REPORT

Airlink Response

7.8 Magnitude Earthquake, Nepal

Rapid air support for humanitarian relief

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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.

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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)

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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).

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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.

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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.

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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