shelter supplies. Their village only became accessible six days after the quake; Photograph by David Darg

During the first few days of the response, as intel trickled in, we knew where the major affected areas were, but were acting on limited information. Each affected district is huge, made up of countless small towns and villages dotted in steep valleys, many only accessible on precarious roads littered with landslides. We’d carry out distribution of supplies to a devastated community, only to learn of another “across the river” or around the bend, where no supplies had reached. Coordinating relief efforts with local partners and the US-based charity, Operation Blessing, we mobilized the supplies most critical to these remote communities–in most cases, shelter, food, and water. In the first week, our teamdelivered tarps, over 18 tons of food, hygiene supplies, and clean water to six unreached communities.

On the 9th day after the quake, the Nepalese police had finally managed to restore a section of road, so we loaded a truck with six tons of food supplies and drove as far up the mountain as we could. It was slow going and frightening at times, our wheels nearing the edge of the road, leaving us staring straight down, over 1,000 feet into the valley below. The truck eventually got stuck, and we had to transfer the supplies into pickup trucks to reach the village on the mountaintop.

The villagers were relieved to see us arrive but visibly exhausted. They had lost everything–their food stores lay destroyed under piles of rubble where