School

Back to the Earthquake Resilient School

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Susma Nepali tells a story about her school reconstruction in this video, which highlights the ACN response in Nepal Earthquake of 2015.

The devastating earthquakes of 25th April and 12th May 2015 were the most terrible catastrophic for Nepal in over 80 years. There was extensive damage to public infrastructures. The devastating Earthquakes destroyed 7,500 schools building, out of them 55 % of schools buildings were reconstructed, 25 % are under reconstruction and 20 % of schools building are waiting for reconstruction (Nepal Reconstruction Authority, NRA, Kathmandu).

ACN long term Earthquake Response program focused on Gorkha District, the epicenter of April 2015 earthquake for its recovery, reconstruction and rehabilitation of affected families and communities.

ACN was involved in the reconstruction of damaged public infrastructures like schools and health posts which were priorities by the Nepal government as well.

ACN reconstructed four earthquake resilient schools in Gorkha District. Shree Janakalyan Higher secondary school was one of them. This school was completely destroyed by the Earthquakes of 2015. Students had to study in the Temporary Learning Center (TLC) made of Corrugated Galvanized Iron (CGI) sheets. There were difficulties for students and teachers in the temporary learning center (TLC).

On 21th May 2018 ACN handed over the Shree Janakalyan Higher Secondary School to the School Management Committee and local government of the Gorkha Municipality. The newly reconstructed school building has two blocks – each block consisting of eight rooms with facilities of disability-friendly toilets and drinking water system.

In total 271 students and 18 teachers are directly benefited with this newly reconstructed well-furnished school.

We would like to thank our funding partner kinderhilfswerk (KHW) Global – Care, Germany for partnering with us in this project. We also like to thank Siranchowk Rural Municipality, Gorkha and Shree Janakalyan Higher Secondary School for their kind cooperation in the reconstruction of this school.

We are glad to serve the affected communities.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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DRAP (Earthquake Response) stories

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Happiness regain by a newly constructed house

My name is Ambika Regmi and I live in Ghaylchok -8 Gorkha district with my daughter. I was born with hearing and speaking disability. I spent my childhood in the misery of poverty and due to disability even lived in reproach. I was happy when I got married and that joy was amplified by the birth of my daughter. But the joy couldn’t last long as I lost my husband. Days were passing by and the agony of a poverty was hurting me. My daughter also works with me in the field because I could not afford to send her to a school.  

In 2015, the earthquake destroyed my house which destroyed the hope of my life. Villagers helped me to build a temporary shelter. While living at the temporary shelter, many nights, we could not sleep well because of cold and heavy rainfall. Even while I started my house construction work with the help from government aid, I could not complete it because the aid provided was not enough. I almost give up in reconstructing my house again.

 

10 months ago, two people from Asal Chhimekee Nepal came to visit us and said they want to help us to reconstruct our new house. I could not believe but they ensure me that they will provide construction materials to construct my house. At that time, I was happy and I have doubt too. With doubt I did the agreement and they provide cement, CGI sheet and an iron rod and food items support while constructing. Then immediately construction work started.  

Today I am very happy because I am able to complete construction work of my house. We were so happy while shifting from the temporary shelter to a newly constructed house where I feel warmer, comfortable and secure to live. I am so grateful to Asal Chhimekee Nepal for helping us to reconstruct collapsed house again after 3 years of the mega earthquake April 2015.

ACN’s private house reconstruction project supported 250 vulnerable families to reconstruct house in Gorkha district in coordination with National Reconstruction association (NRA) where Ambika got selected under the criteria as a single women.

Improving mason skill to build better

My name is Min Bahadur Marahattha. I am 47 years old. I live in Gorkha district with my wife. We both work in field. I also work as a mason for livelihood. I used to follow the traditional techniques to construct houses. These days, I am very busy in house construction work in my village. I have been continuously receiving the contract of house construction after receiving the seven days’ mason training through Asal Chhimekee Nepal.  

One day I got the information from my ward office that Asal Chhimekee Nepal was going to organize 7 days training to help village local mason learn the earthquake-resistant techniques to build back better. I was a witnessed of the demolished and damaged caused by the earthquake so when I heard, wished to take part in the training and I got the chance to participant in the training.

During the training, I came to know many mistakes which I have been practicing during construction of houses and learned earthquake resistant construction techniques. I am very happy with the training because I learn to build houses in a better way than before. In training, I also learned to do soil test so now I can check whether land is suitable for the construction or not.  The training has helped me to improve my masonry skill with earthquake resistant construction techniques and received eleven different types of construction instruments and tools after the completion of the training.    

When villagers knew that I got the training in earthquake resistant house construction, I started to receive contract for the construction of house in my village. Villagers were very happy with my work as I am applying earthquake resistant techniques to construct house.  I would like to give my sincere gratitude to Asal Chhimekee Nepal for providing training to improve our masonry skill which also increases our working opportunities in our place.

Asal Chhimekee Nepal trained 350 local mason in earthquake resistant construction techniques to help local mason to build better as a long term recovery facilities in response to Earthquake 2015. 

Joy of being a Skilled Person

Sanjiv Regmi, 27 lives in Gorkha district. There are four members in his family. His family income source is mainly farming. Even though he and his family work hard in their farming land, farm production only enough for six months in a year. His father works in day labor for income to meet family needs for the remaining six months. As he is an elder son of his parents, He does not like his father work in day labor which is very hard. He used to think that soon he will start to work and need to support the family financially so after completion of 12-grade education he tried to find a job but sadly he could not get any job opportunities. Because he had no skill then he acknowledged that it was the reason for his unemployment.

One day he received information from the ward office that Asal Chhimekee Nepal was going to provide a house wiring training (electrician). Then he showed his interest and he was selected for the training.  The day he completed the training and passed the A level certificate in house wiring from CTEVT.  He was very happy and hopeful towards the future where he will be employed. Exactly same thing happened in Sanjiv’s life, when he went back home after training, he was called by an electric shop near to his house to work for that shop as a technician. He was so happy and enthusiastic in his work.  His parents were even happier when he does all the house wiring work of his own house which is recently constructed after the massive earthquake of 2015. Nowadays he started getting the order of house wiring.

 Sanjiv Says “I am very thankful to ACN that they provided me house wiring training and now I am a skilled person and there are many working opportunities in this field and I can support my family financially.” He added that, “I am planning to attend second level exam in house wiring and very much confident that I will pass that exam”. 

Lila's self-confidence with a boost in vegetable production

Lila Kumari Bhujel lives in Gandaki Rural municipality ward no. 8, Ghyalchowk, Gorkha. She is a housewife and a farmer. She is very interested in farming and she loves working in a field. Vegetables production and selling is the key income source of her family. But after the massive earthquake of 2015, her farming land was not as productive as before. She works hard and even she used chemicals fertilizers to increased vegetables production but vegetables production was not good  as she spend her time and labour which made her upset.

Once she heard that Asal Chhimekee Nepal (ACN) going to organize cash crop training in her village, she became very happy and wished to participate in the training. She said, “I was worried due to poor production of vegetables and I knew that I need some training but I had no idea where to get it from and I could never imagine that I will get training in my village. She got an opportunity to participate in cash- crop training program and learned the skills to harvest cash crops and prepare organic fertilizer. After training, with very happy face she said “I am sure that my vegetables production will be increase because now I have the training. She added “I always used chemical fertilizer for more production and now I know how harmful such chemicals are to the soil and promised that from now she will use only organic fertilizer in her farm land. 

Along with the training, she has also received vegetable seed from ACN. She has promised that she will not waste any seed but cultivate all of it with the knowledge she received from the training. Now seeds have turned in to plants and growing well. She is very happy with the growing vegetables of her land because she is able to see the changes on her land and this year she hopes to earn approximately 60000-70000 thousand in total. Which is very significant for her and her family. She and her family members are very happy with the support she received from ACN.  She thanked Asal Chhimekee Nepal for the training and seeds and wishes ACN to continue providing such types of training to farmers like her.

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In Commemoration of Nepal Earthquake of 2015

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Nepal suffered a devastating earthquake with a magnitude of 7.8 on 25th April 2015, which was followed by aftershocks, more than 9000 lives were lost, 22000 were injured and more than half a million were left homeless. In the aftermath of the devastating Gorkha earthquake, ACN launched a long term program called “Disaster Resilience Assistance Programme”.  ACN was one of the first organizations to respond with all its capacity and it reached out to 15,000 affected families with emergency relief packages in its early relief phase. ACN’s intervention came in three phases. Relief, Recovery and Reconstruction and Rehabilitation. 

Four years after the devastating earthquake, we would like to share a video of ACN’s long term programme in response to the devastating Gorkha earthquake of 2015. See, how ACN had been able to support the poor and disadvantaged communities in their rehabilitation by reconstructing community infrastructure, fostering livelihoods & health and develop resilience for the future disaster.

We would like to thank all who partnered with us. We are glad to serve the affected communities.   

ACN#Marking the 4th year of the devastating Earthquake of 2015

Videos : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8igDYaf-2u0, 
http://acn.org.np/video-gallery/

 

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Free Women’s Health Camp

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Asal Chhimekee Nepal conducted a two-day free health camp in Bhujawa, Sarawal-6, Nawalparasi from 7th to 8th April 2019. The health camp was organized with the objective of free medical check-up for the people of Bhujawa, Sarawal including the basic medicines required for an early recovery. The camp was organized at Janata higher secondary school in coordination with Sarawal Health Post. A Gynecologist with nurses, paramedical personnel, and ACN staff delivered the service at the camp. 527 people benefited from this camp.  Among them 50 were identified with Pelvic inflammation diseases, 3 with lymph on breast, 20 cervical cystitis, and 5 uterine prolapses. Identified 5 uterine prolapse cases were referred for further treatment.   

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ACN’s Response to Tornado Affected

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Source: Prakash Dahal/ THT

On 31 March 2019, Nepal suffered its first ever recorded tornado that struck Bara and Parsa southern districts of central Nepal. According to Home Ministry, death toll reached up to 27 and 668 people were injured. In response to the tornado, ACN team traveled to the disaster-hit area to assess the situation and need analysis. After assessment of the situation and need analysis, ACN team found out that tornado affected people received emergency food items but lacking basic materials to cook food and continue their living. Post to the need analysis activities, ACN decided to provide cooking gas cylinder, burner (stove) to 112 affected households. In addition, 5 affected households also provided with food items, gas cylinder and stove, tarpaulin, mattress, and mosquito net. These 5 households belong to so called untouchable cast groups and they were marginalized from the relief material distribution program conducted by other agencies.

ACN is thankful to all those who were involved in the assessment of the situation and purchase and distribution of relief materials in Tornado affected area in Bara and Parsa district.

Our prayers are with the affected families.