In September this year I visited Nepal for the first time and stepped through a portal to an incredibly beautiful, astonishing and welcoming place, but also a country struggling to recover from a devastating earthquake amid political and economical turmoil. In April, hundreds of thousands of people were made homeless by the earthquake and many of them are still living in tents or temporary shelters with winter fast approaching.
The Nepali Government has done very little to help these people. Many NGOs (Non-Government Organisations) are doing great work but there are simply too many people still in need of help and the attention of the World Media has moved on.
In a situation like this we obviously can not help everyone that is suffering, so I decided that I should focus on one project that would make a big difference to someone! My aim is to help to raise enough money to build an earth-bag house for an earthquake victim whose needs seems even greater than most.
The story of Maya Nepali (a.k.a. Lovely Maya) was brought to my attention by Indira Ghale, a brave and inspiring woman whom I met in Kathmandu. Indira runs an NGO called Sahayatri Nepal. I was privileged to visit Indira's home that also serves as a hostel for girls who have been victims of trafficking. As if running the hostel was not enough, Indira is constantly engaged in other social work projects, community education initiatives and she always has more plans than Sahayatri Nepal can afford to fund! Currently, one of her greatest wishes is to build an earthbag house for Maya and her sons. This is Maya:
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Maya is from a village called Keureni in the district of Gorkha, an area at the epicentre of the earthquake. She lost her husband to HIV when she was 35 but did not know the cause of his death until she became seriously ill herself: she is also suffering from HIV. Maya has two sons aged 17 and 12. After losing their home in the earthquake, they all now share a small temporary shelter with Maya's father in law.
Why an earthbag house? The sheet-metal structures that are being hastily built in Nepal are not only awful to look at but also provide little insulation: a temporary solution at best. Earthbag houses provide a simple, practical and affordable housing solution especially in mountainous areas where access is an issue. Earthquake-resistant earthbag houses have been developed in the wake of natural disasters in places like Haiti.
For more information see here: earthbagbuilding, and here: earthquake-resistant-earthbag-houses.
Funding the building of an earthbag house would not only provide a home for Maya and her family, it would be a very important pilot project that could have a wider impact on the way Nepali people rebuild their villages. If we manage to raise more than enough money for one house, further houses will be built in the same village for other single-mothers that have also lost their husbands to AIDS.
Please Donate if you can but you can also help us by sharing this page.
Chris Preston,
in the name of: Maya Nepali, Indira Ghale, Joshua Ryan, Rosie Heselev and Johanna Fricke.
***Update 11/11/16
Kind and generous donors to our earthbag house project! Here is the story so far to keep you up to date. As yet, building has not started and we are now aiming for December 2016. There have been various set-backs hold-ups and downright skulduggery but below are the main problems we have encountered so far:
My crowdfunding campaign raised £2,000 (of the £3000 needed) and the money became availble to us in March. I had problems transferring the money to Indira in Nepal and was trying to avoid Western Union etc who take a cut. We finally managed to get cash hand-delivered in May!
Meanwhile, Indira visited Maya's village in March to have meetings with the villagers about the project. The general feeling was very positive and some of the women formed an action group to become the paid workers when the building starts. However, it came to light that there was a dispute about the land that Maya owns and things became a bit tricky. It now seems to have been resolved and there will still be enough land to build on.
From October 2015 to March 2016 India was stopping vital supplies from entering Nepal because they were not happy about Nepal's new constitution. The pressure gradually inceased and after some time there was hardly any fuel for cars/buses, gas for cooking or medical supplies. This meant that it was very difficult to travel or lead a normal life in Nepal, let alone order unusual building supplies and get them delivered to a remote village!
That brought us almost to the monsoon season, which is June to August. Not a good time to start building an earth house.
At the moment Maya's health is not good and they want to wait until December. I had hoped that I would not need to go back myself in order to get things moving. However, if that is what it takes, rest assured I'll do it!
Many thanks to all who have helped us so far.
