Mother Nature is the best playground - waterfalls, rock climbing, tree climbing, picnic & general LOTS of fun at Shivapuri National Park with our children from Bhaktapur Orphan Home - so good to see their smiles & laughter after such an intense year after the earthquake a year ago! We did see some monkeys ... not only our children but also real monkeys too!! I am sure we will visit again to Shivapuri park - awesome location !
Happy New year to all our Nepali friends ... we sincerely wish & hope 2073 will be a MUCH better year than the past year with its earthquakes, border blockade, politics etc!! We spent this day very much enjoying a NEW view ... of building earthquake safely at our project with Sathsathai Mundi (Ben & Tanja) in Narayansthan, Timal, Kavre that we (HandswithHands) have helped with funding & introducing to Abari eco building team (who are implementing the building & training). Being New Year & celebrating our visit was of course singing & dancing along with witnessing the good progress of school buildings & model home plus hearing positive feedback from the trainees. It leaves us feeling hopeful & inspired for this year ahead & we wish these blessings to all our friends - May 2073 be a year that builds hopes, homes, businesses & new dreams!
(Nepal has a different calendar than Western calendar hence a different New Year day and year!)
Wonderful day visiting our children at Bhaktapur Orphan Home Bhaktapur - some of children still have one more day of exams & then school holidays begin for 15 days - so tomorrow we will be planning some celebratory outings that includes fun & new experiences! The repairs to our Homes are going really well - still quite some work to complete the structural repairs as they are essentially rebuilding from the inside out. Seeing the work in reality I feel very confident we made the right choice as it looks even stronger than the photos convey. Within the next month they will begin rebuilding the walls in reinforced way once all the pillars are completed. Thank you to everyone who has been helping fund this massive repair work - not only is it helping repair our Homes but it is also giving good example to other people with broken houses, and that would be approximately 40% of all houses in Kathmandu valley ... so yes, a lot more reconstruction work in Nepal required! For now however I am feeling really good with the progress so far and super happy to see the smiles on our children's faces and to see that the big Domo tents have survived well our everyday use and providing safe living space while our repairs continue.
Our approach with microcredit is to reach people who are truly the marginalised poor, primarily women. We combine microcredit with a variety of skills trainings to step by step empower participants to both understand their own capacity and implement businesses that can truly sustain them into the future. We aim to educate the women in financial literacy so that they both own and facilitate their savings and credit cooperative. We are super happy to announce that we have begun in our third location, Syandi-3, Chandithan in Dahakhani VDC this past few months. Having witnessed the substantial development in our other locations we look forward to both individual and community evolution in the next years as this new outreach location develops. Thank you to Shila Pandey (& the support of husband Ram KC) for your continued dedication to implementing this approach.
Some great news on February 14th the Nepal government has approved the ABARI school design – using compressed earth bricks and bamboo as their main building materials. This is a huge step forward in our promotion of rebuilding in Nepal using local materials! The Abari team spent many hours in both the design, engineering specifications as well the numerous government meetings to ensure this positive outcome and we are thankful for their dedication. In process still is the Home building designs that we hope to have good news on soon! Meanwhile the work has already begun in our jointly funded project in TIMAL, Kavre District, lead by the Holland foundation Sathsathai Mundi, of rebuilding 8 school rooms and one example Home. Now that the approvals have come through the work will be accelerating and we hope to have this first project completed by mid of May. The intention in this rebuilding is to educate local builders in the making of compressed earth bricks (that provides them also with potential income potential into the future) as well providing them with technical knowledge on how to build earthquake resilient buildings using predominantly local sourced materials. Our next project (again school buildings and Home building examples) will begin in Sindhulpalchok and in Sindhuli Districts – start dates are not yet determined - we are still seeking additional funds for these projects so any donations are very welcomed!
The work is progressing steadily with the engineered repairs for our Home damaged in the 2015 Earthquake. Firstly the foundations have been dug out deeply and refitted with additional supports. We were praying while the foundation was exposed that there would be no major after shock as this was a very vulnerable time of the repairs. Thankfully that part has now completed this past week with the cementing of the foundations section, so we are breathing deeply as the next section begins! Next the iron re-enforcing and brickwork will continue. There is a team of up to 19 men working every day on our houses, even with this it is taking time. We do hope that the main work will be completed by end of June so that our children can be safely indoors during the next monsoon season. Our children are doing very well under the circumstances, including doing well in the recent exams! Kira Kay will be traveling to Nepal in March/April and will be giving a direct update from our Home in Sipadol village then. In the meantime we are thankful for all the work of the Thapa family who manage the Home and coordinate the extensive repairs. We still require additional funds to continue the repairs – any amount is welcomed!
The reconstruction work has now begun on our Bhaktapur Self-Sustaining Orphan Children Home in Sipadol village that was very badly damaged in the earthquake. First they breakdown the damaged sections and dig right down into the foundations to essentially rebuild our structure from the bottom up. Our engineer uses new technology to evaluate and simulate potential future earthquakes on our exact structure so that he can determine the best reinforcements. The repairs have started 20th of December with 16 workers, site manager and regular visits from the Engineer overseeing the work. They estimate 4-5 months of work is required.
We are very happy to know that our Home can be safely repaired and made even stronger to survive another earthquake if that should occur again – which is of course possible given the positions of the tectonic plates creating the Himalayan mountains we live in. We still require more funds for the repairs so please if you have any chance to help us we are happy and thankful for that. If you require more detailed information please ask with Kira Email here
Since before the April 2015 earthquake in Nepal I have been passionately researching & exploring practical, sustainable rebuilding options in Nepal that can be earthquake resilient and easy to build by local villagers as well being affordable lovely homes. I met Nripal Adhikary almost four years ago & have followed his developments of his company/training centre ABARI and now I partnering with them to rebuild in Nepal. These last two months have been a culmination of various visits in the communities and site visits to Nripal's buildings underway to convince Neel Shahi (TEAM Nepal) & local community leaders that this is a practical, sustainable way to help rebuilding in Nepal.
I am happy to say we have a green light to go ahead smile emoticon Already this last week a joint project with ABARI & Stichting Sathsathai Mundi & HandswithHands e.V. in Timal, Kavre, slowly begins ... YES!! rebuilding in Nepal, safely, sustainably and with dignity - empowering local communities - is possible heart emoticon We can certainly use some further donation to really get this practical approach underway - many hands together build (literally!!) better futures heart emoticon
Imagine for a moment your house has crumbled around you & your family, as has almost every other house in your community, due to a powerful earthquake - now some months later the options for rebuilding are A) rebuild the same unsafe way; B) build according to *safe* methods involving resources not available in your community & if you can get them they are very expensive, 4-5 times more than the government grant offered; or C) being shown new skills how to use local resources (clay, bamboo, wood, stone) in safe ways and given the use of tools and technical engineered designs to properly build, not only your own home but also to help your neighbors, the local school, health post & more?
Yup, I am supporting option C)
Not only does this empower local people & communities, it also educates about the environment, sustainability & helps evolve healthy local economies providing a dignified approach to rebuilding after such a major crisis.
I had the pleasure to witness & be a part of this natural approach towards rebuilding in Nepal the past weeks as community leaders & eco-builder (Nripal Adhikary / Abari ) came together in Sindhulpalchok with the guidance of TEAM Nepal (Neel & भारत बिरोधी) to discuss the reality of this natural resource initiative. These first steps are very positive - good mud suitable for compressed earth bricks is easily present, community open & interested plus strong support of the community elders.
My charity, Hands with Hands, will be financially supporting this initiative - help me/us support rebuilding in Nepal - earthquake safely, with local resources, professional skills & with dignity
You can donate by: 1. By sending to our HwH German Bank account Account name: Hands with Hands e.V. Bank: GLS Gemeinschaftsbank eG - address: Christstraße 9, 44789 Bochum, Germany IBAN: DE46 4306 0967 1135 8729 00 BIC: GENODEM1GLS (receipt for tax within EU available if donations made to this account) 2. or Via PayPal click here
I am super happy to see the students in Talamarang village enjoying the comforts of the Hostel that TEAM Nepal ( Neel & Bikash) have worked hard to help create. Thank you also to morethanshelters for their wonderful Domo tents that will serve as 'Home' for the months ahead. Supporting education to continue and safety of children is of primary importance to help the future of Nepal in so many ways.
