Nepal needs our help

With the death toll over 4,000 and rising, Nepal is struggling to cope with the aftermath of a powerful earthquake.

Striking with an initial magnitude of 7.8 on the Richter scale, one of the most powerful in the last 100 years for Nepal, the earthquake and its aftershocks caused buildings to collapse in many parts of the small, landlocked nation of 28 million people.

According to Geohazards International, people are 60 times more likely to be killed in an earthquake in Nepal than in Tokyo (a city frequently hit by earthquakes). With a GDP per capita ($694 in 2013) lower than that of nearby Bangladesh and comparable to that of Afghanistan, Nepal has suffered damage beyond its ability to recover from on its own. 

External help is crucial to assisting survivors as well as to the rebuilding process, and the international community has responded.

As international organisations and governments across the world offer help to the Nepalese, Canadians are stepping up. Please help provide emergency assistance to Nepal’s relief efforts by donating to the Humanitarian Coalition. The Humanitarian Coalition consists of five charitable member agencies: CARE Canada, Oxfam Canada, Oxfam-Québec, Plan Canada, and Save the Children Canada.

Help the relief effort by donating online at:
http://humanitariancoalition.ca/our-appeals/nepal-earthquake

The Government of Canada is going to match your donation if you donate to the relief fund by May 25th, 2015. You can, of course, donate or keep donating after the government match deadline.

Canada has already contributed $5 million to assist Nepal in the relief efforts and promised to send the military’s Disaster Assistance Response Team. Let’s do our part by donating what we can to the rebuilding of Nepal and the 8 million people affected by the earthquake.

Poster credit: Humanitarian Coalition

 

Tags: Canadian aid policy, Canadian military, CARE Canada, Disaster Assistance Response Team, Government of Canada, Humanitarian aid, Humanitarian Coalition, International Aid, Nepal, Nepal earthquake, Oxfam, Oxfam-Canada, Oxfam-Quebec, Plan Canada, Save the Children Canada