Climbing mountains to prepare for winter

Two months into the fuel crisis in Nepal, due to the unofficial India border blockade, the situation for all Nepali people is dire. Food prices have gone up first 30%, then 50% and rising. There is a four times increase in the price of fuel and a thriving black market - people are only travelling where absolutely necessary and many are suffering for lack of fuel and queueing for hours, sometimes sleeping in cars for 2 or 3 days. People queued outside our house for 14 hours one day for 3 litres of kerosene. Ambulances are running a skeleton service and hospitals are suffering severe shortage of medical supplies and medicines. This then is the impact of political interference from India, a lack of coordinated attempt by the Nepal Government to resolve political issues and also their failure to act quickly and decisively to sign agreements and release the funding allocated for the reconstruction work.

Outside our house -containers strung together in queue 

Despite the wrangling and delays all agencies have been up against, we have, due to very patient, careful diplomacy at district level, now managed to get agreements signed off for all our activities.

We have managed to procure for the Northern area the 8,000 blankets and mattresses, all produced in Nepal. The mattress production depends on a gas supply which is in very short supply so after inevitable delays in sourcing these from far and wide it was an amazing achievement. These have now all been brought to our office warehouse in Dhading. Last week our local partners supplied the most remote areas. From the warehouse they were transported on local 4 wheel drive trucks 5 hours drive up a steep, rough gravel road. From there 200 local porters carried them to the distribution points in Lapa, a 2 days walk up steep mountain paths.

Woman porter ready to carry her load 2 days walk from road-head 

Our two construction managers have just completed a 7 day mason training for professionals in earthquake resistant construction. Next week a training for our sub engineers will take place. They will then train local masons and build demonstration earthquake resistant houses. Local masons will then be able to work on house building in their communities. Unfortunately all agencies are still awaiting final Government approval for the release of promised funding for the house building programmes.

Our new staff with partner staff have been carrying out improved livestock shed construction training with local farmers as many sheds were destroyed in the earthquake.  This part of our disaster response has been fully approved and we are able to supply the tools and materials for this rebuilding to continue.

Other essential work has been a full technical assessment of drinking water systems, school buildings, paths and bridges ready for this rebuilding work to commence.

The wheat seed we provided earlier is now growing well in the Northern area which means that people will be more self sufficient for the winter.

2 days later blankets arrive at a distribution point

So in spite of the delays, endless necessary negotiations, shortage of fuel and supplies I feel a sense of hope and thankfulness, as winter sets in, that we are able to respond to those in most need.

This is our last blog of 2015! We are back in UK for Christmas and New Year and especially look forward to being with our family and friends to celebrate Peter and Nikki’s wedding on December 22^nd. Due to the ongoing project needs we have agreed to extend our time in Nepal until June 2015.

Thank you to all for your interest and support.

We wish you all the joy and peace of Christmas and a very happy new year.

Finlay and Rachel

See new UMN video - interview with Finlay's  colleague Peter Lockwood:

http://www.umn.org.np/videos/600

Rachel's updates

It's such a difficult time for Nepali people at the moment enduring real hardship due to violent protests related to the new constitution and the blockade on the Indian border. This has led to dire food, fuel and medicine shortages, rocketing costs, reduced transport and dangerously overcrowded buses and long queues for fuel, people waiting many hours, and a thriving black market. All the post earthquake reconstruction work has also been affected and delayed. This article sets out the situation very clearly.

http://time.com/4077751/nepal-fuel-crisis-india-winter-constitution/

NIDA (Nepal Indigenous Disabled Association) - Kamala

Friday was an emotional day at NIDA then later at Kamala’s home. Kamala (see her story in previous blog) has just got her new prosthetic leg and also some support towards her living expenses thanks to generous donations from friends in Blackburn given through NIDA. I was adorned with the ceremonial silk scarf which is a Nepali custom to mark gratitude on such an occasion.

Then on to Kamala’s home. It was a lovely time with her and her husband. I was though, distressed to see the conditions which she is living under with her husband and nephew (her dependant), after the house where she had a room was destroyed in the earthquake. She was telling me that rent prices have rocketed, no landlord wants a disabled person living in his property, the only room she could afford was on the fourth floor with a shared toilet down two floors which she cannot manage with her disability. Even for putting up this shelter on her landlady’s land she has to pay quite a sizeable rent. 

 When I return in January I will be working with NIDA on a funding proposal to obtain a 10 year lease on some land on which they want to build temporary shelter accommodation for ten people who are at present living in very poor conditions. I have roped Finlay in to give us some advice on this as he has a lot of experience of writing funding proposals.

ASHA NEPAL

Due to current dire fuel shortage I have been unable to travel the long distance to the ASHA NEPAL office during the last month – I have really missed seeing them all. Instead I have been working from home to give support for writing  their strategic planning document and action planning for the next three years. Speaking to Smriti Khadka, the director, on the phone it is clear the stress she is under trying to keep 50 women and children fed under the current blockade crisis. It is also difficult to keep the programme activities going when the staff have difficulty in travelling to work from any distance.

Asha Nepal Staff (Smriti - front, 3rd from left)

RESCUE NETWORK NEPAL (RNN)

RNN  provides basic training in first aid to volunteers living in roadside communities throughout Nepal in order to address the ever-increasing rise in accidents and deaths on the roads. Before the 1950s there were only a handful of vehicles operating in the Kathmandu Valley, the network of tracks in the rural areas and hills being used primarily for foot traffic. In the past few decades however, with a dramatic expansion of the middle class, education, economy and population, there has been a massive increase in the number of vehicles on the road. In addition, the many new roads that twist along the hillsides and mountains are almost all poorly constructed and unsafe. Nepal Police statistics report a four-fold increase in the number of deaths due to road accidents in the past decade. In 2014 the number of fatalities were 5,036, a significant increase on the previous year. In Nepal, where hospitals are all too often far away and an ambulance, if available, may take a long time to arrive, knowing how to dress wounds, splint bones and protect the body and spine from further damage, especially during transport, can be the difference between life and death.

We have just completed the report of their first three years of activities and are now submitting a proposal to fund the next three years.  In total RNN has carried out 61 trainings, 275 rescue stations are already established and 1262 people have been trained as volunteers to provide first aid to victims of accidents on the roads and in communities - in total over 1,200 people have been treated.

After the earthquake, with funding from United Mission to Nepal and Tear Fund, RNN were able to assist through their links with communities in 20 rural VDCs (like borough councils). Relief packages, ongoing provision of basic traditional foods, water purifying equipment, mosquito nets and hygiene supplies were distributed to  over 1,000 households. RNN has funding to carry out training and awareness raising in order to improve preparedness, maximize assistance and so reduce the impact of future disasters. In addition, they will be providing food and more substantial shelter (GI sheets) for longer-term relief according to need.

RNN current work is, like other organisations seriously frustrated by the blockade and fuel crisis; they have had to cancel planned trainings in distant places and reschedule work nearer to Kathmandu. Whilst I was there on Thursday am their top floor office swayed in yet another earthquake tremor 5.2 on the richter scale and Laxmi, who I work with immediately shouted ‘oh no, my son’ (of her young child at school) a reminder of the ever present risk and fear of earthquakes.

I have so much enjoyed working with these three Nepali organisations over the past few months and I’m looking forward to returning to work with them in January.

RNN 'mock accident' First Aid training

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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.       

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!