The 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has swept around the world to become a pandemic. Returning to St. Louis, Rick and I were greeted by a stay-at-home order, and everyone’s lives have since been affected by this virus. Rick Hendin’s and my recent trip to Kathmandu was also impacted by COVID-19. Even though Nepal had only 2 confirmed cases of COVID-19 by the time of our departure, every single person that Rick and I met there was concerned about it.

Kathmandu is a very busy city, and during our trip, there was no shortage of locals going about their daily business. Still, there were signs that people were very concerned. Masks were in short supply, so I was glad to give Leena a box of 100 surgical masks that I’d purchased for the trip.

Tourism is a major source of income for Nepal, and as you can imagine, it’s taken a huge hit. Estimates of lost income from tourism range in the tens of millions of rupees. That’s huge for a poor country like Nepal. The streets of Thamel, Kathmandu’s tourist district, are usually teeming with foreigners but were relatively empty during our visit. We saw few tourists when we visited the historical sites with Leena and Yogesh. Himalayan Java, which is almost always packed, was less than a third full both of the times we visited.

Nepal's lack of infrastructure and healthcare makes any effects from this pandemic that much worse. Leena and the BSF staff have been hard at work creating and distributing emergency supply kits to our Contact Center children. In my first year as Board President, this has been a definite challenge for Mitrata and BSF: St. Louis’s annual Trivia Night has been rescheduled to July 18th, and Nepal is now on emergency lockdown. BSF has been working hard getting communications to our children to make sure they are safe and educating the families that we serve about how to stay healthy in this trying time. Mitrata's mission and work in Nepal is more important now than ever, and we can see the impact of our work that much more clearly in difficult times like these.