Lopon Tenzin Oser, a senior monk from Shechen Monastery, is the leader of “Team B” of the Shechen Relief Program.  His report on the relief work Shechen has done during the last 3 weeks in the Nuwakot and Rauswa districts that were severely damaged by both quakes follows:

We thank all our kind donors who are making this work possible.

Tell us about the villages you visited and what they needed:

This was my fourth outreach visit since the first earthquake.

In our first visit to Nuwakot, we discovered that the needs of the people were greater than we expected. We could only distribute   3-5 kilos of chuira (rice mixture) for each person. However we were still able to give medical help to 460 people with the help of two doctors who had asked to join us. Later we returned with more supplies.

On May 7^th we went to the base camp at Galgi in Nuwakot and stayed five nights, making excursions from there to the remote Rasuwa district where many villages were badly damaged. Near one of the villages, Dunche, an avalanche destroyed an entire village of Himalayan Buddhists. The survivors were evacuated to Laharepawa. There are 35 confirmed deaths, with many people still missing. A foreign NGO set up a medical camp nearby where they are treating 200 people. Tents have been provided, but there was no food relief at that point. We provided more supplies and food to them. Beyond Dunche the villages are only accessible by foot.There are 9 villages in the Samari ward (part of Nuwakot) and we distributed all the supplies we had.

On the way to Dading district, we visited the the 5 most desperate villages again. One of our monks comes from Dading. His family’s home was destroyed and his father injured. A monk trained in First Aid and two nurses were part of our team. We also visited nearby villages with 60 houses to 70 houses each, all destroyed.

The Shechen Relief “Team B” (led by Lopon Tsering Rahoul) stayed to attend to the needs of other villages while we returned to Kathmandu to get more supplies.  Later, when we were informed as to exactly what they needed, we bought more food, tents, and medicine.  We also bought some goods at stores closer to where the villages are located.

Three Spanish volunteers from CIDEN came with us to help. Their organization has made generous donations to our outreach program. We are grateful for their help and help of all the donors. Our team also went to Chillimi in Nuwakot, which had 350 houses, about 1/3 of them destroyed, and brought them tents, food and medicine. We gave tents to the people who were most in need. The road was very rough and we had to push the car at times.

Sometimes the monks walk up to 6 hours to reach a village.  We also met other Buddhist monks and compassionate people in who wanted to help the relief efforts, but they had no means to do so.

What was it like to be part of the outreach since the beginning and visiting areas where people are undergoing such suffering?

This was my fourth outreach visit since the first earthquake. This was my fourth outreach visit since the first earthquake. When I first went to Nuwakot, I could see with my own eyes how desperate the people there were and what a dangerous location it is. With all the destroyed houses around, we felt like we were in a war movie. When we first saw the people with serious injuries, large gashes and broken limbs, in terrible physical pain, we felt shocked and sad, and also fearful.

But as we started to help and treat them, as we saw the positive results, those feelings quickly subsided. We could see the incredible joy and happiness the people felt when they saw us come to help them. This also helped us have a sense of joy and staunch determination to continue. The older villagers  grasped our hands in gratitude.

In other places, we came across young people who were very angry. They thought we were from the Government, whom they felt betrayed by because of the slowness of Government relief to some areas. We explained who we were and they calmed down.

This has been the first experience for any of us of really helping people on the level of basic survival. They asked us to bring many more things that we didn’t have, so we felt determined to keep coming back and continue to supply their needs. We have really felt energized by this experience, not at all feeling tired or discouraged. This experience connected us to them so deeply with our hearts and minds.

The work of the teams to bring help to the desperate people in these areas has been unflagging. In fact, they are really determined to go into the most difficult places to help people. The monastery is a bit worried about the safety of the monks, especially since the second earthquake hit, but they are not thinking about their own safety. Their only concern is for others.

Intervivew by  Charlotte Davis. May 13, 2015, Shechen Monastery Baudha, Nepal.

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