Mica K.C.

On 17 July and 18 July 2015, Habitat for Humanity Nepal distributed 500 temporary shelter kits to earthquake-affected families in Pedku Village Development Committee, including the village of Khatri, Sindhupalchowk district, Nepal. To date, HFH Nepal has distributed more than 2,000 temporary shelter kits in Sindhupalchowk, Gorkha, Dhading and Kavre districts. Related photos are available on the Asia-Pacific Disaster Response Portal. Interviews were conducted on 17 July and 18 July 2015. All photos by Habitat for Humanity Nepal/Sonny Krishnan and Sameer Bhattarai.    

  

Mica K.C. 

Mica K.C. (right) helps out her 90-year-old neighbor Hasta Kumari Khatri (left) by providing food sometimes.  Mica K.C. (Khatri-Chhetri ), or Mica  “Didi”, a Nepali word for “big sister”,  gave a big smile  upon receiving a temporary shelter kit from Habitat for Humanity Nepal.

 “Now I don’t have to worry about the heavy rain soaking my bed, making it very hard for me to sleep at night. No more raindrops on my body! Thank you Habitat,” Mica, a 50-year-old widow, said excitedly.

The magnitude-7.8 earthquake on 25 April had badly damaged Mica’s stone-and-mud plaster house in Khatri village,  Pedku Village Development Committee, in Sindhupalchowk district. She had to take shelter in an adjoining shack that is used to store harvested corn.

Mica is among 500 families who received temporary shelter kits that were distributed by HFH Nepal on 17 July and 18 July. To date, Habitat staff together with local volunteers and community members, have distributed more than 2,000 kits to families in the worst-affected Sindhupalchowk, Gorkha, Dhading, and Kavre districts. Items in the kits, which include corrugated iron roofing sheets, iron rods and coiled wire, can be re-used in the construction of permanent houses.

Sindhupalchowk bore the brunt of the earthquake’s impact. According to the Nepal government, more than 66,000 houses, or two-thirds of the households, were destroyed or damaged in the district. There is an urgent need for shelter, particularly at the peak of the monsoon season. 

Despite her own hardship, Mica is sharing her shack with another widow and her children from a nearby village. “I couldn’t sit here doing nothing to help this husbandless woman and her children. She and her children have nowhere to take shelter. I have space so they can stay here,” she said.   

Mica’s husband died in a traffic accident 11 years ago and her two grown-up children, aged 23 and 25, are married with their own families in Kathmandu, more than 200 kilometers from Khatri village. According to Mica, widows and elderly women have great difficulties in getting help from male members of their community. Female-headed households also face additional challenges during disasters. Apart from caring for their children and the elderly, women have to take on tasks that men could have helped with, such as clearing the debris, putting up the roof and hauling construction materials. “We women, who have no husbands, have to help one another,” said Mica.

The women’s mutual help extended to 90-year-old Hasta Kumari Khatri. Mica and several women got together to hire laborers and rent a truck to collect the temporary shelter kits including one for Hasta Kumari. They are also taking turns to provide food to the elderly woman.  

Hasta Kumari was out in the field, cutting grass to feed her cows when the ground shook violently on 25 April. She returned home to find it reduced to rubble. Hasta Kumari had to share a large tarpaulin with 300 others for nearly a month. “There wasn’t enough food and we often got very wet when it rained,” she recalled.

Mica K.C. (fourth from left, with white necklace) and women from her community are prepared to build

 temporary shelters by themselves if help from male members is not available.

Mica said: “I’m really happy to be getting the temporary shelter kit and I know my neighbors will help me rebuild my house. I’ve contacted my male relatives from neighboring villages to help us construct the temporary shelters, using the kits distributed by Habitat. If they are too busy to help us, we ourselves will build them and pool our money to employ laborers for the heavy work.”

Notes:

Photos of Mica K.C. can be found in the Asia-Pacific Disaster Response Portal > NEPAL: Earthquake (April 2015) > Photos > 17-19 July 2015 - Sindhupalchowk 

For more information, please contact: Geno Teofilo, Media Relations and Disaster Communications Manager, Asia-Pacific, Habitat for Humanity International via GTeofilo@habitat.org, mobile: +63 905 669 5985

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Tiring but inspiring

Phil Johnstone from New Zealand shares his experience of removing rubble for earthquake-affected families together with young local volunteers

What a privilege to spend a day clearing rubble with an enthusiastic group of socially-minded Nepali student volunteers. 

My first experience as a Habitat volunteer was possibly the dustiest day of my life.  It was poignant to work alongside the owners of homes destroyed by the earthquake of 25 April 2015.  It’s hard to fathom what it must be like to see the home you have lived in for 60 years reduced to a pile of bricks, stones, wood, mud and scattered possessions. 

But from start to finish, the energy, positive attitude and fun displayed by my 25 fellow volunteers turned a long, hot July day into an unexpectedly joyous experience.

Phil Johnstone works alongside other volunteers during Habitat for Humanity Nepal’s rubble removal activity in Sankhu, Kathmandu district on 3 July 2015. (Habitat for Humanity Nepal/Sameer Bhattarai)

We assembled on 3 July at around 9.30am in the badly damaged village of Sankhu, Kathmandu district, a 45-minute drive north-east of the capital Kathmandu.  A majority of buildings lay flattened – with rubble piled high amidst half-collapsed walls.

Roughly half the volunteer group were female first-year university students – social work majors doing a Bachelor of Public Health degree. The rest were guys – either still in high school or in their first semester at university. We geared up with gloves, hard hats and masks, and following a group photo and a safety briefing, the work began.

I spent the morning on the first floor of a house, removing what remained of two walls that used to support a now non-existent roof.  A small proportion of the bricks were suitable for re-use and these were carefully passed to volunteers at ground level and stacked. The walls were devoid of reinforcing, and bricks seemed to be only held together by mud. Little wonder these traditional houses proved no match for the two major quakes that took over 8,800 lives.

Fortunately for me, this rubble-clearing day featured a special lunch – a thank-you treat marking the last day of work by local volunteers, mobilized by Habitat for Humanity Nepal since the first earthquake on 25 April, before the monsoon kicked in.

Out came the mobile phones and the selfie stick, and our group was like any bunch of laughing, excitable young people on a shared mission. 

(Above, foreground) Bhumika Parajuli clears debris from a destroyed house. (Below, in pink) Home owner Mangal Maya Malla, 60, with volunteers and Habitat staff who helped her save wood and bricks from her destroyed home. (Habitat for Humanity Nepal/Phil Johnstone)

Over lunch, high school student Ezekiel Rai, 19, explained why he and his friends Simon and Ismayal have chipped in on all 20 volunteer days.  “Our exams had finished, and we are the youth.  If we don’t take a step to help, that wouldn’t be good.  It has been hard work but when we build a shelter and see a family move in, we feel proud and have joy in our hearts to have helped our country.”

Similarly, Bhumika Parajuli, 19, is driven by a strong sense of community connection.  “I’m a public health student so it’s my duty to serve the public,” she said.  “Doing this work with Habitat is our way to express what we aspire to do in public health in the future. This has been the best experience for us.”

My afternoon was spent pulling out wood and bricks from a pile of rubble that used to be the two-story home of Mangal Maya Malla, 60.  Unmarried, Mangal had lived in the house all her life.  She spent the day working alongside the volunteers – stacking bricks and pitching in with various digging tools.

“It’s a difficult task for these young people but it’s great for me.  I was helpless but today I am not alone.  I am so grateful.”

Her words capped a tiring yet inspiring day. Thanks, Habitat, for helping people left homeless by Nepal’s earthquakes, and enabling a new generation to step up and contribute.   

Phil Johnstone is a New Zealand public relations consultant who is working toward a career as a disaster and conflict zone communicator.

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