Earthquake relief for remote villages of Nepal

ANNOUNCEMENT!

 Dear Supporters of the DCWC Relief Project:

We are closing our Relief Project as of this report. The reason is that we have now moved beyond the actual relief stage and are actively helping families build temporary/permanent homes before the cold of winter arrives.

We have therefore created a new project with Global Giving.  You can find us under #21975, “500 homes for earthquake victims in Kavre,  Nepal”, and we hope you will continue to support us here.

Large sums of aid money have been pledged by international agencies to help in rebuilding Nepal after the devastating earthquakes of last Spring. Yet some sources believe the aid industry is in need of an overhaul itself and that only a fraction of the promised resources will actually end up in the country. Instead, privately funded NGOs on the ground are working hard to fill the immense needs of their people. 

That is why we are particularly grateful to all of you who have given so generously to the DCWC Earthquake Relief project. Your money has gone directly to where it was needed. It has allowed us to not only provide basic necessities like rice and lentils, kitchen utensils, mattresses, blankets and plastic tenting for temporary shelters to hundreds of families right after the earthquakes, but also to slowly shift our focus to the tasks of repairing and building more secure shelters to protect people from the elements.

In collaboration with families in the Kavre Palanchok area DCWC has committed to build 500 temporary homes for those who lost their traditional stone houses in the strong May 12th earthquake.

The new homes will measure 10x20 feet and have two rooms. Rock and mud walls (topped with cement) will be the base, with bamboo for the walls, topped off with a tin roof. Post and beam construction provides the framework (see pictures).  Once moved in, families can then opt to weather proof their new homes with traditional materials. These dwellings are meant to last for at least the next five to ten years or until a family can afford to rebuild their traditional stone house.

We are implementing our project in partnership with the Disaster Management Committee of the local VDC (Village Development Committee) and in close coordination with different government line agencies and other stakeholders in this area. The VDC is selecting the families that need new homes, and they also manage the effective rotation of manpower so that all families have adequate extra building crews during the construction process.  All families are committing ‘elbow grease’ and a $150 government stipend for windows and doors to the process. With your generous help we hope to contribute $250 per structure for cement, tin and professional supervision to live up to our ambitious goal.  

A DCWC team closely monitors all construction during this new building phase. They are technical professionals who support & supervise the projects regularly to guarantee the quality of the work being done. They meet in the village, report on their findings, make suggestions, and help people negotiate the complicated application process for the government stipend that had many an illiterate farmer give up on getting any help.

As of the end of last month 42 families have been able to move into new homes. 42 families that are now able to put their lives back together, start working their fields again, maybe even replace the chickens or goats that perished in the quakes.  

The importance of your help to these poor families in recreating their lives cannot be overstated. The devastation has frayed the fabric of communities not only by leaving so many homeless, by exposing adults and children alike to substandard nutrition, but also by pushing young and old men alike to seek a better life in urban centers or abroad. Too often the promise of this better life remains unfulfilled. For those left behind the need for a home as a hub of safety in a life torn apart is more important than ever.  

For the sake of our Nepali brothers and sisters, please continue to stand with us until every last one of the 500 families in our target area has moved into their new home. 

With deep gratitude for your support,

Karin Reibel,  Project Leader

By the time you read this report it will have been three and a half months since severe earthquakes devastated large areas of Nepal.  The little town of Rajbash in the Kavre district, home to the DCWC community hospital, was 70% destroyed. Livestock was lost. Rice and animal feed stored in homes was spoiled. Power poles were covered by landslides. Our hospital sustained damage to the second floor and the walls of our staff quarters were cracked. 

The DCWC and hospital staff together with local volunteers were some of the first on the ground in our remote district to distribute tents, blankets, food and medicine to villagers traumatized by the 7.8M earthquake and its aftershocks. They immediately started buying rice and other basic necessities of daily life in Kathmandu and distributed them to the people, many of whom lost everything in the earthquakes. With rented vehicles they hauled supplies to drop-off points from where they were carried on the backs of DCWC staff and volunteers into even remote villages. In the small window between the first and the second big earthquakes, the hospital held a free health camp for earthquake victims, treating 520 people in 12 days.

Throughout these relief activities, the DCWC has collaborated with the government and local leaders to assess accurately who needs assistance.  Volunteers then distributed the supplies based on these assessments  to those who actually needed help.  Records were kept as to who received aid. 

The DCWC’s emergency relief efforts, both in the field and at the hospital were bold and selfless and undoubtedly saved lives. They were instrumental in giving hope to people in the midst of incredible devastation. 

Now that the most immediate needs for medical attention, for food, comfort and temporary shelter have been met, and while the damage to the hospital compound is being repaired, DCWC staff are helping villagers to prepare for the next phase of the earthquake relief effort. Still a time of transition, it will try to provide families with more secure shelter to protect them through enough seasons until they can rebuild what they have lost.

Experts estimate that it will take 5-10 years to rebuild the village areas of  Nepal. In the meantime, people will be helped to build temporary structures that are meant to last 2-5 years.  They will be 10‘x20’ with two rooms.  Rock and mud walls (topped with cement) constitute the base, with bamboo for the walls, topped off with a tin roof.  Post and beam construction provides the framework.  The government is providing $150 for each family which will go toward buying the doors and windows.  DCWC is providing $250 each for cement and tin and a supervisor.  Most impressive and unexpected is the fact that the army is providing the labor (providing their worker’s tents, food and supplies so that they won’t have to rely on the village for anything).  At present 72 temporary structures are to be built in the Nagre Gagarche district, of which Rajbash is a part. A sample structure has been built on the grounds of the hospital!

Who will get relief and temporary shelters in each district is decided by  Disaster Management Committees organized by the government, in conjunction with local leaders. Many long and inclusive meetings were held to determine what type of “temporary” housing is to replace the tents and plastic canopies sheltering people right now.

Mr. Akka Lama, head of the DCWC Nepal, shared the following reflecting  the new rules: “M. Tamang, 58 yrs old, is an inhabitant of Rajabas village - she is a single woman, has got her small house made from stone, mud and wood, damaged due to earthquake. She has got a few goats and a little land for agricultural production which is her income source for living. Fortunately there were no any human and animal losses with her. She was in trouble to remove rubbish and to build new house for shelter but does not have money for food and building house. She did not get government monetary support NPT 15,000 because she could not present land holding certificate - she was living with land of other people.  So, DCWC volunteers mobilized in Rajabas area, met her house and support her to dismantle her damaged house and deposit rubbish in appropriate place. DCWC volunteers are supporting her to build temporary house and hope she will return there from tarpaulin shed soon. She says that she thanks volunteers come from different places to support in Rajabas and likes to thank DCWC for providing her rice, tarpaulin and other relief materials. She likes to thank those people who helped her in this type of great disaster and trouble and felt great help.”

It is simply impossible for us to imagine the devastation that rocked, and still rocks Nepal.  At the same time the resilience and strength of the response on the part of the DCWC and locals and the government is heartening, as is the generous help that all of you have provided. Please continue to support our Nepali friends through this next phase of earthquake recovery.