Watch above: A Calgary grandfather is trying to get help to his son and grandchidlren, who are struggling to find a place to stay amidst the destruction in Nepal. Carolyn Kury de Castillo reports.
CALGARY – Calgarian Zachary Barton and his wife run four group homes for children in Nepal, and have been left responsible for dozens of children without homes, food or water amid the devastation of Saturday’s earthquake.
“He has nothing,” said Zachary’s Barton’s father, Terry Barton. “When he came into Kathmandu, he was trying to find a place where he could stay, trying to find food, trying to find water, and there is nothing.”
Barton’s own children as well as the children he cares for survived the earthquake, but family members say the group home was damaged and 40 children had to be evacuated. Now the job of finding them shelter and food falls on Barton.
“He never verbalizes when he’s overwhelmed but he’s said to us a few times in the last couple of days, ‘I just don’t know what to do,’” said his sister, Amy Barton.
“His challenge now—I think it’s about a six-hour walk from Kathmandu to the second children’s home…he has to organize and arrange getting the kids out of Kathmandu to the second children’s home.”
The children’s homes he runs in Nepal are funded through a Calgary-based charity called the Kamala Foundation. Barton’s family in Calgary is hoping to connect him with resources that are now coming into Nepal.
“We are feeling it, too, because we support him and we’ve made a commitment to those children,” said his sister.
“I have children of my own. I can’t imagine what it would be like to be that vulnerable, to know that you’re down to the basics.”
With files from Erika Tucker
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