MicroAid Builds a New Home for the Balram Family — 2016

When the Balram family settled in the area many generations ago, Bhaktapur was a rural hamlet outside of Kathmandu. As part of the sewing caste, the family’s livelihood was making clothes, curtains, and bedding for the local community. They made a decent living, and their simple mud and stone house was one of the first constructed in the area. Over the years, due to ready-made textile options, their business had dwindled and the family fell into poverty. Six years ago, the father, who was the head of the household, died after a long illness, leaving the mother to care for her three daughters, two sons, and two grandkids. The family, already facing severe challenges from poverty, was dealt an additional blow when the 2015 earthquake brought down their house. The disaster left them destitute and living in a makeshift one-room shack with a corrugated metal roof and walls, and a dilapidated outhouse. Unfortunately, the location of their destroyed home was off the radar of the international aid organizations, so they were on their own.