In April and May 2015, Nepal was hit by severe earthquakes. Thousands of people were killed and millions of others lost their house and their income. Almost a year after, many villages are still in ruins and lots of Nepalese are forced to live in IDP camps. Cordaid helps them to get their life back on track.
“We fled our village and since then, we have been living in this refugee camp in the Rasuwa district,” Manbahadur Tamang tells. “When my family and I arrived here, we had lost all hope. Everything we had was gone. And in the camp we had nothing. Not even water. Now, fortunately, that has changed.”
Over the past few months, Cordaid in cooperation with local partners Lumanti and Parivartan has installed water services and toilets in four IDP camps. Also, we support the 500 most vulnerable families, among which Manbahadur Tamang’s, in gaining a new livelihood and income.
Training centers
Cordaid founded two vocational training centers where people who live in IDP camps as well as people from the neighborhood can follow courses. They can learn carpentry, masonry, weaving, sowing or agricultural skills, for example tomato or mushroom cultivation and keeping bees and chickens.
Manbahadur Tamang is about to start chicken farming. “I am extremely happy with what I’ve learned. For now, because I can support my family again, but also for the future. My knowledge and experience I will be able to transfer to others.”
Education and water for children
Another important pillar of our work is the construction of drinking water services and toilets in schools. Because of the earthquake, over 1500 schools have become unusable. To be able to continue classes, temporary school buildings were erected, often without toilets or water.
Therefore in 20 Rasuwa schools, Cordaid has installed these services. Shiva Rama Chalise, head of the Nikkanta Higer secondary school: “Before, 5% of students brought water from home; the rest of them did not drink at all during the day. Now, 2461 students and 185 teachers have access to clean drinking water. Fantastic!”