Johnson calls for people with medical skills to urgently support the Nepalese aid work

May 6, 2015

The University of Canterbury’s Sam Johnson, who led the university’s Student volunteer Army after the Christchurch earthquakes, has appealed on anyone with medical skills to head to Nepal.

Johnson has been helping in Nepal for the last week following the earthquakes that have killed thousands of people and devastated many villages and many parts of the capital Kathmandu.

Johnson accepted an urgent invitation to go to Kathmandu on behalf of the Student Volunteer Army from the Global Peace Foundation and Nepalese Ministry of Youth who work closely with the Asia Pacific Peace and Development Service Alliance, of which he is the co-chair.

“Anyone with medical skills should come here and help. They should bring whatever they need for a couple of weeks and ride up as far away as they can and teach people how to care for themselves. Our group of young people took 50 tents up to my friends’ isolated village.

“It has been funny to see people giving out water bottles so there is no water shortage outside of Kathmandu. The four hour drive to the mountainside village of Batase was on the roughest road I have ever been on.

“The key thing they need is to have help digging through rubble for their food. It’s getting wet and the food will go rotten. The rebuild is a long way off. It will take years. People are sleeping in tents and under tarpaulins. We slept under a tarp for the night with the locals. One day I went with my friend to see his brother’s grave, and where he was killed by the earthquake.

“We have nine to 12 people in our truck all the time. Quite often volunteers got out so we could taxi people with broken legs for medical help. We picked up a mum on the side of the road with a three-day-old baby. We met another family who lost two of their sons. The area was very remote.

“We worked for a few hours physically clearing a road, walked for three hours to a remote village and helped locals cut grass urgently as the cattle were dying of hunger.

“These people in these small areas need serious help. They need volunteers. They need people to come to Nepal and help in these far flung villages.

“We saw only one urban search and rescue team (USAR) out in the rural areas. I cannot understand why there are not more. We saw no police or no army offering support.

“I felt humble and safe the whole time apart from the roads which are horrific and fierce thunderstorms and landslides.”

Long term Johnson says his team is starting to look at how they can rebuild a village school. He is in discussions with a United Kingdom philanthropist who has offered financial and logistical support.

The University of Canterbury’s Student Volunteer Army is helping with the Nepal New Zealand Friendship Society New Zealand fundraising effort for Nepal and they have already raised $43,000 for the campaign. See: https://givealittle.co.nz/cause/nz4nepal#.

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