A chance to help an earthquake widow

We thought you would be interested to read this story of a woman WWR has just started to help, thanks to your generous donations following the earthquake we have been able to help her already.  This is her story, more than anything we ask you to please pray for her.

Sumitra used to live in Kuleshor, Kathmandu with her husband Satrughan and daughter Surupa. Her husband used to work in Civil Mall for family daily bread. She also used to work as care giver in a school but in temporary basis but she had left that job because of daughter’s school. She was searching another job after daughter’s school starts. But entire situation has been changed suddenly after 25^thApril 2015.
On that day, earthquake struck without any warning. She was at church service with her daughter that time. Husband had night duty and that time he was at home sleeping. After earthquake, she gave a telephone call in his mobile phone but he did not receive that. He had night duty that night too and she and her daughter were terrifying so much so Sumitra went to her relative’s house with her daughter. From there she gave several telephone calls but he did not received phone. Then they went to her rented room to check the situation. She found that the house where they were was completely collapsed due to earthquake. The people from neighborhood told her that there was couple of people inside trapped or dead. The debris from that house completely buried her household stuffs and possessions. The only thing she had were the clothes she was wearing. She tried to search for her husband at relative’s houses and every hospital in Kathmandu but she did not find him. Then she had a doubt that he was buried under the debris of destroyed house.
Nepal Army, police and other relief workers tried to search for her husband on the debris from the second day of major earthquake. After four days of hard works of Armies, Polices, her relatives and other rescue workers, they found the dead body of her husband trapped under that destroyed house. This had been taken out after 4 days. Nepal Police gave her the death certificate and the dead body of her husband. Beside that she did not get any relief from government.
She lost not only her husband but lost all possessions. She was not in condition to search of her stuffs from the debris as she was in grief. After a week she tried to search of her stuffs from the debris but she found that all of her stuffs were stolen at night or taken by my neighbors pretending as their possessions. Now she is on the refuge of her relatives. She became widow and has nothing left. She had lost not only her husband but all the household utensils and possessions as well.
She had just admitted herself on class ONE at Prerana School as she had great desire to learn read and write. But it seems very hard for her to continue it. She is helpless by every mean and not able to survive without support from others.
Sumitra is a committed member of Bethsaida Church – Nepal. Originally she is from Makwanpur district. She is from a back ward ethnic group and she has never been to school. She is 27 years old and has one daughter of 6 years.

WWR is desperately trying to find her somewhere to live and will replace all her household goods.  Please pray that a suitable place will be found as available rooms are hard to find since so many were destroyed.  She is in need of a sponsor, which costs £15 per month, but most importantly will commit to pray for her regularly.  Please contact us if you can help, thank you.

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Thank you – we need your help please

Thank you for all the prayer support over the past few days, it has been incredible, we need your donations as well now please.

In the UK please donate to our account with The Cooperative Bank

Account number: 65334928

Sort Code: 089299

or if you want to donate by credit card click here: https://mydonate.bt.com/charities/womenwithoutroofs-nepal

If you are in the USA then we have an account with BB&T

Account Number 0005234831366

Routing Number 051404260

or you can post a cheque (check!) made out to ‘Women Without Roofs Nepal’ to

WWR, 102 Camelot Crescent, Yorktown, VA 23693

Our women have survived, praise God, but are desperate for food which we need to provide as most don’t have jobs to go to for the time-being.  They live hand-to-mouth anyway and don’t have any funds saved.  We are expecting the cost of food to rocket as supply routes are disrupted and shops are currently bare.  We also want to start rebuilding our staff members’ homes and doing what we can to repair where our women live – few places are waterproof and the cracks are letting in rainwater, monsoon is only a month away.  Each woman has lost so much that we need to replace.  Without cooking equipment they won’t be able to make hot food, vital when hygiene is poor and water scarce.  Mostly we want to offer hope to our women and to let them know there are people who care about them.

One of our partner organisations is poised to go into rural areas with teams of volunteers and dried food and provisions they have obtained from wholesalers.  There has been criticism in the media that international relief is focused only on Kathmandu, so we have chosen to support their work with much needed funds.

All money you give to us will go directly to our team in Nepal, we have no overheads in the UK or US.

You can support us too by liking and sharing this post please.

How to help

Thank you so much to everybody who has offered to donate to us.
Right now, we cannot get money to Nepal, there is barely any electricity across the city so banks and ATMs are not functioning. Shops are near enough empty too, so there is nothing to buy. The best thing you can do right now is pray.

Once shops and banks are open again, and supplies are getting in to Kathmandu, we know there is a great need to buy food, blankets, clothing, kitchen utensils and furniture for our ladies that have lost so much. Some will also need ongoing health treatment for injuries they have sustained.

So, if you would like to donate, you can do so in the UK through The Cooperative Bank
Account number: 65334928
Sort Code: 089299

If you are in the USA then we have an account with BB&T
Account Number 0005234831366
Routing Number 051404260

The greatest need right now is for water and emergency food, so we recommend that to aid with those you donate to The Red Cross as we know they are on the ground this moment helping.

Earthquake in Nepal

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-32461019

Thanks you so much to everyone who has sent messages of concern and support following the earthquake.  So far we have only heard from our manager, Bina, in the region.  She says everyone is scared.  I am posting regular updates on Women Without Roofs facebook page, please follow there for the latest.  Please pray for everyone.

Thank you.

A brilliant day!

What a brilliant day! Today one of our new ladies and her crippled son moved out of a slum and into a beautiful room that WWR has been able to furnish for them. They have no possessions of their own. It has taken a couple of weeks to find a room for them because several landlords did not want a cripple living in their property, but our wonderful staff persisted and a room was found! 
[Incidentally, if you are a student lawyer there is great need for more people to work on behalf of tenants in developing countries to protect their rights. In this case landlords were discriminatory against her disabled son and we have known cases where women have had their cooking stoves and belongings confiscated by nasty landlords. In one extreme case a woman was even raped when she couldn’t pay her rent – he exacted ‘payment in kind’. The rights of vulnerable tenants need to be protected and hardly anyone is working to change this – could you help?]

Please read this fantastic story about one of our women, Hasta Kumari

Before
She came to us 5 months after the death of her husband. She has 3 children. Hasta Kumari herself was not well most of the time. She had been to hospital many times for her treatment. She did household work for others and only just survived. It was a difficult time for her.

NOW 
Now we are supporting her with room rent, and child benefit for 3 children.
At Grace Women’s home we gave training for women’s empowerment, she felt she can do work. So, as you know, we have a saving group. She took the loan from the group Rs, 5000 (£35/$50). Then ran a small tea and snacks shop near by her room. She is doing good business at that. She can sell the worth of around 1500 rs per day. She already returned back Rs. 5000 plus interest. On this month she took again Rs. 20000 from the group and she wants to expand the shop.

Nowadays she is happy and also no need to go the hospital frequently like before and is easily providing for her family too.

A mother is too poor to help her son

Can anyone sponsor this woman? She currently lives in a slum, though we are trying to find her a better place to live. Her son suffered from typhoid as a child and consequently is now paralysed; he cannot walk or stand. If she was not so poor she could have afforded treatment for him so that he didn’t become paralysed. It must have been horrific for her to watch him suffer.