Newsletter - The Association for Nepal and Himalayan Studies

Association For Nepal and Himalayan Studies
Newsletter
Issue #1(1) June, 2015
Focus on Earthquake Response
Upcoming
Events
There are now
hundreds of events in
support of our friends, families,
and co-workers living in the
aftermath of the recent
earthquakes and tremors in
Nepal & adjacent regions of
South Asia. For more
information, check out page 2
2
Courtesy: reliefweb.int
Earthquake
Relief
We all want to help
with the best response to
recent events. Providing
food, shelter, funds, and
other inputs are needed, but
it isn’t easy to know where to
begin. See page 2 for ‘Tips for
Donating to Earthquake
Nepal Studies & Education
2
ANHS improves scholarly opportunities for citizens of
Nepal and other Himalayan areas.
CALL FOR PROPOSALS – ANHS has received
earthquake related donations that we will distribute to
eligible NGOs and others working on earthquake relief
whose key mission corresponds with ours: research,
education, and creative activities. ANHS members recently
received information about this, and if you’d like to learn
more, consider joining the ANHS community at ANHS
Nepal
Earthquake
News Digest
May has been a frantic month as
both local and international
volunteers get to work. News &
rebuilding efforts are highlighted
with links to major news.
The ASSOCIATION FOR NEPAL AND
HIMALAYAN STUDIES (ANHS) seeks to foster the
study and understanding of Nepal and the Himalayas, and
to improve communication among all who share this
interest.
3
ANHS Senior Fellowship Award
Congratulations to Richard Bownas, University of Northern
Colorado, for his research project, "Maoist Model Villages and
Social Transformation in Post-Conflict Nepal: A Village-based
Research Study." The stipend of $1,500 is awarded annually.
For more information, see the ANHS website.
Issue #1(1) June, 2015
Earthquake Relief
Focus on Earthquake Response
Events: Rebuilding Nepal
Tips for Donating to earthquake relief
Re-building Nepal: Events by friends from far and wide
We all want to help in whatever ways we can, but its hard
to know the most effective way to spend our time and
money. A few tips about donations:
*Check out the charity on charity review websites such as
Guidestar
*Review the organization’s history and presence in Nepal
*Ask questions before sending a donation about your
particular interests. Do you want to know what % of
donations goes toward salaries? Is it important to know if
the organization registered as a charity? Do you know
someone personally involved in the project? Can you
target funds specifically for food, shelter, etc.?
For a list of large Nepal-oriented charities (over $50k
budget) with top ratings, visit Charity Navigator and also
see our ANHS website for more charities.
Please check https://www.eventbrite.com for many
scheduled events being organized for fundraising and
support for our friends and families in Nepal. You can
even enjoy some events through virtual, online, or
YouTube viewing. Eventbrite enables you to find Nepalrelated events near you. For example, Institute for Asian
Studies, Vancouver, BC, Canada hosts a lecture June 2.
Finally, please consider a donation to ANHS Earthquake
Relief. We’re distributing funds to education-based efforts
like school, museum and library rebuilding and
resupplying.
Volunteers prepare potatoes to feed Kathmandu and
Lalitpur families who cannot return to their homes to
cook meals. The
volunteers are part of a
local organization
called Puri and Tarkari.
Photo Credit:
Gyaneswor Karki
ANHS Database to
Compile Skills of Nepal
Experts & Relief
Organizations
ANHS will host a database that allows members
to identify local NGOs and that are embedded in
Nepal’s earthquake affected areas and experts that
can contribute to the rebuilding efforts. The
database will be an open platform for Nepali
nationals and foreigners who know the affected
areas to contribute.
It will serve as a clearinghouse in coordinating
long-term relief efforts. It will provide uniform
digestible information to guide donors and INGOs
in targeting local NGOs that are have a proven
track record with local communities. It will also
allow INGOs and NGOs the ability to source
particular expertise and coordinate efforts among
the organizations and individuals working in
rebuilding efforts.
Look for details in the next newsletter about filling
up the data entry forms for the database.
Bread & Vegetables for Displaced Families
Food and water were some of the immediate needs of
families in the Kathmandu and Lalitpur areas, unable to
return to their damaged homes. Puri & Tarkari, a local
immediate earthquake relief operation, went to work
feeding displaced families. They set up a community
“soup kitchen” for “Bread & Vegetables (puri ra tarkari).
Read more here.
Earthquake relief news cont. on Pg. 4
EDWON’s Rebuilding Fund for Gorkha Women
Dalit women and their families in Gorkha are
profoundly impacted with many of their homes
destroyed. See more about Empower Dalit
Women of Nepal here.
2
Issue #1(1) June, 2015
View
Focus on Earthquake Response
Nepal - Earthquake
News Digest
1 May 2015 Digging to save
Nepal's cultural heritage after
quake. Smartphone app
developed to document salvaged
artifacts as historians and
architects assess the damage. By
Annette Ekin, Aljazeera.
of Boudhanath from Pashupatinath. Photo: J. Fortier
ANHS Student Prizes
Congratulations to Jacob Rinck and Uma Pradhan, winners of the
2014 and 2015 ANHS Dor Bahadur Bista Prize for Best Graduate
Student Paper.
Excerpts from their paper abstracts:
Jacob Rinck. Land reform, Social Change and Political Cultures in Nepal’s
Tarai. Nepal’s changing political economy is traced within the relationship
between political elites and agrarian structures in the central Tarai since the
first democratic revolution in 1950. The political importance of land decreased
significantly over the three decades of Panchayat rule between 1960 and 1990.
...land re-distributive effects in the short run may have been limited, but they
led to a significant decline in land value as a form of political capital.
Uma Pradhan. New Languages of Schooling: Ethnicity, Education and
Equality in Nepal
The contested space of mother-tongue education shows how people position
themselves within the polarizing debates of ethnicity-based claims on
education in Nepal. Ethnographic fieldwork in mother-tongue education
school illustrates that students made meaning in
their everyday world by maintaining the
multilingual repertoire. Simultaneity helps explain
attempts to seek membership into multiple groups
as these contradict essentialist categories
espoused in nationalist discourse and ethnic
activism, while students display affiliation to
multiple languages and identities that were seen
by them as neither incompatible nor binary Raji Family, Kanchanpur.
opposites.
Photo: J. Fortier
13 May 2015 Nepal School System
Left Shattered in Aftermath of
Quake. Officials say that thousands
of schools have been destroyed and
that tens of thousands of
classrooms need to be replaced.
By Gardiner Harris for NY Times
15 May 2015 Singati: Another
mountain village devastated in latest
Nepal quake. BY ATHIT
PERAWONGMETHA
http://www.reuters.com/article
16 May 16 2015 Nepal
earthquake: All 8 bodies found
in crashed U.S. marine chopper,
3 bodies found yesterday, the
other 5 pulled out of wreckage
today northeast of Kathmandu
17 May 2015 Nepal quake death toll
becomes highest on record; dozens
still missing
3
Focus on Earthquake Response
Issue #1(1) June, 2015
Focus on Earthquake Response
Earthquake Relief
From Don
Messerschmidt,
Nepal May Earthquake
News Digest (Continued)
Friends,
I am packing and
will be in Nepal
from June 13,
working with the
Gorkha Foundation
(GF) at the April 25 earthquake epicenter in
severely devastated Gorkha District.
The GF Director and I, and our all-volunteer
staff, will be meeting community leaders
and partner organizations to plan for the
long-term recovery and rehabilitation of local
villages, families and infrastructure, and
rapid rejuvenation of the local economies.
This will be a disaster relief working trip,
along with an assessment for long-term
planning to help the villagers recover their
lives and rebuild their communities. High on
our list will be assistance in the recovery
and rebuilding of local schools and
healthposts, and re-charging the village
microcredit program.
The Gorkha Foundation
http://gorkhafoundation.org is an ALL
VOLUNTEER BASED 501(C)3 NONPROFIT. All relief work is voluntary, and all
donations go directly into disaster
assistance, with No Overhead.
For further information, send me a note
[email protected]
If you have specific ideas for helping, send
me a note.
16 May 2015 Nepal earthquake: the village wiped off
the map in a few terrifying seconds. The beautiful
Langtang valley was almost obliterated when the
second quake hit last week, reducing a popular
trekking village to rubble
Carole Cadwalladr, The Guardian
17 May 2015 Bungamati Kumari in quake shelter.
The Living Goddess of Bungamati, seven-year-old
Smriti Bajracharya, has been living in a shelter
after the 25 April earthquake. Report by Min Ratna
Bajracharya, Nepali Times
31 May 2015 Wary children return to schools after
Nepal earthquake. Children affected by last month's
earthquake in Nepal officially returned to schools,
five weeks after the disaster killed more than 8,600
people and destroyed many homes.
By GOPAL SHARMA
Reuters News Article
4
LETTERS FROM MEMBERS, ANHS PRESIDENT,
AND FRIENDS
Our friends Boyd Michailovsky and Martine
Mazaudon compiled a list of disaster relief
organizations that they share here with ANHS
members.
Update from Pasang Sherpa on Solukumbu
Large Organizations
The first earthquake on April 25th (7.8 magnitude) severely
damaged villages in the Pharak region of Solukhumba, in the
southern part of the Everest region in Nepal. The second
earthquake on May 12th (7.3 magnitude) destroyed what was left
after the first one.
http://www.handicap-international.fr/pays/nepal
http://www.medecinsdumonde.org/A-linternational/Nepal
http://www.msf.org/country/nepal
http://www.actioncontrelafaim.org/fr/content/nepal
More specific groups
You Caring: Fund for Nepal Earthquake Victims
Architecture http://www.archi-urgent.com/; Abari
Infrastructure http://www.sappros.org.np/site/
Education www.france.aide-et-action.org
Medical: ASBL http://www.nmmh.clinic/en/home
http://www.britainnepalmedicaltrust.org.uk
June 3, 2015
Earthquake Relief Needed in Chaurikharka VDC,
Solukhumbu
One month after the first earthquake, 38 villages, 834 households
and 4600 people continue to wait for substantial relief efforts and
remain uncertain about the future. The government of Nepal has
not listed Solukhumbu as a priority district, and major relief
operations have been absent.
Immediately after the first earthquake, three volunteers, including
myself an anthropologist, Un Sherpa, a medical volunteer and
Krishna Bhetwaal, an engineer volunteer, visited Pharak to assess
needs. We visited over 200 houses in 30 villages and found that
help is urgently needed.
The villages of Jorsalle, Bengkar, Gumela, Thado Koshi and
Chaurikharka, to name a few, have been severely damaged with
no habitable house. Families are living in crowded, cold and wet
temporary tarpaulin shelters; schools are struggling to stay open;
health posts are waiting for medical supplies and staffs.
To date, villagers have received tarpaulins, tents, rice, oil, salt and
some cash from multiple sources. All of this, however, has come
in insufficient quantities. It has been found that Imja glacial lake
did not burst but a different lake might have burst. According to
local sources, water level appears to be safe on May 26, 2015.
A Letter from the ANHS President
I want to take this opportunity to thank the many of you who have kept attention on the developing
conditions, critical needs, and vital helpful contacts for the many still suffering in Nepal after the
earthquakes. There are still homeless thousands sleeping under the stars in the Himalaya, a glimmering
night sky above them but a capricious ground below. I was teaching in Bajhang when the 1980 Saipal
Himal 6.5 earthquake struck the area, destroying many things including our school. The as yet
unconnected world barely noticed. The situation now couldn’t be more different. We’re all touched by
the hundreds of events for Nepal occurring weekly around the world. We also know this attention must
be sustained. ANHS is committed to this goal for years to come.
As scholars, we feel the need to write about the social, political, economic, cultural and other
dimensions of the recovery. Please share your creations with the ANHS community, a community so
unique in its depth of regional understanding. As writers, watchdogs, artists, social critics, planners, and
humanitarians all, our collective knowledge can make a difference.
With good wishes, Mary (Cameron)
5
We hope to hear from you! Please send any announcements for the upcoming issues by the 1st and
15th of each month. Include: Date, Title, (Sub-title optional), Announcement details, and Link. Also
include your name & contact (email, address).
NEWSLETTER EDITOR, Jana Fortier, [email protected]
6