Gift of the Givers Head of Search and Rescue, Ahmed Bham, was included into a Nepalese Government emergency meeting yesterday where the Foreign Minister, Disaster Management and other officials were present.

He was engaged by the officials including the Minister, thanked for our intervention in the Nepalese Earthquake of April 2015 and for coming forward so rapidly to assist yet again. They were interested in our team composition with a particular interest in the capability of the K9’s and asked several questions related to the dogs.

Given the level of interest in our team and the magnitude of the disaster which is substantially greater than the figures being released, the Gift of the Givers team inclusive of the SAPS dog handlers are meeting at 10.30am today at our logistics facility in Johannesburg to start preparing the rescue equipment. We have put a second search and recovery team on standby. We are aware that the Nepalese Government has sufficient medical capacity but we are ready to provide medical teams also. Nepalese Disaster Management confirmed that if a call for international assistance is made they will grant Gift of the Givers priority status, receive us, host us and blend our teams with theirs.Gift of the Givers are in contact with the families of the six missing South Africans, and with another South African, Sulosh Pillay, who safely crossed into Tibet two days before the disaster.

They are a group of seven South Africans in the disaster zone. Sulosh and the spiritual leader of the region, Mohanji, are both known to us. Prashant Pokhrel, a music teacher from South Africa, who has been living in Nepal for a few years has offered all assistance possible to locate the missing South Africans. He has published their pics in all local media and activated friends in the disaster region to assist when the situation permits it.

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