Scottish Catholic Observer

Scottish Catholics are being urged to pray for and financially help the victims of the earthquake that killed thousands in Nepal last weekend.

The Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund (SCIAF) have pledged an initial £50,000 to help Caritas’ emergency efforts in the Himalayas and the charity is asking its supporters to donate whatever they can to help the relief effort.

Pope Francis said he hoped the world would rally to those caught up in the magnitude 7.9 earthquake which has killed more than 5000, and left thousands more injured, homeless and in need of urgent help.

Lilian Chan, a Caritas aid worker in Nepal, was on the ground there when the earthquake ‘struck without warning’ last Saturday.

“One minute I was filming an interview with a participant in one of Caritas Australia’s programmes in a village outside Kathmandu,” she told the SCO via SCIAF. “The next, we were running to an open field as the ground shook violently and debris from houses went flying overhead.”

Later the Caritas worker journeyed to the capital Kathmandu where she said ‘people were evacuating their homes, with nowhere to take shelter.’

“And we saw patients evacuated from the hospital, only to be treated on the ground, out in the streets,” she added.

Caritas were among the first charities to start responding to the disaster in this remote region.

SCIAF Director Alistair Dutton said their partners in the international Catholic relief network were ‘helping to rescue survivors and have provided tarpaulins for people to sleep under’ within hours of the earthquake.

“They are also giving out food, clean water, blankets and soap,” he said. “We will liaise closely with Caritas Nepal to do whatever we can to help them.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Nepal, the prayers, solidarity and generosity of the Scottish people are crucial to SCIAF’s response.

Bishop Paul Simick of Nepal said he ‘saw houses falling like a pack of cards,’ and that people ‘were running in all directions.’

“It was a very, very frightening scene,” he told Aid to the Church in Need. “I myself had to literally run to save my life.”

Fr Pius Perumana SJ, Caritas Nepal director, said the need for aid was urgent. “It was the worst earthquake I have ever experienced in my life,” he said. “Thank God it was during the day and on a holiday as many people were outside when the quake happened. Rescue is the first priority.

Most of the Scots who were reported as missing in the aftermath of the earthquake have now been traced.

— Members of the public can donate to SCIAF’s Nepal Earthquake Emergency appeal online at www.sciaf.org.uk or by calling 0141 354 5555

—[email protected]

—This story ran in full in the May 1 edition print of the SCO, available in parishes.