Dear members, supporters and friends.

After a long break, we would like to report to you about the situation in Nepal and the work of our association again.

The current situation in Nepal:

Unfortunately, the 2nd Corona-wave has hit Nepal in full force. Kathmandu has become a hotspot for the whole country in a short time. At the end of March, there was the Holi-Festival, in mid-April, the Nepalese New Year, and the large crowds have fuelled the virus.

Due to the rapid increase of infected people the health system collapsed, and especially the lack of oxygen cost many people their lives.

Indeed, the horrific images from neighbouring India led people to buy oxygen cylinders and hoard them at home. As a result, the filling cycle was interrupted, and even the hospitals have no longer received supplies.

Many patients had to be turned away and died, although they might have had a good chance of survival.

In addition, like everywhere else in the world, there is a lack of intensive care units and isolation wards for those suffering from Covid-19.

Relief efforts:

When the pandemic in India got out of control it was foreseeable that the situation in Nepal would quickly become similar. We immediately contacted Mrs Jaya from the Society for Each Other (SEO) and offered our support.

At first, it was also complicated for her to locate the necessary supplies. However, she managed to organize two intensive care units for the Banepa hospital, oxygen concentrators, medicines, and doctors and nurses needs too.

Despite public life is at a standstill, many people are unable to go about their work. In Nepal, many people work as day labourers and live from hand to mouth. This means that many are starving.  Mrs Jaya is trying to alleviate this hardship with food parcels.

Furthermore, we have cooperated with the very well-connected association Chay Ya in Austria and financed an isolation ward for 100 people through them.

We got a good impression of the efficiency of this association and hope to be able to implement projects with them in the future, especially in rural areas.

Because of the great need in Solo Khumbu we also contacted Buddhi Maya Sherpa, by sending immediately financial support.

Furthermore, we got in touch with the Children Home we support to help them if they needed it. It can be claimed that the children´s conditions are quite fine within this dramatic situation because they are in homeschooling and are trying to face this problem.

After the infection numbers peaked at the end of May, the wave is now slowly subsiding, and we hope that the situation will improve in the coming weeks.

This fast and unbureaucratic help has only been possible thanks to your great support.

We thank you very much for that.

Finally, we would like to make a personal announcement:

On 28th May, our general assembly took place with new elections.

The new board is now composed by the following members:

Riccardo Ruffini, Ernst Preyer, Rita Gruber and Christine De Mario were confirmed, Mrs Hanna Battisti joins us as a new member.  Mr Maximilian Lanz and Mrs Elisabeth Spergser together with Margherita Köfler and Herbert Frei as co-opted board members, will support our association with words and deeds. We thank Elisabeth for her work and wish the new members a good cooperation.

At the next board meeting, the board will assign the tasks. We will publish the corresponding information on our homepage afterwards.