THE aftermath of two earthquakes in Nepal is taking its toll on the Beaminster couple doing voluntary work there.

In their 60s, Simon and Judith Hill left for a two-year placement last June to help subsistence farmers but were not expecting the physical and emotional toll of two devastating earthquakes.

Now they are helping with the recovery programme after trying to assess the scale of the damage in remote areas.

Simon said: “It’s been 24 days since the first earthquake here in Nepal, but it feels more like three months.”

The couple have been trekking to outlying areas to assess the damage but Simon is now being sent back to Katmandu to help plan the recovery phase.

He said: “This planning will aim to facilitate recovery using the skills of those volunteers and staff members already in country and other emergency volunteers.

“I found that our first offers of help to the local community in Lamjung were warmly received and we hurriedly were able to do a damage assessment report in the worst affected areas of the district.

“Within a few days the finished report was submitted and had been well received by the Lamjung Disaster Response Coordination Committee. But that was some days ago and further offers of assistance by VSO to the LDRCC have fallen on deaf ears.”

Philip Goodwin, the VSO CEO, sent a message to the entire VSO Nepal team urging it to find imaginative solutions to the problems that any recovery plan will face.

Simon added: “The experience and knowledge I have gained over the last ten months, especially the most recent days, will have to meld with the skills I brought with me following 40 years of farming and business in the UK. My hope is that this union of skill, experience and creativity will be enough to make me an effective cog in the mechanism that is VSO Nepal.”

The areas Simon and Judith assessed were so remote in some cases it took them five days just to get there.

Some were only two km from the quake’s epicentre.

Simon added: “We witnessed a few families already engaged in rebuilding their shattered homes. For many the shock of losing dwellings, precious food and seed stores, is rendering them incapable of going beyond their normal daily routines.

“Families sit under trees, by roadsides and on piles of rubble waiting for help to arrive. Some relief has come in the form of tarpaulins to drape over damaged roofs and clad rough bamboo shelters where many sleep, afraid to return indoors.”