KATHMANDU, June 25: The 7.8 magnitude earthquake on 25th April saw much of the familiar skyline of Kathmandu turn to rubble. Villages like Barpak and Larpak in Gorkha district were reduced to nothing but a blot on the map under a cloud of debris. But the monster quake that brought the roofs of many homes crashing to the ground also saw the rise an astounding youth movement.
The army and police forces were in the field as per their duty, but it was out of sheer self-motivation that an estimated 50,000 youths responded to the need of their country.
Earthquake Day: Preparedness, rapid response necessary to tackl...
"Your mind screams at you to go take shelter somewhere safe. But the Nepali soul inside just won't settle. It was not an adrenaline rush-but a selfless calling to act and take up initiative", said 18-year-old Bijaybar Pradhan. Pradhan, who turned up at the Yellow House- a bed and breakfast turned pop-up aid group, echoed the vocation that stirred thousands of youngsters to act. And it was not only youths within the country who were on their heels. An immediate response was shown by the substantial Nepali masses scattered across the globe.
Within an hour of the first major jolt, Bibeksheel Nepali - a youth run political initiative was seen on the grounds at Teaching Hospital, setting up a help desk to assist and manage the victims there. As the hours went by and word spread of the fatalities that the quake had cause, this response team, which had started with just 12 members at Teaching, expanded voluminously.
'Rescue Nepalese 2015 Earthquake Victim', a public group, had formed on Facebook as Mark Zuckerberg set up Safety Check. Rescures were brought in touch with the field situation as the group abroad tried to co-ordinate and assess the type of aid they needed to send in and the locations they were to be sent to. The handle of #HelpNepal and #NepalEarthquake gained momentum as youths at universities abroad formed groups to collect funds and supplies, using the power of networking sites to appeal to their fellow students.
Another youth initiative was showing heady ingenuity at it mapped out the distressed locations in need of immediate help. As reports started to pour in of the projected loss of life and of settlements being wiped out, Kathmandu Living Labs took up the task of aggregating the losses. Responding organizations could subscribe to alerts about remote locations that had still not seen any rescue as dozen of youths with laptops in front and phones vibrating in synchronization with the ground underneath, laid out the "quakemap" from a temporary lab they had set up outside their Baluwatar office.
Efforts like these saw youths reaching out to places where the state had taken a miss. Issues such as sanitation and recreative rehabilitation of the victimized children, which were of importance but not of immediate urgency for the government, were addressed. Groups like that of Milan Rai were mobilizing to construct toilets at the temporary shelters of Tundikhel, Nuwakot, Tokha and Sankhu. These youths made use of the resources they had at hand, working with their hearts up their sleeves and a determination to contribute their ripple in the larger wave national solidarity. "Money alone cannot do anything. It's the determination and vision that are needed", said Milan -- popularly known as the butterfly man.
It's true the earthquake rattled the nation to its core and the heritage sites that are now dust will linger on the scorch of the burn forever. Lives were lost and they were precious, but it's time we begin the ascent. The earthquake broke us, but then again it has given us a chance to not only repair but reconstruct the formerly weak aspects of our nation. Our city plannings and even our education system can now be given a new structure. With all the torrential pouring in of funds and an equally escalated fervor in the young generation, Nepal has been provided an archetypal opportunity to rise up from its devastation. Reconstruction of the nation will require strong leadership and people who are ready to take ownership of the process. Bebeksheel Nepali, Kathmandu Living Labs and Milan Rai's team are just surfacial names-the actual magnitude of the efforts and the participation will be much larger than the records will ever show. And for all this fervor shown by the generation of youngsters-it's up to the authorities governing the functioning of the nation to tap this potential and channel it for the possibilities are great.
