You might have seen the recent reports about the flooding and landslides that hit Nepal late last month. In the Kathmandu valley, the worst rains in over two decades took the lives of over 200 people, including 35 children.
Fortunately, all the reunified children, families and communities we and our partners in Nepal – Forget Me Not and The Himalayan Innovative Society – work with are safe, and haven’t faced any significant harm from the rains.
Sadly, these disasters are happening every year and are getting worse due to climate change and the impact of development.
Many people in Nepal have been affected by the damage to transport and communications networks that disasters like these can bring. Families and villages can be cut off from one another, and important tasks like travelling to hospital or local support services become impossible.
This was the case in the most recent flooding and landslides in Nepal, which disrupted both the internet and electricity supplies, making it difficult for our partners to communicate with the families they’re supporting.
While the children and families we support are safe from this particular disaster, another heavy rainfall or landslide
may well put them at high risk of family separation and loss of life.
Therefore, ongoing emergency support and proactive measures both from local authorities and NGOs are important to stop trafficking and family separation.
How we’re responding to this disaster
When an environmental disaster like this occurs, reintegration teams immediately contact reunified children and their families to ensure their safety and security. They provide counselling to children and families, and guide them towards safety nets such as local officials, and the Nepal Police hotline for immediate assistance.
In the aftermath, we work to link families with local support (whether from local authorities, community organisations or from international humanitarian efforts) – this ensures families have access to support for their basic needs without duplicating the work of others.
What are the main dangers in these situations?
Alongside the imminent threat to life caused by the floods and landslides themselves, if children lose parents, family members or carers in a disaster, then the risk of them being institutionalised or trafficked increases significantly.
Diseases such as dengue fever and diarrhoea also present a threat to health, as water supplies may become contaminated and connecting roads that bring medical support to communities become impassable.
The destruction of lives and livelihoods can also cause severe trauma, especially in children, and this can lead to people experiencing issues around their mental health which they may need professional support with.
What work is taking place now?
Together with our partners in the region we are doing all we can to ensure that children and families in Nepal are safe, including:
● Supporting national care reform and deinstitutionalisation efforts.
● Continuing advocacy work to prevent family separation and child
institutionalisation.
● Supporting the establishment of child protection and gatekeeping systems at
the provincial and local level.
● Demonstrating kinship and foster care programs.
● Supporting care-experienced young people to ensure their voices are heard.
We’ll provide an update from Nepal if anything changes, but if you’d like to find out more about our work there and how we’re helping to get children Back to Family, you can do that here.
