©InfoMaya Karka, 49, a food farmer from Kamal community has lived in her community for 29 years. She spends her days working the field from morning till evening but sets aside a few hours a week for Red Cross activities, from which she has gained new and valuable skills to deal with disasters.
Maya says: “Various types of disasters have affected my community ranging from river floods, snakebites, fire and wild elephant attacks. For years, we did not have the knowledge, skills and ideas on how to prepare for disasters and we did not have good community co-operation and co-ordination with each other.
“One day when I returned from working in the field, I found my neighbour unwell. He had injured his arm and was in a lot of pain. As soon as I saw the injury, I immediately suspected a fracture as I had learned to recognise the signs through my Nepal Red Cross first aid training. I was able to support his hand and advise my neighbour what to do until he could get medical attention the following day.”
Growing in confidence
Maya is very pleased that she was able to help another member of her community and more so because health facilities are so far away. She added: “Since attending the training, I feel safer in my own community and I have grown in confidence and am able to diagnose and treat bleeding, shock and fractures. I am also able to make an emergency stretcher.”
Resting on her chair, with a big smile, Maya thanks the Red Cross for bringing the disaster risk reduction programme to her village. She says: “In the past, if we as a community faced problems, we relied on others like the Red Cross to help us but now with the skills we’ve acquired, we are able to help ourselves and address our own problems.
”Before the Red Cross programme, we faced problems as individuals. Now, we are a united community – we live together, work together and die together.”
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