JOEL ROSE, HOST:
We're going to stay now with the human impact of the floods in Nepal. World Vision International is a Christian relief group, one of many organizations working in the region to provide emergency lifesaving services after the flood. We've called Dhruba Gurmachhan, the programme readiness manager for World Vision in Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, to find out how their field operations are going. Welcome to the program.
DHRUBA GURMACHHAN: Thank you, Joel.
ROSE: We've seen some powerful images over the past few days of the destruction. You've been to some of these affected areas yourself. Tell us, what did you see there?
GURMACHHAN: What I can see is only flood, sands, muds mixed with all those kind of debris. And I was very terrified looking at the ground. So it is very difficult to explain you at the moment because stink very bad there. It is very bad, and...
ROSE: The stink - you mean the smell?
GURMACHHAN: Yes, smell.
ROSE: Yeah.
GURMACHHAN: People died there, and we don't know how many are under those. We don't know. There were people standing beside the river looking at their house which was swept away. And I can see tear in their face, tear in their eyes, and the eyes were - eyes was red. And I've also met one girl. She's about 7 or 8 years old, wearing dark blue T-shirt. She has lost her entire family, and she was only the person survived there. She can't speak anything, traumatized totally. I can't explain - even though I was not so much affected by those kind of things, seeing those kind of things, psychologically, I was traumatized.
ROSE: Yeah, it sounds absolutely heartbreaking.
GURMACHHAN: Yes.
ROSE: Is there a - one moment that's really going to stay with you?
GURMACHHAN: The face of that child - I can't forget in my entire life. Last night, I took an interview with one of the TV program, and I tried to sleep. But the image that I saw - I remember whole night. Early in the morning, I tried to clear those kind of things with prayer and meditation. But still, I remember those kind of things.
ROSE: What is the biggest challenge to providing services right now?
GURMACHHAN: Today, we have sent two trucks of food to the next side of the river. But other side of the river, it was totally unreachable. Probably tomorrow, we are thinking to hire some helicopter, if government allows us to do that. So we'll be providing some of the food items there if the coordination and everything goes well.
ROSE: I've been speaking with Dhruba Gurmachhan. He is a programme readiness manager in Kathmandu for World Vision International. Thank you for your work, and thank you for joining us today.
GURMACHHAN: Thank you, Joel, for having me here. Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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