Meet Red Cross Nepal Volunteers

When the earthquake hit Nepal in 2015, DoGoodFilms were at the scene within 48hrs on one of the first commercial planes allowed to land. We were commissioned by Disaster Emergency Committee (DEC) to gather content and produce stories in the immediate aftermath of the disaster to support with fundraising, and to allow donors an opportunity to see how their funds are being used. The Nepal earthquake raised £87m.

We suggested to DEC that we capture the stories of their local volunteers who themselves were affected, yet rose to the challenge by helping others. Human interest stories are a great way of gaining empathy from viewers.

NRCS volunteers Aakash and Manila Karki are from Madhyapur Thimi, Bhaktapur in Nepal. They have been volunteers since they were 10 years old at the Bhaktapur branch office and both did earthquake preparedness training with the Red Cross and so knew what to do straight away.

The visited an area called Tamang, high in the hills about two hours outside Kathmandu and distributed to 125 families at three remote sites. The Red Cross was the first NGO to visit, according to the locals. 99% of houses have been destroyed in this area and access can be tough. The community had reported cases of sickness & diarrhoea so today’s distribution will play a vital part in helping to combat this.

They helped the injured and traumatised in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake and carried out distributions of watsan materials, putting up tents, digging latrines and doing hygiene promotion along with NRCS’s 7,000+ vols working around the earthquake-hit areas.