After a day on the ground in Nepal, JDC’s veteran disaster response expert and emergency field medic Mike Attinson said he’s struck by the devastation in the city.

“The damage in Kathmandu is visible  – to temples, to the tourist areas. The cultural heritage has been destroyed. People are still sleeping outside, still afraid to go into their homes. They’re still apprehensive,” he said. “The poorer sections of the city were hit worse.

Attinson flew into Nepal with fellow aid workers on what he described as “the airborne UN,” reflecting the dozens of relief workers, government emissaries, and NGO specialists aboard his flight.

Attinson said a visit to JDC’s partners at the IDF field hospital was particularly powerful. JDC helped facilitate the delivery of two critically needed neonatal incubators, and is concurrently working with the Afya Foundation in Yonkers, NY, to pack and ship humanitarian and medical supplies to a Kathmandu hospital. This shipment is being coordinated through the Nepalese Consulate in New York City.

“While the utter devastation and loss of life in Nepal is unimaginable, the needs of injured and displaced are growing and our shipment of supplies will be critical to their survival in the coming weeks,” said Danielle Butin, Director of Afya, which is readying the first shipment of 20 pallets (or 25,000-32,000 pounds) of supplies with help from JDC staff volunteers. “Together with JDC, we have addressed these needs in previous disasters and have been heartened by the public’s response to our call for donations for those hard-hit in Nepal.”

Eileen Donovan, who has been volunteering with Afya since Hurricane Sandy, said the packages, containing medical supplies like Tylenol and aspirin, will help victims of the earthquake recover.

“There’s people without homes. There’s people with a lot of injuries. They’re living out in tents, and they’re petrified,” said Donovan, a retired nurse. “I just hope the help gets to the people that need it.”

Later this week, Attinson and the JDC disaster response team will visit some of the remote towns and villages hardest-hit by the April 25 earthquake, which impacted eight million people and killed more than 5,000.

“What is certainly needed in the outlying villages is activities for their kids, temporary schools, temporary community centers,” he said. “These people lost everything. They lost their homes. They’re in a state of PTSD, a state of shock.”

courtesy JDC