NEPAL: INSTEAD OF resilience

Before the devastating 2015 earthquake that killed 9,000 people, Rama’s family had an average life. “Not good, not bad,” Pujan, her father, says. They were in their field harvesting potatoes when the quake struck, and so no one was hurt. In the aftermath, though, things quickly changed.

Food became extremely scarce in their village. The family shared their potatoes with their neighbors, but they ran out after three or four days. Rama, now 15 years old, was so malnourished that she still experiences the effects of that period half her lifetime ago. “After the earthquake, there were many organizations here, but they only brought 1 sack of rice,” Nirmaya, Rama’s mother, says. “They came and went. NCM continuously helped us.”