At last – out of the office and to Dhading! I went with Paul and Susan (male!), a Livelihoods Advisor, to meet the UMN Dhading Cluster Team and local NGO partners to draw up agreements for starting the reconstruction programme. UMN, like other international organisations (INGOs) are no longer directly run projects; they work through local Nepali partners (NGOs). It was interesting to travel through our old community forestry working area and see the changes – great to see increased forest  - also more houses and of course more traffic!

Shashi and Prem, two of our Dhading staff, led the discussions with partners, handling sensitive topics such as estimated staff needs, pay scales, benefits etc. Salary scales were agreed for each level, plus ‘remote allowance’  - though many commented that since the earthquake rates had risen and manpower is scarce, especially for masons and overseers.

For the livelihoods work the main focus initially will be on livestock shed reconstruction materials to enable farmers to manage their livestock better and utilize manure more efficiently.  We have included provision for some improved breeds that will help to upgrade local stock through cross breeding plus fodder grass/trees to improve nutrition.  There will be distribution of fruit saplings and seed, according to the altitude and soil profile. Dhading district ranges from less than 500m to almost 8,000m altitude.

Met with staff of SHANTI NEPAL – a local organisation delivering sanitation projects in Dhading. They have agreed to take on all the toilet construction work – in schools and health posts as well as for houses.

We met with the Peace building Team - Bal Kumari, Mohan, Laura (who previously worked for the peace building process in Northern Ireland) to go through the ‘Human Effects’ part of our disaster response plan. They will provide orientation and gender awareness training for all new staff. This will prepare them for handling potential conflict situations and enable them to recognize where people are suffering from trauma to make sure they receive the right support.

We also need to be aware of people with disabilities. Those with existing disabilities faced particular difficulties in getting to a place of safety and accessing rescue and rehabilitation. Thousands of others are newly disabled due to injury in the earthquake. The needs of disabled people need to be carefully considered in any new construction to ensure safety and accessibility.

Three full days of interviewing this week for 2 Programme Managers, 2 Livelihoods Project Managers and one Human Effects Manager, 2 Shelter/Construction Project Managers for North & South areas in Dhading. It’s more difficult to recruit for the North as this is a remote area, 2 full days walk from the road so hard on staff with families back in Kathmandu. Most construction candidates were from private sector, Ktm based companies, used to dealing with large scale projects. We had to assess who would best be able to adjust to a completely different remote rural situation.

Mid-week we went with a Nepali engineer to inspect TLC (Temporary Learning Centre) prototype frames at 3 different companies at the edge of Kathmandu Valley. These ‘bolt together’ prototypes are designed to be transported by road then carried up into the mountains by porters and finally bolted together on site. Altogether we will be building around 40 TLCs which, being earthquake resistent are also suitable to be used as emergency shelters.