Japanese GV Team Feb 8-18th, 2015 - Parsa, Nepal

Parsa Build

Masiyani is a small village of around 130 houses in the Parsa district. The community is poor, and most of the people living there are illiterate. The nearest school is three kilometers away. Houses are mostly made of mud, and are poorly ventilated. Clean drinking water is rare, as are modern toilets and sanitation.

Lalsa Kumari and Munni Devi, two residents of the village, were in need of urgent help. The houses that they lived in with their families were starting to fall down around them, letting in the cold weather and the elements. On February 8^th, a team of Japanese students and a teacher from Kwansei Gakuin University arrived to build them better homes

The Global Village Team and the Home Partners in front of the new home

The volunteers had fun constructing the houses. While the work was sometimes physically demanding, it was also gratifying. The volunteers especially enjoyed plastering the houses, and mixing mud with the homeowners. Spending time with the women and their families was one of their favorite parts of the trip. Whenever the volunteers had time off from their work, they would play with the local children, who were all very excited by what was going on. The team was surprised by how close they became to their home partners, and how welcoming the community was. 

From left to right: Maho plasters the walls, Rika cuts bamboo, Sayaka says goodbye to the families 

There were a number challenges the team had to face. One was the lack of toilets and proper sanitation. As well as building houses, they also had to construct a temporary toilet facility. However, this challenge led to greater progress. The villagers were very impressed by the facility, and the principle of the local school highly encouraged parents to build something similar, promising a few extra marks for their child if they did so.

While there were other challenges, including the language barrier, and the distance of the site from the hotel, through hard work and perseverance, the team was able to overcome these to complete two houses.  Lalsa Kumari and Munni Devi were delighted with their new homes, which were constructed of bamboo and brick respectively. They thanked the volunteers for giving them a decent place to live and to raise their families.