The Nepal earthquake struck at 1158 on Saturday, April 25 2015. The Magnitude 7.8 earthquake lasted for over one minute but violent after-shocks continued all day and late into the evening. As a result roads are impassable and houses collapsed.  Luckily being a Saturday, all offices and schools were closed so casualties are lower than might have been predicted.  However, the casualty rate is growing and people are sleeping in the streets due to fear of further tremors, apart from losing their homes.  As can be imagined  people are very traumatised.

You can imagine our relief when we learned that our therapists Kedar Gandhari, Amrit Gandhari & Kendra Gandharba, our Administrator Yuzeena  Shrestha and our trustees are all alive.  But they have lost their homes and the homes of their families and are living in the most dire conditions. Despite the extreme conditions they are all eager to get back to helping their community.

Nepal is one of the poorest countries in Asia and the urgency for us to support not only people with special needs but the whole community is great.  Very little opportunity already exists for the disadvantaged members of society.

Our music therapists are trained to work in areas where extreme conditions exist and are competent to work with people suffering from the effects of war, disasters and grief.  Being able to help their own people immediately, and to know they are being supported by all of us, will ultimately help our therapists to heal through the power of music. 

We are aware our therapists are undergoing their own personal suffering but being professionals and having trained to work in such extreme conditions we are all eager to get them back to their music therapy work as quickly as possible. Therefore, we beg you to give them the immediate support they need to make this possible.

The Otakar Kraus Music Trust (OKMT) is a UK registered charity founded in 1991 by Dr Margaret Lobo FRSA MT to provide music therapy for people with psychological, behavioural, learning or emotional difficulties, in order to improve their quality of life. 

TMTTN (Nepal) is a registered Not for Profit Organisation based in Kathmandu. It was set up by Dr Margaret Lobo in 2010 to provide Clinical Music Therapy and workshops across Nepal.  It is fully funded by donations and legacies mostly from the UK. 

Margaret and her husband Walter ensure that all funds raised are transferred directly to our Trust in Nepal and are fully accounted for and regular bulletins will be issued to donors so that they will be aware that every donation made is making a real difference to those who need it.

OKMT (UK) in partnership with TMTT (India) & TMTTN (Nepal) has a programme ready to immediately start training teachers and special educators in schools, hospitals, orphanages, care-centres and organizations working in Kathmandu and nearby cities. 

Your help will enable us to reach thousands of children and their families over the coming months. 

Our Nepalese therapists are employed and supported by The Music Therapy Trust Nepal (TMTTN) under the umbrella of the OKMTrust UK.

Your thoughts and offers of help will be greatly welcomed by all of us here and certainly by those in Nepal. Thank you for giving us your time and attention and together and united let us see what we can do!

Update 29th May 2015

Nepal Earthquake – update on our therapists at The Music Therapy Trust Nepal 
Following the earthquake on 25^th April, the people of Nepal continue to live in fearful anticipation with more than 300 recorded aftershocks, and a danger of landslides as the monsoon approaches. Our 3 Nepalese music therapists were already providing music therapy to help children traumatised and those physically affected by the first devastating earthquake, when the second 7.4 magnitude earthquake hit Nepal on 12^th May. At the time they were working at the Spinal Rehabilitation Centre and helped to evacuate patients. This is despite their own very difficult situations, having lost their homes and with close family members falling sick. We received this message from them:

“We are safe but very frightened due to another powerful tremor quake - again massive destruction in Nepal - that created more fear, trauma and anxiety for us. People of Nepal are physically, psychologically, emotionally and mentally shocked and damaged due to this massive natural disaster.”   

We are desperately trying to support our therapists, Kedar Gandhari, Kendra Gandharba and Amrit Gandhari and our administrator, Yuzeena Shrestha in their struggles to protect themselves and their families and be able to carry on their vital work – now needed more than ever to help in people’s rehabilitation from stress, anxiety, pain and trauma. We want to ensure that everything that The Music Therapy Trust has achieved over the last 5 years can be of benefit to the people of Nepal.
With your support our therapists will be able to offer immediate help to people suffering from trauma in targeted projects, trying to reach villages which are nearly destroyed and working with their partner NGOs. Several of their clients have lost one or both parents and are in urgent need of the support of music therapy. 
Longer term we plan to rebuild and expand our partnerships to ensure we have a programme in place to support people and communities to recognise their strengths, draw on their resources and build their resilience, in order to aid in the rehabilitation of people whose mental health has been disrupted by trauma, dislocation, sickness, injury, grief and loss.

The Music Therapy Trust Nepal (TMTTN) is the first institution to offer Clinical Music Therapy in Nepal. It was set up in 2010 by Dr Margaret Lobo, Founder & Director of the Otakar Kraus Music Trust, (www.okmtrust.co.uk) following an invitation from Autism Care Nepal in Kathmandu. Margaret had previously founded The Music Therapy Trust India, in 2005 and established an Academy in New Delhi to train musicians in the Post-Graduate Diploma in Music Therapy. Our 3 Nepalese therapists all qualified at this academy before returning to Nepal to work for TMTTN. 
Over the past 5 years TMTTN, working in partnership with local NGOs, has provided music therapy to help hundreds of children and adults with physical and learning disabilities or mental illness, those with spinal injuries or visual impairment, children with autism, abandoned children and orphans, and children receiving treatment for cancer or in burns units. Our therapists have also given lectures and workshops to parents, and educational and medical professionals to raise awareness and understanding of disability and the benefits of music therapy. 
These are some of the organisations TMTTN has been working with:
·        Autism Care Nepal
·        SOS Children’s Village: for orphans, abandoned or disabled children
·        Voice of Children: supports street children and vulnerable families;
·        Mental Illness Centre, Joparti 
·        Kanti Children’s Hospital
·        Navajyoti: Home for children with autism, ADHD, physical and mental disabilities.
·        Spinal Injury Rehabilitation Centre

Thank you!