Nepal Oxfam

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THE NEPAL EARTHQUAKE

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Transcript of Nepal Oxfam

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THE NEPAL EARTHQUAKE

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Image: Prayer flags in Kathmandu

Photo credit: Dewald Brand/Miran for Oxfam

1WHAT IS A DISASTER?

Page #2You dont bother revising and fail your exams.Your house burns down but you are fully insured.You lose everything in a flood. Thousands of people in your area are affected. Local roads and bridges have been swept away.WHAT IS A DISASTER? Page #How often do you hear someone say: That was a complete disaster? Maybe they burnt the dinner or their football team played badly at the weekend.

As with most things, calling something a disaster depends on a persons point of view and their experiences. Sometimes things happen that may be a disaster for an individual person, like losing their job or failing an exam. Other disasters are much larger and affect thousands or even millions of people. This assembly is about these large scale disasters.

3AN EARTHQUAKE HITS NEW ZEALANDWho helps?

Page #On 22 February 2011 an earthquake magnitude 6.3 on the Richter Scale struck the city of Canterbury in the South Island of New Zealand. 185 people were killed by the earthquake and a further 6,800 were injured. The economic damage to New Zealands economy was estimated at approximately 20.1 billion (NZ$ 40 billion).

Earthquakes are not unusual events in New Zealand. New Zealand is located on the Pacific Ring of Fire, a highly active earthquake zone. It has even been nicknamed the Shaky Islands. The country experiences around 20,000 earth tremors per year, of which around 200 are felt by humans as earthquakes. Since 2000, ten earthquakes in New Zealand have been above 6.0 in magnitude on the Richter Scale. Because New Zealand is a wealthy country, it has been able to set up stringent building regulations, well-prepared emergency services and a public education programme to inform the population what to do in case of an earthquake.

Think about the Canterbury earthquake. Would you expect Oxfam to respond to an emergency in a relatively wealthy country like New Zealand?

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Photo caption: Reconstruction following the 2011 earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand

Photo Credit: Dax Castor. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Reconstructions_following_the_2011_earthquake_in_Christchurch,_New_Zealand.jpg

4AN EARTHQUAKE HITS NEW ZEALANDWho helps?

Page #This is what happened in Canterbury.

After the earthquake, New Zealands National Crisis Management Centre swung into action and was up and running within two 2 hours of the earthquake striking. Their response has been described as the best-organised emergency ever. A satellite orbiting the earth provided data for rescuers while the New Zealand Fire Service coordinated search and rescue with the support of specialist teams from overseas. The New Zealand Air Force had access to a Boeing 757 jet, two Hercules transport planes and helicopters to move people and emergency supplies around the country. The governments housing and welfare departments contacted affected communities and provided cash grants and assistance to those who required them. Organisations like the Red Cross and the Salvation Army also provided help to those in need.

The Canterbury earthquake was undoubtedly a very serious disaster in which many people lost their lives or were injured. Many buildings in the city centre, including the historic Christchurch Cathedral, were damaged beyond repair and 10,000 houses had to be demolished. 80% of power lines were brought down and the water supply was seriously damaged.

Although New Zealand is highly vulnerable to natural disasters, its wealth and resources make it relatively resilient and able to start rebuilding quite quickly.

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Photo caption: Damage to Christchurch Cathedral following the earthquake of 22 February 2011

Photo Credit: New Zealand Defence Force http://creativecommons.org.nz/2012/08/16images-and-stories-of-the-canterbury-earthquake/

Information about the Christchurch Earthquake taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Christchurch_earthquake

5AN EARTHQUAKE HITS NEPALWho helps?

Page #Now contrast the impact of an earthquake in a relatively wealthy country like New Zealand with the impact of an earthquake in a poorer country like Nepal.

On Saturday 25 April 2015, an earthquake of 7.8 magnitude on the Richter Scale struck the Himalayan country of Nepal. Casualty figures on Wednesday 6 May suggested 7,500 people lost their lives and around 16,000 people have been injured. However communication with the regions closest to the earthquakes epicentre, 81 kilometres to the north west of Kathmandu, was poor following the earthquake. Therefore final the number of casualties is likely to be much higher once communications are restored. The Nepalese government estimates 10,000 people may have died.

When a disaster like this hits a country like Nepal, will ordinary people have the same access to emergency services as people in a country like New Zealand? Who would you expect them to turn to for help?

People in poorer countries have far fewer people they can turn to for help because:

Their governments often have less well developed emergency services, so it is more difficult to get help to people who need it.Many emergency workers are also affected by the disaster and may be unable to perform their duties.Fewer people have insurance or savings, so they dont have the resources to rebuild their lives after a disaster strikes.Governments often lack the money and other resources to invest in schools, healthcare and infrastructure (buildings, roads and water and power supplies) to help to get the country back on its feet quickly.More people rely on locally grown food. Crops, livestock and farming equipment can be destroyed by earthquakes. This leads to the risk of hunger.

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Photo caption: People free a man from the rubble of a destroyed building after an earthquake hit Nepal, in Kathmandu, Nepal, 25 April 2015

Photo credit: EPA /Narendra Shrestha6

NEPAL EARTHQUAKE

25 April 2015 Page #7WHERE IS NEPAL?

IndiaChinaPage #Nepal (shaded in red) is a poor landlocked country located in the Himalayas, the worlds tallest mountain range. Nepals population is 27 million people, with just over 1 million living in the capital city Kathmandu. A ten year civil war ended in 2005 and, since then, Nepal has been making progress in reducing the effects of poverty. However hunger and poverty remain widespread, with Nepal currently standing at 145th out of 187 countries on the UN Human Development Index (HDI)

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Map credit: "Nepal in its region" by TUBS - Own work This vector graphics image was created with Adobe Illustrator.This file was uploaded with Commonist.This vector image includes elements that have been taken or adapted from this: World location map (W3).svg (by TUBS).. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nepal_in_its_region.svg#/media/File:Nepal_in_its_region.svg

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Page #Since the 1980s, inequality in Nepal has been increasing. Not only have the wealthy been increasing their share of the national income during the last 30 years, but the wealth gap between the relatively well off capital city of Kathmandu and relatively poorer regions has also been increasing.

When a disaster strikes, it usually affects the poorest people most. In Nepal, poor people lack the money to build sturdy and well-constructed homes. Their brick and wooden tenement buildings, often shared by many families living in cramped conditions, were destroyed by the earthquake. By contrast, the better constructed cement apartment blocks inhabited by the rich have fared better, with fewer collapsing.

Look at the picture and ask these questions:

If a disaster strikes, who is likely to require the most help and assistance from an organisation like Oxfam? The person who can afford to fly first class between the worlds cities or the person who makes a living selling melons in the street?

Who is the most likely to be able to recover the quickest and rebuild their life? The person who can afford to fly first class between the worlds cities or the person who makes a living selling melons in the street?

Inequality is an important factor in shaping the impact of a disaster on a community or a country.

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Photo caption: A man pushes his bicycle, loaded with melons, past a billboard advertisement for Oman Air's first class service.

Photo credit: G.M.B. Akash/Panos

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Page #The earthquake which struck Nepal on Saturday 25 April 2015 was strong, with a magnitude of 7.8 on the Richter Scale. Strong tremors were also felt in large areas of northern and eastern India and Bangladesh. The epicentre of the earthquake was 81 kilometres north-west of the capital city, Kathmandu.

In this photograph rescuers search for survivors stuck under the rubble of a destroyed building in the city. A series of strong aftershocks continued to shake the city throughout the weekend, slowing down rescue work and forcing people to camp out in the streets (see next slide).

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Photo credit: Shristi Rajbhandari

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Page #In this photograph local people have found safe ground in the open air. They are afraid to go back into their homes in case they are trapped by an aftershock. Water and sanitation systems were destroyed and food was running short. The thousands of people sleeping outdoors in poor weather are at risk of hunger and disease.

The international response to the emergency was swift, with the UK immediately sending 5 million in aid. However there are serious shortages of water, food and electricity, while disease is also a concern. The earthquake is estimated to have affected 8 million people including 1.8 million children, and 1.4 million people require food assistance.

Many communities in the poorer and more remote west of the country are feared to have suffered from even worse earthquake damage. In particular, communities living close to mountainsides are believed to have been particularly badly affected. In the past, villages with several hundred inhabitants have been completely buried by rock falls. With an earthquake as severe as this one, rock falls and avalanches are likely to have occurred across a wide area.

The Nepalese government's Chief Secretary, Lila Mani Poudyal, said there was a desperate need for "tents, dry goods, blankets, mattresses and 80 different medicines She continued to explain that Nepal did not have the necessary helicopters or expertise to rescue trapped people.

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Photo credit: Shristi Rajbhandari

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Page #The earthquake has caused long-term damage to Nepals public buildings, peoples homes, the water and electricity supplies and roads and transport. In this photograph, people step over a large crack in the road in Kathmandu.

In more remote regions, entire communities have been cut off and it has been proving difficult to provide the help that people need. It will take many years to repair the damage.

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Photo credit: Shristi Rajbhandari

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Page #This photograph shows one very small part of the international response to the earthquake in Nepal. 5.5 tonnes of water and sanitation equipment is being packed at Oxfams warehouse in Madrid and made ready for a flight to Nepal. Countries which promised an early response to the emergency included China, India, Pakistan, the UK, Australia and New Zealand.

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Photo credit: Pablo Tosco / Oxfam13

WHY ARE SOME DISASTERS WORSE THAN OTHERS?

Page #14THERE ARE MANY TYPES OF DISASTER FloodsWeather -relatedDroughtsWeather - relatedEarthquakesGeologicalStormsWeather - related

Page #So far, you have heard a lot about the earthquakes in Nepal and New Zealand.

However, disasters come in many shapes and forms. Encyclopaedias list 13 different types of disaster, but the following are among the most common: floods, droughts, tropical storms (variously called hurricanes, cyclones and typhoons) and earthquakes.

Disasters can be divided into two main groups; geological disasters and weather-related disasters. Tsunamis (earthquakes on the seabed), earthquakes and volcanoes belong to the first category. Storms, floods and droughts belong to the second category. Climate change is having an impact on weather-related disasters but not directly on geological disasters. Highly vulnerable nations, such as Nepal, may experience both geological and weather-related disasters. The photograph showing flooding on this slide was taken in Nepal.

Some disasters are much more difficult than others to predict and guard against, although the monitoring of movements in the earths crust and observing the development of weather systems has greatly improved in recent years. Disasters like an earthquake are sudden and quickly capture peoples attention. Others, like a drought, build up slowly over time and can go almost unnoticed, despite many people being affected.

The pictures show flooding in Nepal (2007), drought in Somaliland (2009), a storm in Bangladesh (2009) and an earthquake in Pakistan (2005).

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Photo credit: Oxfam Words and Pictures15The vulnerability of people living in a disaster area.The resilience of the people affected by a disaster.Whether governments, people and other organisations are prepared for a disaster.THE IMPACT OF A DISASTER DEPENDS ONPage #Disasters can happen almost everywhere, but their scale and impact can vary greatly. Some disasters are worse than others. Disasters with a similar geological magnitude can have very different human impacts depending on their location.

In 1995 an earthquake hit the Japanese city of Kobe. 6,425 people lost their lives and 100,000 buildings were destroyed or damaged. So this was a serious disaster. But Kobe coped and, like in Canterbury, New Zealand, rebuilding began quickly.

Compare this with the Haiti earthquake of 2010. An earthquake of similar magnitude left 230,000 dead. 280,000 buildings were destroyed or damaged and six months after the earthquake 98% of the rubble remained uncleared.

Why do you think the impact of similar earthquakes in two different countries was so different?

The impact of a disaster is influenced by:the vulnerability of the people living in the disaster area.the resilience of the people who are affected by a disaster. the number of poor people in a country, as poorer people are usually affected more by a disaster than richer people.whether governments, other organisations and ordinary people are prepared for a disaster and have the resources to cope.16Carrefour-Feuille, Haiti, before the 2010 earthquakeVULNERABILITY

Page #The first influence on the impact of a disaster is vulnerability.

Many poor people do not have a choice about where they live and many may be forced to live in hillside slums, on low-lying coasts or on the floodplain of a river.

This was the community of Carrefour-Feuille, just outside Haitis capital city of Port-au-Prince, before the earthquake hit Haiti in 2010.People who lived here built their homes wherever they could and with whatever materials they could get their hands on: they were unlikely or unable to comply with safe building standards.

The community did not have roads to provide access for emergency vehicles. If there was electricity, it was likely to be pirated from the public supply. Most water supplies and sanitation were rudimentary.

Think about how vulnerable the people living on this hillside were to almost any type of disaster an earthquake, a hurricane or a mudslide.

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Photo credit: Photo: Diana Hernandez Cordero/Oxfam

17RESILIENCEA grain store in an area of Tanzania affected by drought

Page #The second influence on the impact of a disaster is peoples resilience.

One way of helping people to overcome their vulnerability to disasters is to work with them to build their resilience or strength.

This is a grain store in Tanzania, built with Oxfams support. It permits the community to store enough grain to last through the dry months of the year when crops do not grow. People here have always lived with drought and have always had to be resilient. But in recent years the droughts have become longer and more severe. New strategies, like the grain store, help people survive the disasters they face.

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Photo credit: Geoff Sayer/Oxfam

18Inside Lebanon not going to schoolEmergency supplies being loaded for a flight to NepalBEING PREPARED

Page #A third influence on the impact of a disaster is how prepared a countrys government, people or other organisations are.

When a disaster strikes, people expect their governments and other organisations to help. Getting emergency help to people quickly can mean the difference between life and death.

Even when governments of poorer countries do invest in so-called disaster risk reduction, they may not have the resources to maintain effective emergency services. Nepal is not alone in being a country without the resources to cope with such a massive earthquake.

When this is the case, the international community - governments, the United Nations agencies and charities like Oxfam - work together to provide humanitarian (or emergency) assistance. This is a photograph showing emergency supplies being loaded for a flight to Nepal.

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Photo: Pablo Tosco/Oxfam

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London, UKNiamey, Nigerthe wealth and resources of a countrys government and people.THE HUMAN IMPACT OF A DISASTER IS INFLUENCED BY...Page #To summarise;

There is a close relationship between the wealth and resources of a country and its people, and the human impact of a disaster. Countries and people that are richer are usually better prepared to cope with a disaster when it strikes.

For example, in June 2010, the UK went on drought warning after the driest start to the year for 46 years. However, unlike countries in West and East Africa, the UK has the resources to manage a dry spell. Apart from hosepipe bans, most people in the UK do not even notice summer droughts.

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Photo credits: Wikimedia Commons20Inside Jordan arriving at the border

THE HUMAN IMPACT OF A DISASTER IS INFLUENCED BYthe degree of inequality within a country.Rio de Janairo, BrazilPage #The degree of inequality within even a relatively wealthy country frequently influences the human impact of a disaster.

This photo shows Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. In the foreground you can see a poor favela community, with badly-constructed houses packed closely together. Nearby, in the background, are the well-constructed apartment buildings, office blocks and hotels of the rich. The high level of inequality between rich and poor in Brazil can be seen in this photo.

Which area will be affected more severely if a disaster strikes?

Rich people are usually more resilient than poor people. For example a rich person may have sufficient money to buy imported food during a drought or sufficient savings to rebuild their home after an earthquake.

If more people were better off and lived in better conditions, would the impact of a disaster be greater or less?

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Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons21

RESPONDING TO DISASTERS

Page #22RESPONDING TO DISASTERSHumanitarian response: meet peoples basic needs just after a disaster.Development: rebuild following a disaster.Building resilience: support people to protect themselves against disasters.Campaigning: persuade governments to do more to support poor people at risk from disasters.

Page #How do Oxfam and other charities respond to disasters like the earthquake in Nepal? Most of the response will be led by people living in the country themselves. But countries badly affected by disasters require assistance and support from outside.

There are four levels of response:

Help meet peoples basic needs for clean water, latrines, safe shelter, health care and food. This is called the humanitarian response.Rebuild and develop. In the longer term, countries affected by disasters need support to earn money, create jobs and provide basic services for their people. This is called development.Build peoples resilience to disasters in the future. This is called adaptation.Charities also work to persuade governments to do more to support poor people at risk of future disasters. This is called campaigning. HUMANITARIAN RESPONSE WaterSanitation

Page #When disasters strike, Oxfam specialises in providing water, sanitation and hygiene to the most affected people.

The photos show a water tank and latrines Oxfam installed in Haiti following the earthquake in 2010.

The humanitarian needs of the people of Nepal, particularly those in the worst hit and more remote regions, will take time to precisely assess. However even early in the emergency it is clear that shelter, clean water, food and other essential items are critical. Many people will have lost common household items such as cooking equipment or changes of clothing and may be sleeping outdoors in poor weather.

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Photo credits: Justine Lesage/Oxfam Quebec, Oxfam Words and Pictures

DEVELOPMENTA school in Sri Lanka rebuilt following the 2004 Tsunami.

Page #Once the immediate emergency is over, Oxfam and other charities turn their attention to development, helping communities get back on their feet and plan for the future.

For example, initial reports suggest that as many as half the schools in some parts of Nepal have collapsed following the earthquake. Future development is difficult when countries face the risk of similar natural disasters happening again in the future. Human beings cannot prevent earthquakes from occurring or volcanoes from erupting, but international support, an effective government and careful planning can help to minimize the risk of future disasters.

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Photo credit: Howard Davies/Oxfam

BUILDING RESILIENCE

A latrine raised above the level of floodwater in BangladeshPage #Part of the process of development is to build peoples resilience against disasters in the future through reducing their vulnerability.

One example is this raised toilet in Bangladesh. Oxfam works with local communities who live in areas at risk of flooding to build their houses, toilets and livestock pens on raised earth platforms above flood levels. During floods, water-borne diseases are a severe risk to health, so it is vitally important to avoid the contamination of floodwater by waste from toilets.

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Photo: Shehab Uddin / DRIK/ Oxfam GB

CAMPAIGNINGDemanding that rich countries take action on climate change at an Oxfam Climate Hearing.

Page #Finally, Oxfam campaigns with people to demand that the international community does all it can to reduce the risk of future disasters and to provide adequate support to those affected by disasters.

For example in 2009, Oxfam brought together millions of people from 36 countries in Climate Hearings to testify about how climate change increases the risk of disasters in their lives and to demand action.

There is a risk that countries affected by disasters will quickly slip out of the news. Campaigning helps to keep ongoing issues of people being vulnerable to disasters at the fronts of world leaders and decision makers minds.

Photo: Oxfam Words and Pictures

GET INVOLVED

Page #28Get involved

Page #So what can you do to get involved, show solidarity and assist people in Nepal to be safe, healthy and rebuild their lives?

One option is to organise a fundraising event. Make it as creative and exciting as you can and take the opportunity to learn new skills as you raise money.

If youre at secondary school you can also become an Oxfam Youth Ambassador. If youre at primary school, ask your teacher to get in touch with us.

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Screen shot: Oxfam home page. 27 4 2015

THANK YOU

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