LWF Nepal is one of DCA's partners in the country and together we work to strengthen local Committees for Disaster Management. In Lubhu in the Lalitpur District the committee has targeted the training of school children in surviving an earth quake.
Disaster prevention
'It isn't the earthquakes that kill us. It's our own homes,' says the vice-chairman of the committee, Padam Lal Shresta calmly. A lot of damage occurs when poor houses with a bad building standard crumble over the inhabitants.
That is why the school children must learn to prevent disaster damage. The conversation with 7 out of 9 members of the Lubhu committee is taking place in a small room on the second floor of Manalaymi School among leaning stretchers, brand new, shiny fire buckets and a large container for grain for emergency situations. The students from the secondary school are learning to use these and other kinds of equipment.
Knowledge is contagious
'And when the students learn to take proper measures, so do the families. They can't help telling about it at home.' Krishna Dahal is an English teacher at the school and a member of the committee and is concerned with the youth building up prevention themselves.
'They are active themselves. They have a meeting about it once a month.' In that way the students also constitute a resource in the disaster prevention and disaster plans that the local committee has already made.
Turn off the gas and seek cover!
The school itself was damaged during a 6,7 quake two months ago. This is still visible in the worn-down school yard where 14-years-old Arti tells about how she experienced the earthquake. 'I was doing my homework and mum was making tea. Suddenly the house was shaking around us.'
Arti was very scared, but she stayed calm and cried, 'Turn off the gas and come with me under the bed.' That's where mother and daughter were hiding until the quake stopped, and then they stayed outside the house for half an hour in case of possible aftershocks. Nepal – and especially the Kathmandu valley – is one of the most earthquake exposed places in Asia. 'I think of earthquakes every day,' says Arti with an embarrassed smile.
That is why DCA, as a part of the ATC Alliance in Nepal, has involved local partners in its regional programme to prevent and ward off disaster risks. In other countries in Asia floods are at the heart of the programme. But here it is earthquakes. And the strengthening of the local committees who must make plans and prevention.
Practice on their day off
ACT Alliance in Nepal
Apart from DCA, the ACT alliance in Nepal also includes ICCO from Holland, Kirkens Nødhjælp from Norway, and FinnChurchAid from Finland plus LWF Nepal. The first four share an office at DCA's address in Lalitpur district in Kathmandu.
Before we leave the school we are going to see the 8th grade practicing. 22 of the 47 students in the class have come to school on a Saturday, their day off, at 3pm to show what they can do. Less than 10 seconds after the signal has sounded they are all sheltered under the tables.
There they stay until a signal says that the quake has stopped. They hurry out, emptying the bench rows in an already rehearsed manner. And 30 seconds later they are standing in two ranks in the school yard, going through a fixed procedure for counting the people present and those who are not.
They know what they are doing.
Lubhu's local Committee for Disaster Management has 9 members from the school staff, the local Red Cross and the political parties. They are responsible for the local prevention plans. And to secure the interests of minorities and especially vulnerable people, two of the members are Dalits (without a caste). The committee also handles the assessment of damages after an earthquake.