First weeks with Disaster Response Team Nepal

It’s great to be back in Nepal and to join the Disaster Response Team of United Mission to Nepal (UMN). I (Finlay) have to say it’s a much bigger programme than I thought. I’ll be based in Kathmandu during the monsoon whilst we do all the planning and recruiting the staff we need to work with our partner organisations who are based in Dhading. Temporary relief work has been carried out with 10,000 + households and the reconstruction work – houses, water supplies, toilets, livestock, seed, trail and bridge repairs etc will start after the monsoon rains. (October)

Disaster response – the task ahead

We will be working with over seven thousand households, huge budget and the pressure from funders to get the money spent quickly…..! With TearFund we’re organizing extra training for 900 stonemasons to build earthquake resistant houses and replace 40 school buildings with temporary learning centres. These will also be used as emergency community shelters in case of further earthquakes.

There is danger during the monsoon rain of landslides so lots of people have had to move into camps even if their house is ok. Also fields have been destroyed and having to start again on rough marginal land. A whole community has relocated to the top of a hill in the northern area because their village has been wiped out. In the whole area 80% of houses have been either destroyed or badly damaged. There are many people living in temporary camps.

Women

Women are especially suffering in different ways. There is a high % of female head of household since many more males since the earthquake have gone abroad working, which puts additional strain on the family now. Women are left to do all the field work, manage the home and will have to help to rebuild their house and livelihood. They are highly anxious about their children – feeding them, letting them out of their sight on unstable hillsides, dealing with their mental trauma. It is distressing for pregnant women in the camps as the conditions for health and hygiene are difficult. Some trauma counselling training is being given to school teachers.

We will be sensitive to women’s needs in house construction. They should have a say about how the house is set up eg  better cooking stoves, and proper ventilation. There may need to be space for menstruating women to sleep separately and not prepare food as this is culturally important in some groups. However this is controversial; some commentators see this as perpetuating traditions which marginalize women in their own homes. It is an opportunity in the communities for discussion on cultural practices at this time of great change and decision making when rebuilding homes and communities.

More about what Rachel is up to and life in general later…..