Relief and Rebuilding from Nepal Earthquake

With the monsoon season now underway we've halted further work on the road until the fall. We have completed 4.5 kilometers of road widening and drainage ditches. The road to Mankhu that serves Gogapani and other nearby villages is now twice as wide as previously and able to support much larger vehicles which will be needed to bring supplies and materials up to the villages, as well as farm products from the villages down to the marketplace. This project not only affords the transport of earthquake reconstruction material but will bring economic benefit for years to come. 

We are starting work now on a disaster preparedness center to serve the villages in this area. While no one in Nepal would like to talk about the "next" quakes, there' little question in the minds of any experts that this was not the last disaster we could see in our lifetimes. Building on the lessons learned in 2015 and based on the feedback of many local people as well as on the ground observation, we've begun work on a 5,000sf emergency center. 

The center will serve up to a dozen villages in this area and be able to provide emergency shelter, food, clothing, communication systems and transport systems, all of which are needed to respond to a calamity such as the 2015 quakes. Unlike the US, for example, Nepal has no system of approved shelters or gathering points in times of trouble. There are no government buildings in the area with command and control capabilities, no stocks of non-perishable food and no buildings large enough to provide emergency shelter to large groups of people. Our project will fill this void and provide much needed support in times of trouble. 

In times when there is no trouble, the facility will be used as a training center for women in particular, but not exclusively.