Staff support Nepali colleague

Durga Moktan works for Southern Water in Worthing, where she organised two dress-down days, a cake sale and raffle for her colleagues.

Following the first earthquake in April, Durga’s mother, brother and elderly grandparents were left living on the streets after their homes were damaged in the disaster.

She is able to keep in contact via Skype and on the phone and manages to speak with them daily.

“They feel lucky to have escaped death twice but say they live in fear every day due to the continuous aftershocks,” said Durga.

“I can’t thank my colleagues at Southern Water enough for their kindness and generous donations.”

Durga spent her childhood and adolescent years in Nepal but in 1999, she moved to Worthing.

The Southern Water fundraising efforts resulted in nearly £2,000 being donated to the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) to help with the relief efforts.

Durga has helped raise an additional £2,600 outside of work, through donations and a charity dinner at Gurka Tandoori, the Nepalese restaurant in Rectory Road, Tarring.

The earthquake on April 25 was the worst natural disaster to strike Nepal since the 1934. More than 8,800 people were killed and more than 23,000 were injured.

It was followed by a major aftershock on May 12 and hundreds of thousands of people are now homeless, with entire villages flattened.

DEC member agencies and their partners reached more than half a million people with aid in the first month and the appeal has raised £65million since it opened to donations on April 27.

Chief executive Saleh Saeed said: “I have been very moved by the extraordinary generosity of the UK public in response to the appalling devastation in Nepal.”

Aid was reaching areas that were virtually inaccessible.

She added: “There is no room for complacency. The monsoon is coming.

“The need for emergency shelter and materials to help people begin rebuilding homes is incredibly urgent because conditions for homeless survivors will be soon be intolerable and the road will become even more treacherous.”

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