The number of reported victims of the violent earthquake which hit Nepal continues to rise. As always, added to the natural catastrophe are the mortal consequences of social inequalities. Numerous testimonies published in the media show this. [1]. Likewise, a big part of Aid is concentrated in places which are more visible and mediatized, to the detriment of poor areas, particularly devastated, isolated villages, and let us not forget the Indian agglomerations near the Nepalese border which have also been affected.

Facing such humanitarian catastrophes, the policy of our association, Europe solidaire sans frontières (ESSF) has always been to financially support the initiatives of social movements, militant organizations involved in the localities, capable of directly providing assistance to those who need it most – and to help in the self-organization of the victims, for them to be able to defend their rights at times of great fragility ; so too, beyond emergency aid, to prepare the phase of reconstruction for the benefit of the poor and not, for example of the tourist industry.

We do not have presently the links in Nepal which would allow us to work in this perspective of carrying out a solidarity campaign that would be sufficiently effective. On the other hand, we learned that the international peasants network, La Via Campesina, will be doing a campaign in collaboration with its national organization, the All Nepalese Peasants’ Federation (ANPFa) [2].

In its first appeal, La Via Campesina listed the contacts in Nepal where messages of solidarity can be sent, but has not yet provided the bank details for sending financial donations. We will inform you when this will be available, and provide you generally as well with more information.

Pierre Rousset
ESSF