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Sarita’s journey from street life to a better life

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Sarita Lama, 32 years old from Kavre. She has one son and daughter. She was a drug and alcohol user. Her life was full of tragedy and struggle. But she continue to struggle and fight for herself and for kids. Finally, succeed to overcome her addiction. She would like to share her life story.

My mother left me when I was 1 year old and my father and grandmother passed away. I left alone. Due to community pressure, my uncle agree to let me stay with his house. But I had to work for them, I used to bring grass and wood from the jungle. While I was growing up, slowly my uncle started to treat me well. I was happy as I thought that my uncle loved me but soon I realized that my uncle trying to sexually abuse me. Then I left uncle house. I was 12 when I started to live in the street with my friends. I used to collect garbage on the street for food. Slowly I learned to use dendrite glue and smoking. At the age of 14, I was involved in prostitution, from that time I learned to use drug. As days were passing.   

I married a man whom I used to live in street.  I gave birth to two kids, one son and daughter while living on street. I got more into addiction. Even I try to kill myself and my son. After birth of my daughter I tried to stop using drug but I could not. I did not get any support from husband and later he died because of HIV. I got scared that I might have HIV infected and got tested and I was not. That was so relieving. 

 

When I was living at the street many organization came to help me but I always ignore them. It was then when I lost my husband, again few women came to visit me and encouraged me to get admitted at Rehab center. I was admitted by them in the Rehab center at Kathmandu and kept my children in children home. After few months I was discharged form Rehab center, I relapsed again in addiction and then attained 2 different Rehab centers. After getting discharged from Karuna Nepal, women empowerment organization provide me employment opportunity. Then I started to work and I was far away from addiction. I got a job in a company and I was doing well. Again I found someone to marry me and I marry him with a hope to have a better life. I never knew that struggle of my life would not end there, my husband started drinking alcohol and physically abusing me.  After that, I could not control myself and started drinking alcohol and neglecting the job that I had. 

 I was so deep in drinking that the organization I was working at sent me to ACN’s  Nawajeewan Treatment and Rehabilitation center for treatment on alcoholism. I was admitted on 19th January 2018 and got discharged in July 2018 after overcoming my addiction.

Before Nawajeewan Rehabilitation center, I had stayed 7 times in different Rehab centers but Nawajeewan was different. In Nawajeewan, I found a very lovely and caring environment, people are very kind and helpful to me. I felt like I found a family. I used to get lots of punishment in other rehab centers and torture which I could not express. But in Nawajeewan, I able to express myself, learned to love, respect and control my anger. I learned to read and write and household skills. I also understand the value of work.

 Today I am confident and never going to look back again. It’s been 15th months since I left alcohol. I am working and study in grade 4. I neglected my children in the past but not any more. I am going to take care of them properly. I want to give them a nice environment to grow. I want to be a role model for my children.

I would like to thank Purna Enterprise for sending me to Nawajeewan and Asal Chhimekee Nepal for providing me treatment opportunity and help me to overcome my addiction and help me to understand my value of life. 

 

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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Handover of schools to the Government of Nepal and Local Community

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All three schools reconstructed by ACN were handed over to the Government of Nepal and the local communities of Shreenathkot, Gorkha.  The schools included Shree Chandrodaya Secondary School, Shree Janajagriti School and Shree Arkul Primary School officially handed over on 9th -10th June 2017.

ACN has been actively involved in reconstruction of health posts, village office building and schools in Gorkha after the relief for the people affected by the massive earthquake in 2015. These schools have been constructed in conformity with the government guidelines. Along with the school building, ACN also provided colorful furniture for pupil and classes are already running. Pupils are enjoying new chairs and desks they feel big about themselves. It is a big change for them as they were in worn out shelters. One of the teachers stated that this was her great experience in her life to work in such a new school building with attractive furniture and to instruct students and further said that it was her pride. The schools look really good and attractive.

Government representatives, journalist, local leaders, PCC members and ACN staff were present during the handover programs.

 

The schools were funded by:

Shree Chandrodaya Secondary School – GZB, Netherlands

Shree Arkul Primary School – Friends for Nepal in Sweden

Shree Janajagriti Primary School- BSN, Netherlands

 

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TRAINING FOR REHABILITATION

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Teachers’ Training on Teaching English and Basic Disaster Risk Reduction Training

7th October, the RC Complex, a popular venue in Pokhara for seminars and trainings, was reverberant with enthusiastic murmurs of a herd of people. But the indistinguishable chatters were not native to the Pokhara’s dialect. In midst of village-style Nepali, one could hear some English sentences  followed by friendly chuckles. The day was the finale of three days long training programmes, entitled “Teachers’ Training on Teaching English” and “Basic Disaster Risk Reduction training”.

The trainings were friendly, the trainings were funny, but most of all, it was an emotional moment for everyone. The Participants from 11 schools had 14 english teachers (for teachers’ training) and 21 participants including 10 women (for Risk Reduction Trianing) were all from Shrinathkot, which at this point, we all know was a badly affected region by the Earthquake we saw, a few months ago. May be this was a milestone for everyone who participated; as a point of time where they realized: now, we have crossed the “being a victim” phase and started the “we are rebuilding” phase.

The trainers for “Basic Disaster Risk Reduction Training” were invited from the Red Cross Society Kaski. Mr. Khimraj Sapkota and Hari Bandhu Aryal both were not new to the people of Shrinathkot, as they both had been there during their emergency rescue efforts at the time of earthquake. The training covered important topics like Risk, Vulnerability, Coping capacity, Mitigation, Resilience, Early warning system and rehabilitation.

The trainers for the Teachers’ Training on Teaching English Dr. Arthur and Mrs.Hillary Jones, both with a huge background in teaching English, explained how this was going to help the teachers of Gorkha, build a sustainable and progressive community. Shrinathkot is topographically challenged and economically backward region. Eventually, the products of schools in Gorkha will have to compete with the products from major cities in Nepal for jobs and also, further studies. English is a prerequisite for career in the modern world. Hopefully, teachers from this training can produce students with good, academic English, which will help the community have hopes for a better future. And also, if these teachers can go back and train other fellow teachers from surrounding villages, this can benefit exponentially.

In the certificate distribution ceremony, the participants shared how encouraged they were by the enthusiasm of people from outside their village to help and rebuild them, and that they were confident, they could learn more from trainings like this in the future and certainly try their best in rebuilding their community, only this time, stronger and more resilient than before.
May be they can; may be they will.

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IMG_9209Someone said, “I consider ourselves lucky to have the Earthquake”
In the certificate distribution ceremony, Rajendra Dhakal was very excited to share his feelings about the training. For one thing, he started by sharing how had been enrolled in the training.
He was on a visit in a neighboring village while he met a friend and talked about the rehabilitation going on in Shrinathkot, the friend asked which organization was working with them for this process and he told Asal Chhimekee Nepal. The friend was very happy know and told him that Asal Chhimekee was a good organization and that he was very certain that positive changes would surely be brought about.
So, Rajendra decided to recommend his own name  for the training and thus he was here.

Rajendra said,” I have learnt a lot from this training. I learnt with excitement about various topics in English, but if there is anything I have learnt the most, it is that I know nothing about English. And I am certain there will be more for us in the future. Not only in school related aspects, but I feel, we have been touched by Asal Chhimekee Nepal in everything. Now, everything is being rebuilt. Everything we are trying to build now, if completed, will be better than what we ever had. Sometimes, I think to myself, it was a good thing for us that the Earthquake came and destroyed everything, because that made room for us to start building from scratch. We are very lucky have the partnership and expertise of Asal Chhimekee Nepal.”

The crowd seemed to welcome his thoughts and it seemed as if he had spoken the words from their own hearts. But ACN itself felt it had a lot to do; with so much appreciation from the community and the knowledge that it had a lot more to do, partnering, learning and teaching with this community. Everybody was happy but everybody knew there was a lot more to do. But that’s what milestones are for… congratulate you on how successful you have been in reaching the goal while also reminding how much further you still need to go, energizing with the success you have achieved.

Picture Gallery of the Event