In April 2015, a devastating earthquake struck Nepal. Thousands of lives were lost and more than three million people were left homeless. The Nepalese Fire Service struggled to respond effectively with only 10 functioning fire appliances serving a population of 3.5 million in the Kathmandu Valley (the most at-risk city in the world to earthquakes).

Our FIRE AID member Changing Lives Nepal has been working in Nepal since 2009. Led by volunteer, John Monaghan Changing Lives Nepal has recently sent another large donation of fire and rescue equipment. The equipment is due to arrive in country as the next team of volunteers arrive on 10^th November 2018 to deliver the relevant equipment training. Volunteers from Devon + Somerset Fire and Rescue service and the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service will deliver joint search and rescue training to two disaster relief battalions of the Nepalese Army as well as the British Gurkhas and the Kathmandu Fire Service.

Over the years Changing Lives Nepal has seen how fire fighters are dangerously underequipped with many having to wear tin hats and flip flops to respond to incidents. As a result our recent donation includes a substantial amount of fire fighting equipment and PPE, which will be delivered alongside training to fire fighters from Lalitpur, Salleri, and Bharatpur.

The earthquake also brought destruction and damage to the school and orphanage in Sindupulchowk, an area where Changing Lives Nepal has operated before. Our recent donation also includes clothes, toys, sports equipment, laptops and musical instruments for both the orphanage and school.