Rising From The Flood

BARDIYA, NEPAL: REBUILDING 62 HOUSES

3 weeks after rebuilding work commenced, foundation work for 10 houses is completed! This is faster than expected and is a good indicator of the people’s zeal for the project and their capacity as a community.

To encourage self-help and co-payment, families are responsible for providing building materials for the foundation while we help provide for the rest. This arrangement is suggested by the community leaders because of several failed attempts in the past where help was rendered for the foundation and families were responsible for building the rest. They observed that families, for some reason, didn’t complete the house and it was abandoned halfway in the end. Perhaps they felt “abandoned” after the foundation was done and teams went on to help other affected villages and they were left to complete their houses on their own. This time, by reversing the responsibility, families get to initiate the rebuilding process for their own house and when their part is done, they are more likely to have gained some work momentum and motivation to continue on and see it to its full completion together with us.

The houses are elevated 1m above ground so as to avoid the annual flooding that comes every monsoon season. As long the foundation and low wall is built with solid bricks held with cement motar, the house will not crumble underwater, the way it did during last year’s major flood. Being elevated also means less water will enter the house.