. Everyone who became homeless will be shifted to the new home with the money raised by many other nations and given to our government to manage the immediate needs. Sure, Nepal is a poor country and  already under heavy loan; at the same time, we can not tell the quake victims to pay for the house none of them are prepared to build soon.

We saw that mega earthquake devastated the entire nations pushing it further backward, as a developing nation. At the same time people across the world are opening their hearts and wallet to give this country to make sure that we get enough at time like this. It is not just foreigners who are helping and giving us. The impact of generous giving and more such stories of generous people moved  our mass so much they came forward to join hands for each other to help. So, Nepali across the nation as well as world came forward to join hands to help each other with donation or volunteer work. At a time like this, we must realize, it's time to merge in few big groups rather than remain in small groups or in umbrella to make it better for tomorrow. Small fund collectors must join hands with those who are raising higher than them and those who are raising more than a million must join hands with those who have been raising more than 10 millions and more. Working in small individual cluster only make Nepal again the picture of poverty.

Merging every small cluster of helping hands with bigger companies is a must because, we should not forget to revise our small thinking first, before we actually take action to build physical infrastructure at this very moment. This is also the time we have to find our potential to create money. We should focus more on creative industry like, songwriting, creating music, making movies on new stories and ideas, teleserials, art, music, fashion designing. Creating new stars and new talent is also a must to keep the money rolling. New talents in this industry needs to be encouraged. This will keep rolling the creative industry as there will be need to advertise which is another creative industry, bank should be open to invest in new concept of programs or investment rather than freezing their bulk money in unproductive places like land and home loans. The truth is, love it or hate it without joining hands with government or other nations it's not possible to rebuild and reconstruct in wide sense.

There has to be new kind of food that needs to be introduced in our market made in our rural village using our own raw materials that grows in our land. New taste of pickle that perhaps Indians and Chinese would like to have with every meal. Instead of going really far, we should focus our eyes in our two big neighbors - India and China. Initiation for this should be taken from government level as well as individual businessman should also be encouraged to take the necessary steps. What if, we introduce our orange juice, dried pulp pickles or radish pickle to Indian and Chinese market ? Each country’s mere 10% consumption means, working women in our villages will be flooded with orders, sure big businessman must enter at this to handle the matter better. We should also think of exporting introducing our local specialties food or other products to other nations.

Our land grows plenty of orange and it's the hero of news in its season and Lapsi pulp, titaura or other agro products which can be made with less training and less investment that can find better and bigger market in other nation. What if, we create local market for those products. We also have to introduce products, be it perishable or durable products made in our villages and consumed in city areas. It is high time, whole nation must join hands to rise from the rubble and this should not just be rebuild and reduction of the physical property but we need to start at this very point to seek the opportunity to create job and for that we need better and bigger ideas than before . I am hoping if small fraction of donation money should be used in this line, Nepali people should not have to go through a loss of crippling dignity in future.