Earlier this month SSE Enterprise’s Adrian Mayhew flew out to Nepal to help with the rescue effort. Here, he offers a glimpse of what he encountered as the country continues to recover from the earthquake.
We arrived in Kathmandu via Delhi on the 4th May after a 15 hour journey. Our first impressions at the airport included seeing helicopters and aid waiting to be distributed.
We were briefed on our arrival at the Team Rubicon base and were tasked with a procurement role to meet the urgent need for food, water and shelters to take out to the rural villages.
The teams were made up of doctors, medics and Gurkha soldiers. They would drive as far as possible and then trek to their destinations carrying the supplies on their backs.
As the vehicles were needed elsewhere, we walked around Kathmandu to find supplies. We came across a French team who were purifying water on the outskirts of the city. They had no transport and the locals didn’t know they were there.
We were able to arrange transport and collect vast amounts of water in one litre plastic bags. We then put the French in contact with the right people and a few days later, they were supplying hundreds of people with water via stand pipes.
Over the next few days we were able to obtain tarpaulins and sacks of rice. Any form of shelter was desperately needed as the monsoon season was fast approaching and any form of cover could be the difference between life and death outside of the city.
We were woken in the early hours one morning when a 5.2 magnitude aftershock hit us. That was my first ever experience of an earthquake but with many aftershocks in the following days, we started to get used to it.
Myself and around eight of our team were then given a rest day. Nobody wanted to stand around doing nothing so we joined an organised clearing party. Around 30 volunteers shifted rubble from a collapsed house and managed to retrieve many personal items that were sentimental to a family. This included their goat that had been trapped in the basement and they were feeding through a gap in the rubble.
Although we saw many scenes of devastation and destruction, there were many great moments that will stay with me forever.
One lady had lost her lost her entire family apart from her grandson. She was living in what looks like the basement but was actually the ground floor. Everything above had collapsed. She was sleeping on an old wicker mat. As it was getting near to the end of my stay, I gave her my sleeping bag and her response was enough to make my trip worthwhile.
Although I am now back in the UK and not able to offer direct help, I am still trying to raise as much money as possible as these people so desperately need it: https://www.justgiving.com/adrian-Mayhew1/
For more on Adrian’s mission see: Adrian's flying mission to help those affected by Nepal disaster