Life and work Aug-Oct 15

Mid August

A busy time whilst Jaap was away on leave for three weeks. Gave a summary presentation of the Disaster Response Plan for all key United Mission personnel. This was very important as United Mission like the other agencies such as Oxfam and Action Aid are ‘learning whilst doing’ in Disaster Response and have to respond to the needs of this urgent programme in quite a different way to their ‘slower burn’ on-going community development work. Important issues were identified which will be worked on in relation to such matters as reporting to donors, UMN management adjustments, salary scales, etc  needed for this reconstruction programme. After that it was all go to prepare for interviewing for the Disaster Response Team Staff at different levels, mainly to support the field activities with our local Partners in Dhading, including Technical Overseers for the shelter/house construction plus Shelter Officers, Health Facilitators, Sanitation & Livelihoods Officers, etc. We had almost 200 applications just for the 7 Overseer posts and altogether we have interviewed almost 200 people to cover all the 30 UMN staff positions – a huge task! The local NGO partners in Dhading are now recruiting their own staff needed to work with our staff to implement the disaster response work.

 View from our office roof- Dhading Besi, Government District headquarters, Dhading 

I attended the HEAL (Helping EQ affected Livestock) Launch Event at the Radisson on behalf of the UMN Director. This is a USAID funded 90 day program in 5 Districts (inc. Dhading) to help farmers reinstate their livelihoods by providing bulls, improved shed designs, feed & fodder support, Animal Health training and Animal Health camps, etc. 90 days seems recklessly optimistic to me!

8^th September

Trip out to Dhading to part of our working area to inspect temporary learning centres (TLCs) in Pida VDC – went with Peter, Bina, Prem  with our new Driver up the hill from Adamghat. I used to go that way to Kiranchowk when I worked with DRMP community forestry programme (until 2002) so it was pleasantly familiar. Once off the road very little has changed except electric lines and people using mobile phones everywhere. 

in Pida VDC

The first TLC was beside the rough road about 30 mins drive – the road needs repairing after the monsoon rains - we could plan to do this through a Cash for Work scheme which will provide some income for local people and at the same time improve their access for bringing materials to rebuild their houses.  Met Prayas staff (the local NGO Partner we are working with) and school teachers in Head’s office-very hot and dusty! They have  employed a Sub Overseer and 5 masons to erect 11 TLCs already delivered to Pida. These were made in Narayanghat (South Nepal on the Indian border); they are bolted together made with tubular steel instead of box – just need to split the roof trusses for easier portering. We also intend to provide materials for flooring/walling, etc then they will be more permanent.  Altogether we are planning to provide over 40 TLCs in this area, where most of the school buildings have been destroyed.

We were going to have our food higher up - but no veg and a local chicken would have cost a thousand rupees, which is the equivalent of 2 days pay for a labourer!  Eventually the road became impassable so we walked the last hour to a Chepang community for another TLC inspection – very poor community and most houses damaged or destroyed. Noticed they’d used lots of red mud and only a few large crossing stones to anchor the wall together. The school toilets and other buildings were also damaged and their water source needs repairs – they are now carrying water from the river 1 hr’s walk away. The women’s group gave us such a warm welcome adorning us with malas/tikas (garlands and red spots on our forehead) and were all dressed in red. The school teacher recognised me from my time with DRMP – she used to work in the Gobar (methane ) gas office and we often ate together in Gajeri! 

14^th September

 Another Bandh (national strike) today relating to the draft Constitution, very pleasant cycling to the office on the quiet roads but not good for schools, businesses and offices of course. Discussed contracting some WASH/sanitation work to another NGO called Shanti Nepal who already work in all our VDCs (local councils) and have good local relations. One of Shanti’s Donors is Tearfund Australia who is also funding part of our programme, so we are looking into sub contracting some activities.

Training and Orientation activities

These have included: Training of Trainers – Trauma Healing (Kathmandu); Conflict Resolution Training (I attended - Dhading -2^nd week Oct); 2 days of UMN orientation for all the staff who we have hired so far. It was good that they could all spend some time together before starting work properly. Overall I think we’ve got some good people but it will take time for them to gel as a team.

21^st September

This was declared a National holiday to celebrate the signing of the Constitution (finally after 7 yrs in preparation) so we had to reschedule our orientation – this often happens with strikes, festivals etc! Some smaller political parties, such as Hindu Nationalists/Madheshies are not happy - it looks like there will be trouble on the Terai/Far West for a while, but Ktm quiet and v pleasant for a change. UMN was also closed but Jaap and I went in to continue the shortlisting and prepare for interviewing potential new staff. 

Several tons of wheat seed and seasonal vegetable seeds have been distributed as well as agricultural tools ready for the planting season to the North of Dhading nearer the earthquake epicentre, where 90% of houses have been destroyed, which resulted in them also losing their seed for planting. By the end of November as part of the winterisation programme we will be distributing two blankets and one mattress to all 4,000 households in North Dhading before the coldest weather sets in as most people are surviving in temporary shelters.

The third week of September Rachel and I went to Pokhara, at the foot of the Annapurna mountains, for a short break which was lovely and a much needed rest. It was interesting to see the countryside after such a long time and see the much increased forest – partly the result of the community forestry programme I worked with in Dhading until 2002. Now all that is threatened by the need for fuel and building materials.  Fuel is now in very short supply since India closed the border because Nepal would not concede to their demands for the Terai region, which is causing serious problems for everyone. If it continues the whole country will grind to a halt just when we were hoping to start rebuilding. The main Hindu festival Deshain will start next week which will delay things again.

 I’m planning to go trekking with Peter Lockwood (construction engineer) and his boys to North Dhading over Deshain, which should be interesting to see our working area in the shadow of Ganesh Himal  - and hopefully pleasant even if it will be very basic living for a few days just sleeping on local people’s verandahs! This will all take my mind off Rachel being away for a month to celebrate her Mum’s 90^th birthday with the family! It is a lot quieter in Kathmandu in her absence but our new friends have been looking out for me and so I have dutifully joined them to support their beloved Ireland in the Rugby World Cup!