Visit to Taruka

This week, Dr. Stefan Wolff visited Taruka with several other doctors and many volunteers. They brought food, tents and medicine. Taruka is a mountain village north-west of Kathmandu. It has been hit hard by the earthquake - more than fifty percent of the approximately 100 houses are either severely damaged or have collapsed. A television journalist of ABC Nepal TV accompanied the volunteers to call attention to the situation in the villages. Altogether, 400 people may live in Taruka.

Dr. Stefan Wolf: "After four hours driving on unpaved roads - two hours of them on the truck bed of a pick-up truck - we were covered in dust from head to toe. We have been awaited eagerly, because no relief team has been there yet. But people were calm, polite and cordial - Nepali-like. First of all we distributed food and tarps. Meanwhile, half of the village was already lining up at the makeshift treatment benches and could be examined and treated, glad to get medical care and some human attention at last. In addition to routine symptoms, many complained of insomnia, stress symptoms and pain. The severe cases already had been brought to the hospital by the community during the past few days, because no rescue team had found its way here yet. During the next weeks, the supply with rapidly installable, monsoon-proof temporary housing will have a high priority.”