Recovery 4.0: Rehabilitation

KAVRE, NEPAL: REHAB UPDATE We have passed through Rescue, Relief and Rebuilding in Nepal’s post-quake recovery scene. Today we have entered into Stage 4: Rehabilitation. Rehab is a less trodden path because it brings no immediate feel-good returns or high profile photo moments of drastic before-and-after images. Few organisations venture into this fourth stage because it means binding yourself with the affected community for the long term. Rehab is to restore someone to health or normal life. It is anything but short-term. It is thinking ahead with them for them, for their children and their children’s children. What can secure their future and make them resilient in the face of future calamities?

What then will help Nanu (above) fill her new house with basic furnishings and food? The way ahead is to give individuals like her the skill-sets to earn and make a living. With income generation comes better individual and collective quality of life and well-being. From 15 April, 20 youths will undergo a 35-day government certified Mason Training for Masonry Craftsperson in our locality. The aim is two-fold: (1) to give the young and jobless an employable skill for future livelihood and (2) to recruit them for our rebuilding work. While CTEVT conducts the trainings, we will employ these trainees when the course is over. They will work as our rebuilding apprentices for 12 months, after which they can choose to continue with us as qualified masons, seek employment or start their own business in the booming construction sector.

Such trainings will help NAMARAJ (brown shirt) and RAJAN (blue shirt) below get the necessary skills upgrade they need to get a better livelihood. They joined our rebuilding team last year and started out as apprentice rebar workers, learning a new skill and making a living. Today they are our main rebar workers producing enough steel reinforcements for 3 houses a month.

Along this line of skills development, we are thinking ahead of assisting our rebuilding team gain accreditation with statutory boards. This will better position the team to gain access to more opportunities in the future, especially when rebuilding work is completed. Forming a job placement agency for our skilled workers is also on the drawing board. This will ensure that competent workers continue to be gainfully employed.