Another earthquake has struck Nepal on 12 May 2015.WOCAN is deeply saddened by the devastating earthquakes. Our thoughts and prayers go out to those impacted by this disaster and their families, including those of our colleagues and partners. Dibya Gurung, WOCAN Core Associate, who resides in Kathmandu, has been assisting some of the partner organizations members with relief. Her reports to us emphasize the value of women’s leadership, demonstrated through their use of participatory decision making to determine to coordinate relief efforts. She believes that the leadership of women is critical for effective relief and recovery of affected communities. In addition, the biogas digester units used for theW+ projectis mostly intact. These unitsprove to be a critical resource for the provision of cooking energy that is generated at the household level, thus relieving the need to procure energy supplies from outside, that are in short supply. However, there is a need to provide assistance to those who lost their cooking stoves when houses collapsed, and whose units were damaged by the earthquake.Dibya’s experience inspires us to try to raise more funds for both short term relief and long term recovery efforts, so that we can provide more women with leadership skills and resources to repair biogas digesters. We hope you can help us to secure funds by sharing information of theNepali Women’s Relief and Recovery Fundwith your colleagues. Please do contact us to discuss collaboration to deliver more help to women organizations across affected villages of Nepal. |
