On Wednesday, August 26, a glacier collapse in the Himalayas sent a wall of water rushing down a valley in central Nepal, tearing through communities in Rasuwa District near the Tibet border. Throughout Rasuwa, Nuwakot, and Dhading, search-and-rescue operations are giving way to recovery work, and as they do, the full scale of the crisis is becoming clearer. Nepal’s government has confirmed 734 deaths so far, and our partners’ latest situation report, dated August 30, puts the number still missing above 2,400. Officials caution that both figures will likely continue to rise.
Our Partners in Nepal
The Nepal Jesuit Social Institute (NJSI)–Fe y Alegría Nepal is one of the newest members of the international Fe y Alegría movement. This network supports rural schools throughout the affected region, including Kalidevi and Dongdendevi in Dhading District. This Jesuit initiative was itself born out of an earlier disaster. A series of earthquakes struck Nepal on April 25 and May 12, 2015, leaving communities in desperate need of emergency aid and long-term recovery. Over the following decade, supported by global Jesuit solidarity, that tragedy spurred a flourishing new rural education program.
Faced with a new natural disaster, NJSI–Fe y Alegría Nepal is better prepared to provide aid and accompany communities in need. While none of their school buildings were destroyed in the flooding, the disaster has still reached deep into these school communities. Landslide damage has cut off road access to several schools, and families connected to the schools, including relatives of school principals and at least one recent graduate, are among those still missing.
Even as they help evaluate and respond to this crisis, NJSI–Fe y Alegría Nepal is already raising the alarm about the impact this disaster will have on education across the region. Some reports estimate that as many as 69 schools nationwide have been destroyed or damaged and that close to 19,000 children have been affected. NJSI–Fe y Alegría Nepal commented that these statistics underscore “the scale of the education emergency in which NJSI–Fe y Alegría Nepal’s own schools sit.”
The Jesuits’ Emergency Response
Together with our partners in the region, the Jesuits are evaluating the situation, channeling aid, and continuing to accompany the communities they serve. NJSI–Fe y Alegría Nepal is accompanying displaced communities and identifying urgent needs that include shelter materials, clothing, basic medicines, and first-aid supplies.
In their most recent report they shared “Two members from NJSI (Education Program Manager and field coordinator) along with 2 representatives from Sisters of Charity of Nazareth (SCN) have travelled to Galchhi for field assessment. Galchhi is located in Dhading district, the same district where NJSI-Fe y Alegría runs two schools (Dongdendevi and Bachchhaladevi), which underlines NJSI’s direct presence and ties to this affected territory.”
The report goes on to explain that “The holding center currently has blankets, mosquito nets, and mats available for the affected population. However, based on the field observation, additional essential supplies are urgently required, particularly at the Ward No. 4 Holding Center.”
The NJSI–Fe y Alegría Nepal team reported that the centers were in need of:
- Mattresses and bedsheets
- Tarpaulins
- Additional mosquito nets
- Clothes for flood-affected people
- Essential medicines, including paracetamol, Pantop, Sinex, balm, and Betadine
- Sanitary pads
- First-aid kits
The Jesuit Global Community In Solidarity with Nepal
As has been the case with other recent disasters, the Xavier Network (XN) — a network of 14 mission offices and development NGOs across Europe, North America, and Australia — has responded with a global campaign of solidarity. This coordinated response allows us to quickly channel resources to the Jesuit organizations impacted and also receive regular updates on response efforts from our partners around the world.
Canadian Jesuits International (CJI), our sister organization and a member of the XN, has been working with the Jesuits in Nepal for many years. Jenny Cafiso, Executive Director of CJI, expressed solidarity with the our partners in the region writing “We are concerned for the people in the region affected by the flash floods, including the members of Fe y Alegria who are searching for their loved ones, and for the Jesuits working in this area. The people of Nepal have already suffered from the devastating effects of previous earthquakes and from chronic poverty and instability. I have assured the Jesuit provincial and Fe y Alegria of our support as they respond to this new emergency.”
Like wise, Fr. Daniel Villanueva, S.J., General Coordinator of Fe y Alegría International, visited Fe y Alegría Nepal in the summer of 2026. Responding to this tragedy he shared:
“Just two months ago, I had the gift of visiting Fe y Alegría Nepal and getting to know its extraordinary team, and some of the rural communities they accompany, up close. In places like Pang Tang, high in the mountains and hours from Kathmandu, our mission becomes clear again: that the place where a child is born should never determine the education they can receive.
There, they describe it as reaching the unreached — finding those whom no one else reaches. Our own idea of where the pavement ends, this time in the mountains of the Himalayas.
Today, as Nepal suffers the effects of the floods, I remember those faces especially, and I want to send all my affection and solidarity to Augustus, to the Fe y Alegría Nepal–NJSI team, to our educational communities, and to the entire Nepali people.
A young Fe y Alegría is being born there, from the ground up and alongside those who live farthest away. Today, our whole international family at the International Federation of Fe y Alegría feels a little closer to them.”
At American Jesuits International, we share the same sentiments and continue to pray for those impacted by this disaster.
We invite you to join us in solidarity with the communities of Rasuwa, Nuwakot, and Dhading: pray for the families still searching for missing loved ones and for the NJSI–Fe y Alegría Nepal staff whose own relatives remain unaccounted for, advocate for sustained humanitarian attention and funding for Nepal’s recovery long after the story leaves the headlines, and donate to support American Jesuits International’s emergency response, channeled through Fe y Alegría Nepal as needs are confirmed on the ground.
