Trek to Far North Dhading, Ganesh Himal

 Trek to Lapa, Far North Dhading: 17^th - 23^rd October 2015 

Ganesh Himal

The main objective was to visit our DDRP (Dhading Disaster Response Programme) working area in the North of Dhading to meet local people, see how they are surviving and starting to rebuild their lives. The overwhelming feeling was of their resilience, even though many have lost their homes, livestock, means of normal livelihood and in some cases, family members, there remains strong community spirit and hope for the future. Many households are now living in extreme basic conditions in temporary shelters. Some have even moved to new sites because of fear of landslides (or their village has been swept away), leaving behind well-established community facilities, such as drinking water supply, electricity, school, church/community building, stone-built houses with toilets and cultivated land which had been carefully developed over many years. They are surviving on food drops from DDRP and the WFP(World Food Programme). They have just planted their winter wheat with seed provided by DDRP. Within the next two weeks we are distributing 8,072 blankets covering every house in our North Dhading working area. We planned to send out the same number of mattresses but due to the current fuel crisis in Nepal and the need for gas for the production of mattresses, these will be delayed which is a concern and very frustrating.

It was moving to witness people’s acceptance of their fate. This was demonstrated in surprising ways, eg Lapsit village in Lapa where 90% of houses are either destroyed or will need to be rebuilt – people were together voluntarily working on improving their access paths/tracks without any outside financial support form government or others. They were using tools provided by DDRP. Their custom is to help each other when rebuilding houses and that is what they are intending to do in the current situation.

Looking back towards Lapsit - extremely steep, narrow valleys and remote villages 

Another very remote community, Nebir  where our porter Dorje Tamang and Abina Lama, our office assistant are residents, are all now living in temporary shelters with very basic protection on a new site higher and away from their old village, which is now desolate because of their fear of falling stones/boulders from a new large landslide above the village. They now have to start from zero to rebuild their lives, yet there remains an incredible hope for the future – tiny babies, wheat newly planted, new temporary church building and a shelter in the making for their Pastor. Apparently most in that community have been Christians for over 25 years and live harmoniously with their Buddhist neighbours.

Our porter, Dorje, outside his temporary 'house' in the relocated village

Accessing many of these villages is extremely difficult as most are situated on high mountainous plateaus, below which are extreme stony slopes, prone to landslides with fast flowing rivers carrying water off Ganesh Himal. This inevitably involves walking down to the river, crossing suspension bridges (some damaged by landslides) then climbing back up to reach the village often over 1000m from the river. Some paths are also crossing active landslides, making it extremely difficult to bring in supplies/materials which will be needed for house rebuilding, even if it is locally sourced wood/timber from their forests. Our porter narrowly escaped with his life and lost 3 friends who were killed by a landslide during the earthquake whilst they were repairing the footpath. 

This bridge, like many, has had temporary local repair - quite scary! 

We visited the Health Post/Centre in Thulo Gaun, Lapa where there are over 200 households, met the staff who were vaccinating babies from the area. This is a joint programme between the Government and Himalayan Health Care, who provide additional medicines and occasional volunteer foreign Doctors who run health Camps. Again the same resilient feeling - part of the building was damaged yet the vital service was progressing normally.

This was easily the most difficult trek I have ever experienced, with gradients and paths to really challenge, overnight accommodation in very basic tin sheet shelters and bare boards with the sides open to the stars with only the most basic food. This experience gave us some idea at least of the hardship people are suffering especially with the onset of a bitter winter. My hope is that DDRP can really make a difference working with people to improve their lives in this area in this phase 2 after the good start we have made. UMN’s reputation is strong and they are highly regarded by people in the whole area who have received the relief they needed from the Phase 1 distribution. It was a unique experience for me and even though difficult and at times distressing, it was a privilege to have been so warmly welcomed and to share something of their daily lives.