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A school group photograph of a child lies amid the debris of a house that collapsed in the earthquake

Nepalese community leaders call for donations in Bahrain

MANAMA, April 27, 2015

An urgent appeal for donations has been launched by the Nepalese community in Bahrain for victims of a deadly earthquake.

Officials from the Nepalese Embassy and the Nepali Club gathered last night to co-ordinate efforts in raising funds for people affected by Saturday's magnitude 7.8 earthquake, which has killed more than 2,500 people and injured over 5,400 in Nepal, said a report in the Gulf Daily News (GDN), our sister publication.

They urged individuals and organisations in Bahrain to support those devastated by the earthquake by donating money, blankets, food, drinking water, tents, medicine and first aid kits.

“What happened is a massive destructive crisis for the people of our country,” Nepalese Ambassador Mani Prasad Bhattarai told the GDN.

“Rescue teams are not even able to reach the affected areas to save people. In some rural and mountainous areas helicopters also can't find a place to land.

“The infrastructure is damaged and it will take around 15 years for the country to recover.

“Therefore the government of Nepal is seeking international assistance and the embassy has forwarded the request to the Foreign Ministry in Bahrain.

“We have also issued an urgent notice in our website asking for help from the international community and from people and organisations in Bahrain.”

Bhattarai said the embassy has been in constant contact with Nepalese nationals living in Bahrain and some Bahrainis visiting Nepal.

“We are trying our best to get in contact with Nepalese here to check if anything happened to their relatives or if their homes are damaged,” he added.

“The embassy will facilitate ways for them to go to Nepal if they want to and the Nepalese government has announced compensation of 40,000 rupees ($394) as immediate release for each victim.

“We are also calling Bahrainis who went to Nepal for tourism and we have checked on eight people that we have issued visas for, but there are four that we don't know anything about.

“It could be that they have not even travelled to Nepal. We contacted their families and they also don't know if they are in Nepal or any other country.

“It is also difficult to get information about those who went to Nepal with visa on arrival because we don't have their contact numbers.”

Meanwhile, the embassy's labour attache Bishorajneu Pane urged telecommunication companies in Bahrain to provide free overseas calls for Nepalese nationals.

“It would be great if Bahrain telecommunication companies provide free calls for Nepalese people to check on their families,” he said.

“Viber has already done that for Nepalese people as it switched off the billing for its Viber Out feature.” - TradeArabia News Service




Tags: Bahrain | Nepal | Community | Donation | leader |

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