The preparatory trip by Marc, Jean Claude and Vincent in October/November 2016 was fruitful and enabled the organisation of the two building-school projects that will begin this month under the responsibility of Vincent Pena and the village site managers.
The two families whose needs were deemed most urgent were chosen with the help of the village leaders; the plots were measured, the plans were proposed to these families, the quantity of recoverable materials was evaluated, the others were ordered and their transport from Salleri was organised. In addition, basic building materials, portable electrical equipment (sawing table, plane) and a generator were selected and ordered from Kathmandu and Salleri. Yadav and Jase were responsible for purchasing them and transporting them by tractor.
We have budgeted for support for a further 4 houses in 2017: these will be rebuilt to earthquake-resistant standards under the supervision of local craftsmen trained on our site in January. They will be provided with templates and materials that will be left in their hands. Assistance has been programmed for a further 9 houses next year.
We have confirmation from Yadav that everything is ready, and Vincent Pena is leaving on 14 January.
The other actions are continuing, in particular aid for the construction of smoke evacuation chimneys has been given to 11 families. We are continuing to fund this undeniable health improvement, to the tune of €60 per chimney.
Other projects, one of which was the discovery of the October trip, may fall to us:
- the consolidation of the Tholodunga school, built by the English association Classroom in the Clouds; it suffered a landslide during the last monsoon, caused by cracks induced by the earthquake and also construction on an inadequately stabilised embankment. Due to the withdrawal of the English Association, a request has been made to us. This brand new school cannot be left in such a sad state. An expert opinion (which we wanted) is in favour of supporting it with gabions at a cost of 7,000 Euros. The ANUVAM Board will discuss the matter.
- The Bodu school will also have to be rebuilt once the water supply problem has been resolved; an estimate is being drawn up for one or two classrooms…
the first floor of “our” building at Basakhali Secondary School will also have to be demolished, in accordance with the recommendations of the expert report we commissioned.
- part of the village of Lop, threatened by landslides, will have to be moved to a higher area: this concerns 18 houses and some of these families will no doubt need financial assistance.
For the time being, we are concentrating on the partially destroyed individual houses in which families, lacking the means to rebuild, have spent a second winter (with snow, which is exceptional in Rapcha) in extremely precarious conditions. Nevertheless, rebuilding the schools is no less essential in the medium term…
Obviously, the scale of the task means that it will require considerable financial resources and therefore time; our actions may seem like a drop in the ocean, but, like the hummingbird dear to Pierre Rabhi, we are doing our bit…
Fortunately, the events we organised at the end of the year – concerts, Christmas markets, exhibitions and sales – once again confirmed your tremendous generosity in a general context of withdrawal and hardship for many people. You can be sure that our Nepalese friends are very sensitive to your gestures, which we regularly inform them of; not forgetting them is in itself a great comfort to them.
Thank you to all our donors, organisations and friendly associations who support us both humanely and financially.
Bernard Simonet on 02 01 2017
