In the wee hours of Wednesday, 2^nd August,2014 our country faced one of the most catastrophic natural calamities that claimed hundreds of life along with damage to properties and infrastructure. The landslide happened around 1:30 am in Balde, Mahankal VDC-6 of Sindhupalchowk district. While the locals were sound asleep, it swept them away, before they even had a chance to save themselves. It was indeed a tragedy but what’s more tragic was the aftermath that followed.

On the 7^th of December, The DWIT Social Service Club organized a survey to know about the upshot of the calamity. A total of 10 people visited the place which included 8 students and Bijaya Shrestha as a college representative. We visited the victim area and interacted with the local people about the lifestyle they are having, their problems; their hardships and their hope. It seems that they have not received help and support they should be getting. Though relief funds and ration are being distributed, the government seems to oblivious getting involved in the whole procedure and the funds that flow in are mostly from outside sources. While talking to a local man who lost his whole family in the landslide, he said that although the government has assured to relocate and provide compensation for the loss of properties, he doubts he will ever receive them because of the politics that runs to the very core of our governing system. All he wants from the government is the support and at most an employment opportunity so that he will not have to rely on others to sustain and make a livelihood. For a man who has lost everything I'd say that’s not much to ask for. With the type of government we have now, the relief funds rarely reach the victims; even if they reach, it seems to be in such an insignificant amount. Among the victims, there were many children too. To know more about it, we visited a school which didn’t look like a school in any manner. It didn’t have the minimum infrastructure a school needs, to be called a school. The school had tents all over as substitute of rooms; and cold floor instead of desks and benches, where the children’s parents were struggling to pay the fees due to the disaster. Considering their condition it is quite obvious that they cannot afford to pay for their children’s education. Several donations have been received by the school for re-construction from several sources. But I must say that the local authorities are doing their work and have devised a well-coordinated plan to distribute the relief funds and food to the victims. They do seem to be working very hard to bring back the place to normal conditions. There I saw how we Nepalese are strong enough to rise up from any disaster no matter how catastrophic and show all that even in the face of death and sorrows we stand together to be reborn from those very ashes like phoenix but the support from the government is need to do so. (Shreya Acharya works as a volunteer reporter for the DWIT News.)