Aid worker's diary: Survival mode

It is the first time that I have felt a sense of hopelessness for the people here. The weather is really a major problem now.

One can cope with cold temperatures and snow. But for three unbearable days recently, there was constant, heavy rain and very strong winds.

It is a constant battle for people to keep dry and to keep morale up.

One night was terrible. There was another small tremor and the roof of our shelter was almost blown off as a thunderstorm raged.

Daniel, my partner, had to go out in the storm to nail down even further the sheets of corrugated iron to stop them being blown off.

I could not help thinking how those in less secure accommodation were coping on such a night.

With so much wind and rain, the helicopters were not able to come for several days.

And more bad weather was forecast.

In a day or so, our warehouse would be empty of shelter supplies but the need for them continues to grow.

'Straw sandals'

We have had another five villages asking us for help in addition to the 13 we have been working in.

People who we've already distributed material to are coming back for more plastic sheets and tarpaulins - either because the others had blown away or because they needed more help to stay dry.

One day the rain was so heavy we did not want to do a distribution. We did not want people to be waiting around in the rain.

But people came anyway, so desperate was their need, dressed in thin cotton clothes and barely any footwear.

One man had sandals made of straw. They had all walked two hours in the rain to get here and when they left with their supplies, they would have another difficult walk back.

We too were cold out there in the rain, but at least we were dry in our waterproof clothes.

The people here are either dressed in just cotton or at times in wool - both of which become instantly and horribly wet and cold in the rain.

As I look at the men, some of them old, their hands red and shivering, I so wish we had some warm clothes to distribute.

I feel that people are now in a complete survival mode. The earthquake is behind them - they do not talk about it anymore.

'Positive side'

The focus is single-mindedly on getting through each day.

In early January, in between the days of snow and the days of rain, people had celebrated the Muslim festival of Eid.

It was the only time I saw people here being happy. But the celebration lasted one day only. The following day, the rains brought a despairing reality.

The only good thing about the rain is that the women do not have to walk for miles to fetch water, they just put buckets outside.

Kot is lucky, it still has two working wells. But the earthquake has changed the water system here on the mountain.

In some villages, wells have dried up while water has always been an issue for the villages higher up than 5,000ft. There too, the snow has a positive side.

The distribution last week was for people in the five new villages we are now working in.

'No medical support'

We decided we were going to leave Kot last week as the shelter needs were largely accounted for and move to Datura, a village higher up and closer to the five new ones.

Datura has a good helipad, but it is more remote than Kot. At 6,000ft above sea level, there is no electricity or road and there is snow.

Nevertheless, people from the five villages will have to walk much less far to get to an aid distribution point, and with most of our workers coming from Datura, it will be easier for our operations too.

With the helicopters grounded due to bad weather, it meant we would have time to move our base to Datura and to build a new warehouse and a shelter for us.

We had been hoping to start a clinic in Kot, but it was not easy getting a doctor up here and the weather has slowed everything down.

In Datura, we will try again. Respiratory infections are common. Even Daniel and I with our warm clothing have colds.

We used to hear the coughing of our neighbours at night, but now the noise of the rain or the wind drowns that out.

Although people have no medical support, they know they can come to us in an emergency and that if needed - and as long as the weather is okay - they can be airlifted out.

But it is not an ideal situation. No-one has died from exposure to the elements that we know of here.

We have to keep it that way.