We're the Save the Children Emergency Response Team in Nepal. Ask Us Anything!

I don't know very much about Nepal, perhaps you guys wouldn't mind sharing a bit of the culture with me. What did an average day look like for the Nepali people, and how has it changed since the earthquakes?

Nepal is predominately Hindu with a lot of Buddhist communities, it's very diverse country.

The country is divided into the flat, hilly and mountainous country. The hilly and mountainous have been badly affected and are very difficult to reach given the terrain.

Monsoon is weeks away which will further inhibit our ability to reach those in the remote regions.

We’re using everything from yaks to helicopters to reach these people.

What's it like working there right now? Are aftershocks scary?

Steve: Aftershocks are less frightening for people who haven’t experienced the original earthquake. But if you’ve experienced a big earthquake they’re terrifying.

After a while you begin to feel them when they aren't actually happening. Some Nepali put a bowl of water near their beds so they can tell if it's an aftershock or not.

The psychosocial effects from the disaster and aftershocks will be present for a long time to come.

Sara: People have been through a lot, many people are still living outside in tents because they are afraid to go in there homes. Having to walk by the destruction daily is a constant reminder of the horror.

Paul: In some of the worst affected communities people are working in very desperate conditions.

The entire team thinks aftershocks are scary, especially depending on where you are. A number of our team were on the 6th floor of the office, during one. They got outside verrryy quickly once it stopped.

I have been trying to find agencies looking for medics or volunteers, do you need help?

We have a full team on the ground of disaster experts and will be bringing in our second wave of people shortly. If you're interested in working in disaster response, it's essential to have the proper training before the disaster strikes. It'd be best if you look into courses on disasterready.org and redr.org.uk, then see what organisation have the need for someone with your skill set. There will always be another emergency, get prepared now so you can help with that one.

What's the best way for an average person like me to help your efforts?

Simply: donating money to support our work, keeping the crisis here at the top of people's minds, advocating to make sure governments stay committed to supporting the recovery effort.

Could you give us some examples what you do in Nepal ? And right now thanks for your response

Gemma: We're getting people back into shelter, treating people with injuries via mobile health clinics, setting up Temporary Learning Centers to get children back into school.

Sara: We're distributing seeds to farmers whose stocks have been destroyed

Hanna: We're building latrines for people living in tents with no toilets, giving hygeine supplies so people don't get sick, restoring water supplies to schools so children can get back into school.

What has been the greatest challenge dealing with this disaster opposed to other disasters save the children tackles?

We're dealing with lots of aftershocks which keeps changing the situation, the terrain here is very difficult (think Mt. Everest, K2, etc.) Lots of huge and remote hills/mountains. Monsoon season is coming, so we only have weeks to reach people who have lost their homes. Getting supplies in is difficult as there is only one international airport and limited road access from the north.

How did you get into humanitarian work to begin with?

Michel: My first response was the floods in Mozambique in 2002. I was doing development work before, there was a large flood and we did food distribution. I've been doing humanitarian response work since.

Steve: I was working at Nissan North America, followed my wife to Mali (in West Africa.) I started volunteering a small NGO and then we went to Sri Lanka, I found a job there. And it just became my life

Save the Children was where I chose to donate after the earthquakes, due to your existing presence in Nepal and great charity navigator rating :)

How many of you have worked in Nepal before or were there prior to the earthquakes?

What did you do before working for Save the Children?

What did you have for dinner?

What is your average day like in Nepal? What do you look forward to? What don't you look forward to?

Most of our team is Nepali, we had 400+ people on the ground before the first earthquake struck. A good number of the disaster experts we've brought in from around the world have worked in Nepal before, some for a few months, some for a few years.

Average day is coordination meetings with our team, our local partners and the other international organisation working here. Other team members will be out in the field building latrines and Temporary Learning Spaces, distributing relief items, running our Child Friendly Spaces. Others will be working to continue the flow of relief items into the country.

We look forward into help the next child and family, making a difference in their lives. We're not looking forward to monsoon season, it presents a large threat to children's wellbeing and will hamper our ability to reach them.

Thank you for this immense help in Nepal. Apart from donating money and spreading awareness, is there anything the org suggests doing?

Get prepared for a disaster yourself. Every region of the world is vulnerable to different types of natural disasters, the better prepared you, your family and community are, the less impact it will have on you.

What is the weather like there on the ground and how is that affecting the rescue efforts? Are there other ways to donate and help besides money, say for example, care packages? Good job for the work you do guys!

It's currently hot but the race against the rains is on. Monsoon season is coming. Landslides will get worse as will access to remote communities.

While we appreciate the enthusiasm and goodwill of care packages, it's best to support the local economy and buy relief items here. Keep talking about this disaster on social media, we need the world to know about the long-term issues.

Thanks again for your support.

Thank you so much for your work! What are the long term goals you hope to accomplish after the initial disaster relief?

Michel: With almost 500,000 houses and 25,000 classrooms destroyed this is going to be a long-term response to get things back to normal.

We're supporting kids to get back into school, get people back into appropriate shelter.

It's not a sprint, it's a marathon to restore the damage done by the earthquake. We'll be here for the long haul.

How do you work and coordinate with other relief agencies, like the Red Cross? Any overlaps which cause friction or does everyone smoothly do their parts?

Coordination is essential in disasters. There are structures for coordination that are used in every major disaster, more on that here if you're interested: http://www.unocha.org/what-we-do/coordination-tools/cluster-coordination

Information sharing, dividing up geographic areas, collaborating to share resources all help us deliver aid as quickly as possible.

Hi, I'm a brazilian young guy and my dream is to work at the UN or another organization where they send people to help in third world countries. I'm still in high school, which is the best path to achieve my dream? I'm currently studying in France, where I plan to graduate high school, learning languages is a big passion for me.

It's good to have a sense of what sort of capacity you'd like to work in. Visit http://www.SavetheChildren.org to see the various types of work we do (education, health, nutrition, child protection, advocacy, disaster response, etc.). From there you will be able to focus your studies and then perhaps get an internship/volunteer with an organisation. Best of luck in your career and life!

Do you save adults too?

We certainly do. Helping parents is a great way to help children. But more specifically, we aim to reach those who have been the most affected and are most vulnerable, which will always be children.

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Paul just got back from the field where he built 126 latrines with the community volunteers. Given how remote it is he could only get there via helicopter. Situation is desperate with lots of collapsed houses.

He's going to be trekking on foot to reach more remote communities for the next five days.

What time is it there? Shouldn't you be out and about saving the children and stuff?!

Gemma: It's 7pm here, our team is working 6 1/2 days a week, 12 hours a day. It's dinner time but we'll be working after we finish this and eat.

We've already reached 131,920 and over 76,000 children

Thanks for taking the time to do this then! Is evening work different to what you do in the daytime?

Yes, during the day we're active in the communities, warehouse, meeting and coordinating with partners and communities. In the evening we're reporting up to our regional and headquarters, catching up with field staff around the country.

Why focus on children? everyone should be saved.

We focus on children because they are always the most vulnerable during and after an emergency. But that doesn't mean we don't aim to help entire communities. Of the 131,000 people we've helped, 79,000 are children.

Ummmm what are you doing here? Go save the children!!

Because through attention they can receive more donations and what not to their organisation. That which leads to stronger aid for those people who suffer through unpleasant circumstances.

We're also trying to ensure that people understand what it is we do exactly. There are many misconceptions about how humanitarian relief works, we're hoping this will help correct some of those.