Disaster Response Nepal Project #20312

Rebuilding Fund for Rural Dalit Women of Nepal

by Empower Dalit Women of Nepal

Project Report | Jun 9, 2016
Preventing Outbreak of Disease

By Eva Kasell | EDWON President

Learning skills to save lives in their communities

The great earthquake didn’t just cause buildings to collapse--the earth itself shifted and polluted formerly clean water sources. Add to that worsened sanitary conditions, the loss of latrines, and the monsoon---and you have the perfect storm for disease outbreak.

As part of EDWON's earhquake rehabilitation plan, we designed a two-day workshop to give Dalit women the skills to serve their communities as so-called “WASH mentors". WASH stands for WAter, Sanitation and Hygiene. The workshop was planned for November 2015 but had to be postponed till April 2017 due to the disruptions of the fuel blockade that lasted into February.

The workshop has now taken place, and all involved thought it a great success! We were lucky to have the expertise of two volunteer trainers: Tom from the Massachusetts Environmental Protection Agency, and Prakash, a public health engineer with Oxfam in Nepal. Tejendra and Gaura from newly established Center for Dalit Women managed the logistics to perfection. Oxfam generously shared their resource material with us. Thank you, Oxfam!

Gaura and Tejendra invited 21 Dalit and ethnic minority women from 11 different villages in Gorkha Distrcit to participate in the workshop, taking their level of education and leadership qualities into consideration. Some of the women cared enough to travel 6 hours from their homes to participate.

Among other public health issues, the women learned to address risk factors such as open defecation, shallow wells and poor hand washing habits, which can lead to outbreak of diseases like Cholera, Hepatitis E and Amoebic Dysentary. They were also taught different ways to treat polluted drinking water, how to recognize signs of disease outbreak, and how to act in case of a public health emergency.

Understanding the gravity of thier responsibilities, the women were attentive students and knew they were given crucial strategies for saving lives in their communities.

In addition, it is especially important for Dalit women to be perceived as authorities on matters such as water purity, as water is the center of untouchability and caste discrimination.

We couldn't have conducted this workshop without you--and thank you heartily for your support.

Board Members, Gaura and Sangita open the workshop

Classroom work

Sharing her understanding with the group

Testing the water

Hands-on water purification

Trainers and trainees are pleased with the outcome

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Mar 10, 2016
500 Earthquake Victims in Safe Homes

By Eva Kasell | Founder and President

Women's rebuilding committee, Gaura is on the left

Over 100 Vulnerable Families in Safe Homes

Dear Friends, Namaste,

We are much encouraged by our earthquake rehabilitation work: in the last few months, your generosity has enabled our Nepali team to give lasting comfort to hundreds of marginalized villagers in the hard-hit Gorkha district. Emergency aid in the first weeks after the earthquake included blankets, food, tarps and solar lanterns for 750 families in 10 villages. But more was needed to rebuild their shattered lives. Your support has made it possible for us to complete home construction in additional villages. In Bakreswori, Thulogaon and Kot Gaon we built:

107 small, safe homes, plus
80 sanitary facilities, including latrines and WASH Stations

--helping 500 poor villagers put their lives back together.

At the same time, 45 marginalized families in the village of Fujel are receiving technical help and zinc roofing to build safe homes for themselves. An additional 80 families are getting new concrete WASH stations.

Smoke Free Stoves

As part of the same project, our team has just finished a training program for 12 local women who have learned to build smoke-free adobe stoves. These women are fanning out over South Gorkha to construct stoves for 250 families. This means less air pollution, improved respiratory health and more efficient use of wood.

Difficult Working Conditions

Working in dysfunctional, post-earthquake Nepal--and with modest resources-- takes uncommon patience, dedication and smarts. Under the most difficult circumstances, Gaura and Tejendra, our rebuilding team, have contended with political upheaval, roadblocks and government paralysis, navigated a 5-month long fuel blockade, and dealt with severely rationed electricity supply during the coldest winter on record. We are extremely proud of their achievements.

Inequality in Access to Aid

Our team in Nepal is not just meeting immediate and basic needs, but are engaged in broader justice and advocacy issues to indirectly benefit as many victims as possible. In remote rural communities, 10 months after the earthquake some villagers are beginning to recover. But many of the most vulnerable--women, children, Dalits and ethnic minorities--are still huddled under tarps, hungry and sick. Tejendra and Gaura wanted to learn how to best help the most needy victims regardless of their caste, gender and political connections.

The Study

In cooperation with EDWON and Kathmandu-based Samata Foundation, they conducted a small quantitative study in three of the hardest hit rural districts: Dolakha, Gorkha and Sindhupalchowk. The team of 8 interviewed individual victims, collected case studies and organized focus groups.

Gaura and Tejendra organized a national level workshop to share their findings with 140 representatives from government and non-government agencies, the press and the human rights community to focus attention on this serious humanitarian issue.

The Findings

The study confirmed that the earthquake response had followed a familiar pattern of caste-and gender-based discrimination: the current aid distribution system favors the already privileged, those with access to information, to the local power structure and other resources. The poor, women, and Dalits were left behind.

The team found that government red tape often prevented access to reparations for those who needed it the most. The poor and the marginalized lacked the documentation such as birth certificates, land titles and proof of citizenship required to apply for government aid.

The very same vulnerable population is also often shortchanged by international aid organizations, whose supply-focused "blanket approach" to assistance fails to target the ones who need it the most. Also, INGOs, if they reach the remote communities at all, commonly operate through the local power structure that is already excluding the worst-off.

Addressing the Situation

Our rebuilding team is designing a project to address some of these inequities. The plan to inform marginalized villagers in remote, hard hit areas how best to access reparations from government and aid from NGOs through public radio announcements and public hearings.

We are proud to continue to sponsor this important humanitarian work, and will keep you updated on its progress. We thank you for your generous support that makes this possible.

Rebuilt home with a new zinc roof

Trainers and trainees with new adobe stove

Fuel lines in Kathmandu, photo from Kathmandu Post

They lost everything. Will they get reparations?

Tejendra and co-worker, Seema

Links:

Waiting in Kathmandu

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Sep 8, 2015
Women Rebuilding their Community

By Eva Kasell | President

Tukumaya, member of the Women's Committee

In Bakreswori, a village in Gorkha, 80% of homes were destroyed in the earthquake. Now it is the site of EDWON's first reconstruction project.

Our primary concern is to provide a dry, warm temporary home for every needy family; our second is sanitation: clean water, adequate sanitary facilities and awareness to prevent outbreak of disease.

Bakreswori has seen improvements already, and our partners, ADWAN, have begun work on 51 dwellings, 20 latrines and 56 wash stations.

Community involvement is key to effective and equitable reconstruction. That is why creating a local Women's Committee is step one: women now play an important role in organizing their community and as monitors of fairness and progress.

Tukumaya, a longtime member of Bakreswori Women's Group A and now on the Women's Committe, has helped mobilize volunteers to form work-teams, first to build shelters for families with infants or with pregnant, old or incapacitated members. While community members provide the labor and local building materials, ADWAN staff procures roofing material and cement and bears the overall responsibility for success. All workers and volunteers are served two meals a day, cooked by other volunteers.

Initially the project was plagued by a host of challenges: from difficulties motivating traumatized victims to dealing with delays and shortages of building supplies. But in a month, much has been accomplished.

Two thirds of the 51 temporary homes now have walls and a roof structure waiting to be covered by zinc sheets--the roofing material of choice. But for weeks now, the delivery truck has been delayed, caught up in roadblocks and violent protests against Nepal's new constitution. We are hoping for a breakthrough this week so that Bakreswori's most vulnerable families can move into small, dry homes of their own.

In the meantime, women have carried bag after bag of cement from the main road up to their village, which has been used to build 29 wash stations: concrete platforms to accommodate piped water and a drain for each household. Combined with new, additional latrines, and with so-called WASH (WAter-Sanitation, Hygiene) Training, the wash stations will represent a huge improvement over pre-earthquake conditions.

Thanks to generous donors like you, EDWON is able to fund similar improvements in two additional villages this fall: temporary homes, improved sanitary facilities and WASH training to give over 100 families (about 500 people) a dry temporary home, new and life-saving sanitary conditions, and much improved safety and comfort.

We have heard that villagers are truly moved by the generosity of far-away strangers and they wish they had a way to show you their gratitude!

Women carry cement to their village

Wash station

Bakreswori women

waiting for a tim roof

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