As Nepal reels from a second earthquake today (May 12), experts are urging people to give money, not clothes or other supplies, to aid organizations operating on the ground there. In their desire to help, people and organizations often rush to send stuff, but as our video (above) shows, that can end up creating even more problems on the ground.
And Nepal’s need for money is still enormous. The United Nations asked for $423 million in emergency funding from member countries to respond to the first quake on April 25th. So far it’s received just $56 million toward that goal. Individual countries have put forward another $98.4 million toward projects not listed in the UN’s response plan.
The humanitarian crisis there has only grown after this second quake, which measured 7.3 in magnitude. It collapsed buildings and sparked landslides across the region and aid agencies say it may hurt efforts to help those struggling to recover from the 7.8 quake that struck on April 25th.
Numbers of those affected by this latest quake are trickling in, but at least 37 people have died. April’s quake left at least 8,000 people dead and more than 17,800 injured.