On April 25th, an earthquake of 7.9 magnitude struck Nepal, causing extensive catastrophic damage. Now, the country needs as much help and support as possible. We, the faculty and staff of ToMMo collected donation to support victim relief in Nepal. On June 2nd, Prof. Hideyasu Kiyomoto visited the Embassy of Nepal in Tokyo, and delivered the donation with a condolence message from Prof. Masayuki Yamamoto, Executive Director of ToMMo, and a message card made by ToMMo members, to His Excellency the Ambassador of the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal Dr. Madan Kumar Bhattarai. Since November 2011 when he had started serving as an ambassador in Japan, he has visited Kobe and Hiroshima, places which have ever experienced huge disasters. He also visited Sendai to attend the UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction 2015, and toured around the stricken area in Miyagi Prefecture.

Dr. Bhattarai was delighted at the donation and said that he is greatly encouraged. "Although the damage is extensive, we could say it is lucky, because the disaster occurred in April, rather than in February or June", he nobly added. As we know, in Nepal, you cannot spend nights on the street in winter. If it was in June, the rainy season would come; causing the risk of communicable disease would be of increasing concern.

One month after the disaster, psychological support has been more and more important for the victims in Nepal. Prof. Kiyomoto distributed a Nepalese version of fundamental guidelines called "8 rules to prevent communicable disease" and "8 Tips for Mental Health Promotion after a Disaster", which were prepared by Prof. Hiroaki Tomita and Prof. Mitsuo Kaku, Prof. Kiyomoto explained an outline of them. “It will be useful. We will actively use these easy-to-understand guidelines”, Dr. Battarai showed his appreciation.

We wish Nepal and its citizens a speedy recovery from this calamity.

Related Link

Embassy of Nepal, Tokyo
"8 rules to prevent communicable disease"
"8 Tips for Mental Health Promotion after a Disaster"