Dear Friends,
We recently received this report from our ministry partners in Nepal who are working in the quake areas. Your gifts are making a difference as GLOW is able to reach out to many through your help. Many hundreds of their church members like the woman shown here have lost homes in the devastating quakes. Even now ministry workers are trekking into difficult areas to bring aid, and are also reaching out to those in their immediate areas.
The women at GLOW (God’s Love for Orphans and Widows), shown here, are a few of those who have been working long hours to make clothing for those who have lost everything. These women are among the widows and single women who have been trained in GLOW’s sewing classes in part through help from Hope Builders. Most people in the quake areas lost everything they owned when their houses collapsed in the earthquake’s aftermath. After the earthquake GLOW immediately began providing emergency food aid, water and tarps that were used to put up tent like protective structures. You can see their gladness in the picture below as they received the tarps.
The short-term and long-term effects of the disaster are difficult to fully comprehend. Hundreds of thousands of families are without homes as the monsoon season looms, and the quakes and subsequent landslides and avalanches have undercut the country’s two primary sources of livelihood, agriculture and tourism. A leader of an indigenous ministry working in Dolakha District, where most of the casualties of the second earthquake occurred, said that 70,000 of the 75,000 houses there were destroyed. Another ministry leader said most survivors are living in the open air and need tents, food, water and medical assistance. Most aid that is being sent worldwide goes through government hands and is very slow to reach those most in need. That’s why we are so blessed to be able to work directly with Nepalis like Resham and Sita who can use sent funds to buy and prepare the kinds of goods that will bring relief to the hurting as well as love and comfort in the name of Christ. Clothing for a woman costs $10 and clothing for a child costs $5 to produce. Sita is pictured, on the left, with some of the GLOW center women and a sample of the clothes they have produced.
Thank you for your loving prayers and support for our brothers and sisters in Nepal.
Lance Thollander