MicroAid Rebuilds Another Family Home –– 2018
Damaged and dangerous home since the earthquake. The family had nowhere else to live.
Even years after the 2015 Gorkha earthquake, the situation in Nepal remains dire. Due to a terrible convergence of government inaction, a fuel and materials blockade along the Indian border, and the magnitude of the damage, very little has been done to help the survivors who lost their homes. While other aid organizations are focussed on the mountain villages—and have their hands tied by the government bureaucracy—MicroAid is helping families in the urban Kathmandu Valley rebuild and repair their homes so they can return to self-sufficiency.
When the earthquake damaged their house in 2015, this family was already struggling. The father who had been getting intermittent welding work, has tuberculosis, and is failing fast. Any money the family makes goes to his medical treatment. His son is learning the trade, but it takes a while, and his wife and daughter, who goes to school, help out by doing piecework knitting. They have no other land and no other family to help out. In fact, as soon as the house is safe again, after MicroAid repairs it, the grandparents will move back in
MicroAid starts the process for removing the remnants of the top floor, which could have collapsed and killed the family at any moment.
Rebuilding the walls. First we had to disengage from the neighbor’s wall, which the houses shared!
Creating a new top floor.
Reinforcing and earthquake-retrofitting all the supporting walls.
Making sure the new windows conformed to local codes.
Traditional wood frames had to be custom made so that the historic nature of he community was preserved.
The new and safe top floor and exterior of the homes. It will last for generations to come.
