On 25 April, a massive 7.8 earthquake struck Nepal. This natural disaster, the worst in 80 years for the country, has not only taken lives but caused life-threatening living situations for hundreds of thousands of people in Nepal, Bangladesh and India. UNV has established a Nepal Earthquake Taskforce to coordinate the most effective and needed support on the ground. Its first priority was to secure the wellbeing of UN Volunteers in Nepal.
On 25 April, a massive 7.8 earthquake struck Nepal. This natural disaster, the worst in 80 years for the country, has not only taken lives but caused life-threatening living situations for hundreds of thousands of people in Nepal, Bangladesh and India.
UNV has established a Nepal Earthquake Taskforce to coordinate the most effective and needed support on the ground. Its first priority was to secure the wellbeing of UN Volunteers in Nepal.
We are relieved to report that our field presence in Nepal has accounted for all 47 UN Volunteers deployed to the country. In close cooperation with the UN system, we are now making sure our UN Volunteers continue to be safe while supporting response in Nepal stated UNV Executive Coordinator, Richard Dictus. We are proud of you as UN Volunteers staying the course and assisting where needed, and we are determined to guide you through this unpredictable period to the very best of our abilities Dictus said in his official message to our volunteers in Nepal.
We are also reaching out to former UN Volunteers in Nepal, along with the over one hundred Nepalese nationals currently serving as UN Volunteers in other countries. These UN Volunteers make up a network that will be vital to reconstruction efforts within the country. In collaboration with a number of UN partner agencies on the ground in Nepal, UNV is assessing how UN Volunteers can step up to relief efforts. UNV is ready to mobilize large numbers of volunteers with extensive experience in the field of: emergency response, immediate relief operations and humanitarian aid operations.
People who are interested to serve with UN Volunteers in the response to the crisis in Nepal, are invited to register their profiles here. If you are already in the roster, go to myprofile.unv.org and select the code 15Nepal in the Special Recruitment Section. As soon as the needs for specific volunteer assignments are defined, we will publish more details on our social media platforms and website. In the coming days, UNV will share more updates on how UNV is responding to the disaster.