Moving forwards in Dhading (with photos this time!)

After an arduous couple of weeks recruiting, our first 3 senior programme staff and others have started work with us. A long and fruitful day in Dhading on Thursday when we signed the project agreement with our three partner organisations. The distribution of agricultural supplies will now begin – vegetable and cereal seeds, fruit saplings and livestock. Building work must wait until after the monsoon rains at beginning of October. The partners will draw up the selection criteria according to the degree of need and this will posted in the community for transparency and to try and minimize potential conflict.

Jaap Noordzij , UMN Disaster Response Manager presenting the signed agreement with HIMS Nepal- our partners in North Dhading

We met up with our new office assistant, Abina Lama from Lapa, one of our most remote working areas in North Dhading. She told us that her whole village had relocated 2 hrs walk higher up the mountain as it was completely destroyed and landslides had obliterated their fields. Their  access footpath (nearest road 2 days walk away) and bridge has also been badly damaged. I asked her “what would be a priorty for your community – house building or path and bridge repair? “ She answered that we should repair the road first. Even though the whole community is living in temporary shelters, she said they need the path made so that they can get all the materials and supplies they need to their new village. 

A village in Lapa VDC after the earthquake (photo credit: Himalayan Times)

Abina is a remarkable young woman from a poor Tamang area where there are no schools providing education above class 5 (8-9yrs old) in the whole of the Northern area. From class 5 onwards she lived and studied with other students at the district headquarters 2 days walk away. She is now completing her first year B Ed part time. She has classes from 6.30 – 8am six mornings a week before going to work.

For distributing agricultural supplies we will be using a voucher/cash transfer system using mobile phones linked to banks – (more people have mobiles phones in Nepal than have access to clean drinking water). This gives the control and responsibility for accessing and choosing supplies/livestock to the beneficiaries themselves. This system has already successfully been used in Nepal relief programmes.

Road rebuilding and bridge repair will be carried out using a ‘cash for work’ mobile/bank linked scheme, providing some short term employment so people will have money for house rebuilding. We will be providing  skilled masons and financial support for materials to make the houses earthquake resistant such as cement, steel bars, timber etc. to strengthen the mud and stone traditional houses. 

UMN and Partner Staff lunch break during agreement proceedings.

These days in development work there is the recognition that local conflicts can be an issue especially where big programmes like relief work are taking place. We are fortunate in UMN to have a ‘Peace Building Team’. They will be providing conflict resolution training to all new staff. They have already met Jaap and myself to do an initial assessment of possible areas of tension. For example, selection criteria, treating different tribal and religious groups equitably and transparency with government officials. In the North there are a majority of Christian communities and just a few Buddhist communities compared to the Southern part of our working area which is mainly Hindu.  Our meeting with the local MP in the North, who is a strong Buddhist leader, will be very important in agreeing the work programme and building trust.

As you can imagine there are as many frustrations and obstacles as there are steps forward. For example there are strict government training criteria for Masons and strict building codes for houses. The danger is that people will get frustrated and build their house regardless with no earthquake resilience. Another frustration is that we want to carry out more relief work in the tented camps but at present cannot get the necessary formal permission. One issue is that the Government fear that people will not move out of the camps if too much support is provided.

Next week we are meeting with local leaders and partners and visiting a completed Temorary Learning Centre in South Dhading, one of 11 that are being supplied in that area. We have plans to build around 45 in total.

Jaap handing agreement to Prayas, our partner in South Dhading