Doha

A team of Qatar Red Crescent’s 20 professionals and volunteers travelled to Kathmandu on Monday for a quick assessment of damage caused by the massive earthquake that hit Nepal on Saturday.
The relief team will also distribute shipments of emergency relief materials that include food packages, hygiene kits, sheltering materials, tarpaulin sheets and medical supplies.
The QRC team will set up a field hospital that was shipped to Kathmandu on Monday, as well as a water and sanitation system to provide water supply to the affected populations.
The field hospital comprises tents and medical and non-medical equipment. It can be operated by five to eight professionals as well as a group of local volunteers to assist the medical staff. The hospital will be deployed immediately at the disaster-hit location and commence its activities right away.
The self-sufficient healthcare facility can provide a full range of medical services to more than 30,000 individuals for 30 to 100 days without resorting to any external supplies. It’s also equipped with 30-40 beds.
In addition to the field hospital, QRC will ship and provide a “Kit 5” water and sanitation system used for rapid deployment in emergencies. This system is capable of providing clean water supplies for 5,000 beneficiaries. In addition, the system contains three high-quality water tanks (Oxfam) that protect water from being polluted.
QRC issued an emergency appeal on Saturday to raise QR12mn for the relief of Nepal earthquake victims and allocated QR1mn for emergency relief operations. An emergency operation room was set up some 30 minutes after receiving news of the earthquake to assess the situation and define needs based on available information.
Despite the scarcity of early assessment reports due to the outage of telecommunications and destruction of main roads to remote villages, the main needs - based on situation reports issued by the Nepalese government - include the necessity of providing healthcare as well as water and sanitation services, shelters and food provisions in addition to kitchen and hygiene kits, blankets and food packages.
According to several reports, the earthquake caused buildings to collapse in Kathmandu and thousands have been killed. As search and rescue efforts continue, hospitals in the capital continue to function but are stretched to capacity. Powerful aftershocks continue to be felt, causing a risk of further damage to many buildings and leading to a climate of fear among the local population, many of whom are scared of returning to their homes.
QRC currently receives online donations via www.qrcs.org.qa
Ooredoo customers can also SMS “L” to 92176 to donate QR50, to 92766 to donate QR100 or to 92770 to donate QR500.