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Nepal earthquake: South Africa’s Gift of the Givers leave for Nepal

Disaster rescue NPO, Gift of the Givers is sending a search and rescue team to Nepal following Saturday’s massive earthquake. They have offered South Africans caught up in Nepal to utilise the private aircraft to return home safely.

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South African humanitarian group, Gift of the Givers, is set to leave for Nepal later today to conduct rescue operations following a 7.9 magnitude earthquake on Saturday.

The death toll is nearing 5,000 and thousands more have been displaced.

The Department of International Relations and Co-operation said on Monday that to its knowledge, all South Africans listed as missing after the Nepal earthquake were accounted for.

There has been no word from a South African couple, Shane Matthews and Elsje Bezuidenhout, who were in the north-eastern parts of Nepal when the quake struck, reported Netwerk24. Their names have not appeared on the list of missing South Africans in Nepal.

Another South African couple, Mike Sherman and Kate Ahrends, is still stuck in the Langtang valley with just two days’ worth of supplies left, reported Eyewitness News. Mike Sherman

Photo by Facebook.com

Gift of the Givers will leave this afternoon with a team of highly qualified search and rescue personnel, technological equipment such as the Life Locator (a machine that can predict the presence of life 10 metres below the rubble), portable equipment to create an emergency mobile hospital and a team of trauma specialists including general, orthopaedic and maxillo facial surgeons anaesthetists, emergency medicine intensivists, theatre and ICU nurses, paramedics and orthopaedic assistants.

Gift of the Givers said the following on Facebook: “The total package of all equipment and supplies that we intend taking to Nepal is valued at around R5 million. This excludes all the essential basic items like tents, food, blankets, bottled water and related items that will be purchased in India.”

Their private chartered aircraft will serve a dual purpose. It will carry its search and rescue teams, medical personnel, equipment and essential supplies, as well as be made available for South African citizens to return home in.

“All South Africans caught up in Nepal are most welcome to utilise the private aircraft to return home safely. This will be at no cost to any who choose to return in this manner,” the NPO said.

A second rescue team will leave for Nepal later this week.