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Xinhua News Agency/REX
World News

Nepal earthquake recovery "on track" three months on, says CAFOD

by Aaron James

The earthquake struck the south Asian country on April 25th 2015, killing more than 8000 and leaving more than 450,000 homeless.

Since then the Disaster Emergency Committee (DEC) - a coalition of Christian and other charities - have raised £83m for the country.

CAFOD has said that while they did not begin the recovery effort with particular expectations of where it would be in three months time, good progress had been made before the upcoming monsoon season, when rebuilding activities can become impossible.

It said that water supplies were still a major problem, and that it was working on solving this before the monsoon season approached.

The charity also highlighted the pivotal role churches are playing in rebuilding the nation, particularly in communities which cannot be reached by outside agencies.

Giovanna Reda, Head of Humanitarian Operations in Asia at CAFOD, also urged Christians to pray for the country's people, who have experienced significant emotional trauma after the earthquake.

She told Premier: "The relief efforts are on track, so this is good news, especially compared to the monsoon season. So we wanted to deliver most of the aid before the monsoon season, and we have succeeded in doing this.

"Sanitation and hygiene promotion should be more emphasised in the Nepal response. We know very well that all the UN agencies, including the government of Nepal, have focused their efforts on shelter. But we do think still that washing [facilities] still need some intervention.

"They [the churches] are very rooted in their communities, especially in very remote villages, so this is very important from a protection perspective, because in this way we are reaching people that otherwise couldn't be reached through the normal delivery of aid.

"We have to think about their psychological recovery from the earthquake... They really need to overcome the fear that they have got. The 25th of April earthquake has been devastating... They're still very much traumatised. So I think we do need to pray and to think about this."

Listen to Premier's Aaron James speaking to Giovanna Reda here:

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