Nearly four months after the devastating earthquake in Nepal, the country continues to struggle, as its diaspora in Ireland tells Victoria Prince

When tragedy struck Nepal as earthquakes struck the small Asian country on 25 April this year, the world stopped to watch the chaos and destruction that would unfold. 

And watch was all the Nepalese community in Ireland could do as the 7.9 magnitude earthquake took its toll.

“It was Saturday, you know just like any other Saturday basically,” remembers print shop owner Sagun Shrestha. He says he woke up that morning and heard from his wife that there had been an earthquake in Nepal, but it was not until signing on to social media that he realised how serious this earthquake had really been.

“When I looked around on the Facebook and Google and everywhere, it started... it started to make sense that this wasn’t normal. It was a real, real bad one.”

Shrestha was in Nepal three weeks prior to the earthquake along with his sister, her husband and his niece. His sister’s family was scheduled to leave the week after 25 April.

During the earthquake, his brother-in-law was in an old tower and unfortunately died when that tower collapsed. Thinking back on this devastating loss, Shrestha says: “The memory is still there. You are there, still living in that [mind-set] of ‘Yeah, okay, see you in a week’s time’ or whatever and they are not there. It’s just… I don’t know.”

Trauma

Psychological trauma is often one of the hardest parts to cope with in the aftermath of any disaster, and this time is no different, for survivors of the earthquake as well as their family members. Restaurant owner Nabaraj Koirala says the Nepalese people “need a lot of psychotherapy because they still have [the aftershocks to deal with]… They need the social support”

Shrestha told a story about his mother’s recent visit to Dublin, after the disaster. “She was there [in Nepal] at the time.. She was here a month ago, and when she was here, even after a few weeks she said to me that she felt the shaking here. It was difficult. It’s difficult to hear that kind of [reaction].”

Even though large earthquakes such as the ones that hit Nepal on 25 April and again 12 May don’t usually happen very often, smaller quakes are a common occurrence. During a single week it’s not unheard of to feel the earth move several times, with quakes up to magnitude 5. However, these smaller shakes do not tend to disturb the people there, even after what happened in April.

“When the ground starts to shake, people tell me that they are ignoring it now,” says Shrestha. “It has gone through that, has passed through that barrier. They don’t care anymore. Live or die… you know?”

He goes on to mention the desperation Nepalese people have in wanting life to go back to normal; living through these smaller earthquakes is one way they refuse to bow to nature.

Extremely difficult

Today, the combination of these smaller-scale quakes and being in the middle of monsoon season has made ongoing relief efforts in Nepal extremely difficult. Nepalese who continue to struggle to come to terms with the tragedy they endured are still living in temporary shelters, and some have not even received any of the millions of dollars worth of food and clean water that was sent over via international relief funds.

“The more [that is] poured into the country, a small country didn’t know how to handle it… All the stocks were left in the airport. It’s still there right now,” says Shrestha. “I’ve talked to people who still haven’t gotten anything, absolutely nothing, zero.” 

Koirala concurs, mentioning how some people may receive two or three relief packages a month while those stuck in rural areas have not got a single one.

Until monsoon season ends, it seems that this issue will not be resolved. However, Koirala is confident that once the heavy rains stop and relief continues to be distributed, things will start to get better for those worst affected in Nepal.