Self Help for Reconstruction

People are helping each other for constructing their houses in rural villages of northern Nepal. 

People of northern hills of Nepal felt severe shortage of labor force after the devastating earthquake. In fact, many of their loved ones died, few fled to safer places and some left the country for better employment. Consequently, the villages started suffering from skilled human resources who can actually build the houses. 

Next, those left in the village had no skills at all to start construction. Some of them had only meagre skill to build makeshift homes only. 

Later, few of the non-profit organizations started providing training to those villagers where they got chance to hone on their skills in carpentary and masonry. However, the skilled human resources being trained were not sufficient to accomplish reconstruction in the village. 

Now, the villagers have no option left than to help each other. Since it is virtually difficult to hire skilled labor from the neighboring villages as there are also shortage of people. Therefore, they are being clubbed together, forming a group of 5 to 10 people, with masons, carpenter and a qualified mason. A construction group, like this one, is constructing houses in the village. 

Women Masons in the Making

Women are participating in the reconstruction work by learning masonry skills. Those works were predominantly of a male domain, are now being popular among majority of female population across the earthquake affected districts of Nepal. 

Phulmaya Tamang, 40, an inhabitant of Hagam VDC, a rural village of Sindhupalchok district, is very excited to learn masonry. There are no enough people in the villages to start construction of the fallen houses, says Ms Tamang. Therefore, we have no option but to join the training to get necessary skills so as to construct our houses ourselves, she added. 

A local NGO, Janahit Gramin Sewa Samittee (JGSS), in cooperation with Oxfam has been conducting a 45 days training for the unskilled villagers in the VDC. The training is supposed to train unskilled people through an On the Job Training (OJT) which lasts for almost one and half month. The training will add necessary skills of earthquake resilience to the trainees. 

After the earthquake, there are shortage of human resources to expedite reconstruction. Many men have fled to abroad or gulf countries to earn a living because employment has become scarce in the villages. Likewise, those remaining in the villages are not properly skilled to construct better homes to cope up with the possible earthquake in future. 

Due to the scarcity of skilled workforce, women are also joining to sharpen their construction skills, says another trainee, Samjhana Tamang. Women are not limited to household chores. But, they are now beyond what they are supposed to do. Their ability is now put to limit, she further added. 

After some organizations started conducting such training in the villages, many women preferred to participate in which were predominantly a male job before, says Phulmaya Tamang. In fact, we were enticed by the safety gear, daily allowances, and friendly teaching environment where we can learn, says another participant, Suntali Tamang. 

 

By the end of the training, all the participants will join their effort in making a model house which showcases earthquake resilience to the people in the vicinity. The structure will be a benchmark for the villagers to learn and replicate the same to build their own houses. The model house will be used as a community building upon completion. 

 

Phulmaya says that their participation in the training has inspired other women in the nearby villages as well. Now, more requests for participation in masonry training are being received, says Shreedhar Neupane, Program Coordinator, JGSS for Oxfam supported shelter program. This is already a huge success, he added. 

With the participation of both the men and women, reconstruction process is expected to accelerate in the villages, shares Ms Sonika Thapaliya, MEAL Officer at JGSS. Home is for everybody, and it is our responsibility to construct it regardless of which sexes we belong to. We can not only care our family, but also build the place to live in, says another woman participant.