Medical student Gyalsten Gurung, 25, pictured in a yellow jacket, returned to Upper Dolpo to instruct villagers about COVID-19. Here, on March 27, 2020.
(Gyalsten Gurung)
During the COVID-19 crisis, some medical students at school in Pokhara, Nepal, went to rural Himalayan villages to teach about the virus. Others go home to challenge social inequities.
Bhaktapur Durbar Square in January 2020.
Vanicka Arora
Bhaktapur suffered 300 deaths, 2,000 wounded and over 30,000 houses damaged in the 2015 earthquake. Heritage restoration has become crucial to community recovery.
Domestic migrants work at a construction site in Dhading, Nepal. February 2020.
(Sara Shneiderman)
Nepal’s past dealing with multiple disasters, including the aftermath of its civil war and the massive earthquake of 2015 may have helped the country prepare for the current COVID-19 crisis.
On March 18, 2020, a student configures a modified medical robot to screen and observe patients with VIDOC-19 at the Regional Robotics Technology Centre at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok.
LILLIAN SUWANRUMPHA/AFP
With the enhanced capabilities of today’s robots and drones, recent examples from China and Thailand and ongoing research show that they have the potential to help us navigate disasters.
UNESCO world heritage site Patan Durbar Square, Kathmandu.
Shahed360/Shutterstock.
It’s understandable to want to shield children from the impacts of disasters. But research suggests that they should be given a voice in disaster planning and a role in reducing the risks.
Pregnant women and new mothers who feel totally powerless are taking their own lives in increasing numbers in Nepal. More mental health training for local midwives is needed.
More than 600,000 buildings were fully damaged in the 2015 earthquake in Nepal.
Jason von Meding
Reconstruction progress in Nepal has been painfully slow. Building code compliance and better urban planning are a must – but inequitable access to resources undermines recovery.
Workers rebuild a temple damaged during the 2015 earthquake, in Bhaktapur.
Reuters/Navesh Chitrakar
Over 8,500 were killed in the 2015 Nepal earthquake, so how is the country coping?
While firefighters battled widespread fires in New South Wales in October 2013, hundreds of thousands of people turned to social media and smartphone apps for vital updates.
AAP Image/Dan Himbrechts
Terry Flew, Queensland University of Technology y Axel Bruns, Queensland University of Technology
When disaster strikes, more people than ever are turning to social media to find out if they’re in danger. But Australian emergency services need to work together more to learn what works to save lives.
It will be many years before life returns to normal in the Langtang valley, one of the regions worst-affected by the earthquakes in Nepal.
Scott Mattoon/flickr
Hayley Saul and Emma Waterton were in the Langtang valley in Nepal when the massive earthquake hit. Dallas Rogers spoke to Hayley and Emma about their subsequent rescue and the everyday Nepalese hero.
The April 2015 earthquake flattened villages and towns, but more may be to come.
AAP Image/Jonathan Hyams/Save The Children
New research shows the earthquake that struck central Nepal in April this year was only a partial rupture of the fault line, meaning another strong quake could be due in future.
Would giving disaster victims cash, rather than just supplies, help them get back on their feet faster?
Reuters
When disaster strikes, billions of dollars are spent on food and supplies, with little accounting of whether relief groups bought the right things or what impact they had.
With many people in need of shelter and schools only now re-opening, Nepal is not yet ready to restart the lucrative tourism industry that will help its recovery.
EPA/Narendra Shrestha
While some operators have prematurely suggested it’s safe for tourists to return, Nepal’s recovery from the earthquake has barely begun. In the longer term, though, tourism will be vital to this process.
School children in Kathmandu before the earthquake.
Anna Childs
Politics in Nepal will hinder relief and recovery efforts following the earthquake and its aftershocks. But look at it the other way around. Could the disaster help to resolve political problems?
On top of the devastation following the first earthquake, a second has hit.
EPA
Following the earthquake in 2010, people flocked to Haiti to “rescue” orphaned and lost children. The problem that has since emerged is that many of the “orphans” placed in orphanages and sent for adoption, were not orphaned at all.