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REPORT
Airlink Response
7.8 Magnitude Earthquake, Nepal
Rapid air support for humanitarian relief
2
Waves for Water
PureWorks Foundation
Contents
3 | Airlink Response: Building a Relief Network
4 | Nepal Situational Overview
5 | Airline and NGO Partners
6 | Impact: By the Numbers
7 | NGO Partner Report: ACTS World Relief
8 | NGO Partner Report: All Hands Volunteers
9 | NGO Partner Report: Disaster Tech Lab
10 | NGO Partner Report: Global Outreach Doctors
11 | NGO Partner Report: PureWorks Foundation
12 | NGO Partner Report: Waves for Water
13 | Airlink Sponsors
COVER PICTURE
Members of an All Hands Volunteers disaster
assessment team reviewing damage in
Kathmandu, Nepal in early May, 2015.
3
Airlink Response: Building a Rapid-Response Relief Network
In the months since the first earthquake hit Nepal on April 25, 2015, the Airlink team has worked hard to
overcome a variety of obstacles that made deployment of relief workers and material aid challenging. As
we often find in crises like this, the supply chain was constricted, flights for cargo and passengers were
scarce, and the unique logistics of the region proved difficult to navigate. However, we are proud to have
overcome these obstacles, helping deploy 80 relief workers and nearly 78,000 pounds of aid supplies,
and delivering more than $260,000 in value to our partner nonprofits.
Airlink and its partners would like to thank British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Etihad Airways, Qatar Airways,
and United Airlines for their kind generosity and hard work in response to the earthquakes in Nepal, which
made the deployments in this report possible. Without the help of these airline partners, many thousands
of people would still be without access to medical treatment, clean water, and the support they
desperately need in order to begin to rebuild their lives in the aftermath of this devastating natural
disaster.
Airlink would also like to thank the many donors who gave through CrowdRise and directly to the Airlink
Disaster Response Partnership. Airlink would like to recognize United Airlines in particular for their support
in sponsoring the CrowdRise fundraiser that enabled Airlink to raise more than $218,000. With the help
nearly 1,200 donors, we have been able to coordinate four shipments of aid cargo totaling nearly 31 tons
that will provide critically needed shelter and medical supplies to those in need.
To date, we have used over $80,000 of the more than $218,000 raised for the Disaster Response
Partnership, and will continue to draw upon these funds to dispatch further aid shipments in the coming
weeks. As we continue to help our partners respond in Nepal and beyond, we are grateful for your support.
Photo Credit: All Hands Volunteers (left), Mike Morse/Global Outreach Doctors (right)
4
Situational Overview
On April 25, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck
central Nepal, followed by a second 7.3
magnitude earthquake on May 12, devastating
many areas throughout the country. The death
toll reached more than 8,800 people, and more
than 23,000 were injured. The UN estimates that
8 million people - nearly a third of Nepal’s
population - were affected by the earthquakes
across 39 of the country’s 75 districts. The most
severely impacted areas included the Kathmandu
Valley, and the Sindhupalchok and Gorkha
Districts.
Photo Credit: Ethan Lovell, Waves for Water (top
right and bottom right); All Hands Volunteers
(bottom left).
5
Airline Partners
Nonprofit Partners
Our Partners
Airlink works to create an industry-wide force for good by uniting airlines, logistics resources, and other
aviation service providers to deploy material aid and relief workers in times of disaster. By leveraging an
extensive partner network, Airlink is able to empower efficient and effective humanitarian relief
worldwide.
6
Impact: By the Numbers
Airlink is a rapid-response, disaster and humanitarian relief organization that works to link pre-qualified
NGOs with airlines in order to transport material aid and relief workers. Airlink’s dependable, rapid-
response business model allows our NGO partners to act swiftly to deploy skilled personnel and volunteers
as well as lifesaving supplies into areas of need. The funds NGOs save on transportation can, in turn, be
spent on direct program expenditures. Arriving on site sooner, and with vital aid, our partners are able to
achieve a level and scope of response that otherwise would not be possible.
7
NGO Partner Report: ACTS World Relief
Thanks to Airlink and the generosity of partner airline Etihad Airways, the 18-person medical team from ACTS World
Relief were among the first on the ground following the earthquake. Within days of the quake, Airlink’s airline
network helped them deploy a group of experienced disaster medics to assess trauma and triage needs and
administer emergency care.
The team of medical personnel broke off into three separate teams and worked with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical
Center (BIDMC), a Harvard Medical School Teaching Hospital affiliate, at the main hospital in Jiri and neighboring
remote villages. The teams saw more than 700 patients, and support included medical assistance, psychosocial
trauma counseling, medical training, debris removal, and distribution of over US$1 million in medical supplies. This
team also assisted in distributing over 5 tons of food aid to local people who were displaced.
Photo Credit: ACTS World Relief
8
NGO Partner Report: All Hands Volunteers
Thanks to Airlink and partner airlines Cathay Pacific and Etihad Airways, 25 people from All Hands Volunteers’
disaster assessment and rebuilding teams are hard at work on this response. At the beginning of May, 2015 a rapid
response team deployed to work alongside UNICEF teams to create child-friendly spaces and build classrooms in
Kathmandu, providing relief for thousands of children, who are often the most vulnerable victims of a disaster.
Meanwhile, in conjunction with other partner nonprofits, 56 volunteer relief workers – coordinated by All Hands
staff - distributed 4,500 emergency relief packages containing shelter and WASH items to Nepalese communities
impacted by the earthquake.
Team leaders traveled to villages in Kathmandu Valley for debris clearance and to assess structural damage, meeting
with the UNDP to set up longer-term rebuild projects, and coordinators are running registration and skills-tracking
operations to send local and international volunteers to rubble sites to assist in debris removal. One such situation
is quite dire; in Sindhupalchok, more than 90% of the buildings were destroyed, and rebuild teams will need to build
all necessary facilities (offices, barracks, sanitation facilities, etc.) in order to begin the rebuilding project.
Based on these assessments, the team has set up Project Nepal, which will tentatively run through August.
Coordinators and volunteers are working on long-term rebuilding efforts in Kathmandu and Sindhupalchok, the
areas hardest hit by the earthquake.
Photo Credit: All Hands Volunteers
9
NGO Partner Report: Disaster Tech Lab
As soon as the need for medical teams in Nepal became apparent, Disaster Tech Lab made the decision to activate
a team for immediate response in the region. Thanks to Airlink and partner airline Etihad Airways, 7 people were
able to deploy quickly into the field. They established a base camp with partner Operation Mobilisation (OM), an
international NGO that has been working in Nepal for many years, and quickly worked to carry out a medical needs
assessment in Melamchi, northeast of Kathmandu.
On May 8, the team set out on a five-day mission to the rural area northeast of the basecamp, hiking as far as the
village of Lagarche, and met up with a unit from the Nepalese Army that was doing relief work in the area. In the
four days that followed, the team set up medical clinics to treat people from the wider area, addressing infected
wounds, fractures, sepsis, burns and other earthquake-related traumas. In total, the team treated 109 people. The
team also assisted in daily tarp and food distribution runs in cooperation with OM, as well as conducting assessments
and running interim medical clinics at each distribution site.
An additional 5 specialists were deployed via Airlink’s Disaster Response Fund to assist in rebuilding
telecommunications infrastructure, making nonprofit recovery operations more efficient.
Photo Credit: Disaster Tech Lab
10
NGO Partner Report: Global Outreach Doctors
With the help of Airlink’s bank of frequent flyer miles through the United Charity Miles program, the GoDocs team
deployed an initial team of 3 medical and 4 search and rescue staff, as well as 3 SAR canines, to Kathmandu just 48
hours after the earthquake. Though the roads were barely passable, their caravan of 4×4 trucks loaded with staff,
equipment and medicine made it to remote villages in need.
The medical team provided care for approximately 100 patients a day, most in areas that had not received much
medical care even prior to the earthquake. The team treated patients with head injuries, lacerations, bacterial/viral
infections, fractures, muscle/skeletal injuries, and gastrointestinal issues, as well as emotional trauma from losing
loved ones. Meanwhile, the canine SAR team conducted several searches within collapsed buildings and other
rubble piles, some of which were requested in rural regions, and others that were more comprehensive in the hard-
hit Bhaktapur region.
Photo Credit: Mike Morse / Global Outreach Doctors
11
NGO Partner Report: PureWorks Foundation
In partnership with Airlink and airline partners Cathay Pacific and Etihad Airways, a 12-person medical team from
PureWorks arrived in the remote village of Nuwakot northwest of Kathmandu on the afternoon of May 18 and
immediately set up in a nearby school.
During the first five-day deployment, the team treated approximately 200 patients with ailments ranging from
earthquake-related injuries to respiratory issues, and held three days of comprehensive clinics. For many people,
lingering problems stemming from the earthquake had begun to fester, and without immediate aid, could have
become life-threatening. On the team’s second day in Nuwakot, the team met with an elderly woman who had
broken her femur after her home collapsed in the first earthquake. She was carried in on a stretcher made of tarps
and bamboo poles. The team coordinated transportation and critically-needed surgery at Patan Hospital for her and
another 83-year-old woman with a broken hip.
On their second deployment to Ganeshthan, the team treated 300 people. The team helped transport another two
elderly women to Kathmandu for intensive treatment - one with a dislocated hip and another with broken ribs.
PureWorks concluded its time in Nepal with a two-day deployment to Phalante, where they treated approximately
400 patients.
Photo Credit: PureWorks Foundation
12
NGO Partner Report: Waves for Water
Thanks to Airlink’s United Charity Miles and partnerships with Cathay Pacific and Etihad Airways, Waves for Water
has been active on the ground since April 26, just 24 hours after the earthquake hit. They were able to reach out to
mountain villages around Kathmandu that had been leveled by the earthquake to distribute water filters to those
whose water resources had been cut off due to damage. The team also initiated a water filter program with the
Nepalese Army, outfitting often-overloaded Army hospitals around Kathmandu with filtration systems, bringing
clean water to the medical facilities and the surrounding areas where civilian staff are stationed.
The team installed more than 500 water filter systems – enough to provide more than 50,000 people with clean
water for five years - through direct implementation, as well as their “train the trainer” approach, which leverages
partnerships with the military and international nonprofits, activating potable water projects in 8 districts.
Through the “train the trainer” program, the Nepalese Army now implement filter systems daily in tent camps and
hospitals around Kathmandu. Through partnerships with the military and the Nepal Ministry of Health, 27 camps
and 8 hospitals now have a consistent and reliable source of clean water for both workers and patients. Waves for
Water has also partnered with CNFNepal to provide water for orphanages around Kathmandu Valley. Since the initial
training, CNFNepal have implemented water solutions in 50 orphanages. They continue to install water filtration
systems throughout the affected areas as they assess further need.
Photo Credit: Ethan Lovell, Waves for Water
13
Our Sponsors
Airlink is grateful for the continued support of its sponsors, who enable Airlink to carry out both day-to-
day operations and disaster relief efforts year-round. We are proud to receive monetary and in-kind
support from a variety of organizations and corporate entities, both from within the airline industry and
beyond.
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Airlink
1023 15th St. NW, Suite 1100 Washington, DC 20005 +1 202.480.9241 airlinkflight.org
All Hands Volunteers PureWorks Foundation
Waves for Water