The Ford Foundation today announced it was making $500,000 in grants to support disaster relief and recovery in Nepal, where the foundation has supported development work for over 60 years.

“We are deeply concerned for the well-being of millions of Nepalis whose lives have been so profoundly affected by this disaster,” said Darren Walker, president of the Ford Foundation. “With these grants we express our solidarity with the people of Nepal and with the courageous organizations working to help them.”

Walker said the grants would support both immediate relief and strengthen Nepali organizations that will be critical to longer-term recovery.

Immediate grants include

• $100,000 to Save the Children for immediate relief work, especially focused in remote areas of Nepal where aid is hard to reach
• $250,000 to the Asia Foundation for grants to local Nepali partners responding to longer-term rebuilding efforts, with a special focus on psychosocial and education support for marginalized and vulnerable communities
• $150,000 to the Tewa Foundation for its work across Nepal in support of grassroots women’s organizations that will be on the frontlines of community recovery

For over 60 years, the New Delhi office of the Ford Foundation has supported some of the core institutions of Nepali society—from Tribhuvan University, to women’s groups, including Women Acting Together for Change (WATCH) and the Himalayan Grassroots Women’s Natural Resource Management Association (HIMAWANTI), to indigenous philanthropic efforts like Tewa.

“The New Delhi office has been proud to work with remarkable Nepali colleagues and we look forward to continuing that relationship in the years to come,” said Kavita N. Ramdas, Ford Foundation’s representative in India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. “We have no doubt that despite the scale of this current tragedy, civil society in Nepal will continue to be a resource, not just for rebuilding the country physically, but to ensure social justice in Nepal’s future.”