First home photo book
Asherman is the mayor of sector 2 (Rapcha) of the new 7-sector Dudh Khosi Rural Municipality, elected for a 5-year term.
Asherman is the mayor of sector 2 (Rapcha) of the new 7-sector Dudh Khosi Rural Municipality, elected for a 5-year term.
After more than a decade without having been to Nepal, my first impressions of this trip in March 2018 are marked by astonished looks that are often pleasantly surprised by recent or ongoing developments, particularly in the village of Basa-Rapcha.
At other times, I was dismayed by the after-effects of the earthquakes on the monuments and in the neighbourhoods of the towns in the Kathmandu valley, by the extreme levels of air pollution in Kathmandu and by the piles of rubbish and the invasion of plastic waste that is spreading unchecked.
Shokal’s house has finally been nearly achieved, as witnessed by the photos taken early march 2017 . It is somewhat bigger as planned, but it was intended as a work training programme and it will be later possible to build smaller structures.
After two and a half months spent in Nepal, Vincent, the young mason, expert on rehabilitation who supervised the reconstruction of the house for our association, can really be proud of the work done.
Among the selected families for the first phase of works, we chose Shokal because he was a widower with two young children and he had generously offered land for the construction of the health clinic.
The reconstruction of the third planned house, that of Doma Laxmi Rai and her children, was completed during their stay after just 15 days of work. The team of craftsmen has fully assimilated the principles of earthquake-resistant construction, and the quality improves with each new house.
Vincent will return just before Christmas after supervising the reconstruction of two other houses (Man Bir and Deepa Rai’s and Maïti Rai’s).
RECONSTRUCTION: CAPA will provide technical support to rebuild two houses using earthquake-resistant principles and local techniques.
TRAIN village technicians in earthquake-resistant techniques, as well as 4 technical leaders who will be able to pass on these techniques. To this end, a construction manual will be produced as a teaching aid for the technicians.
MAKE all residentsaware of the importance of earthquake-resistant construction. The aim is to give them the keys to understanding the importance of taking account of seismic risk in construction, and to call on the services of trained technicians.
In the first part, we presented a slide show on the reconstruction of the house in Shokal.
And on Thursday 28 September, we were invited to the town hall in Saint Genès Champanelle to receive a cheque from Claudine Darrigrand, President of Espoir et Solidarité, accompanied by a delegation from the association.
Then, in April-May, the craftsmen trained by Vincent applied on their own what they had learned alongside him. They built Jange MAGAR’s house. A team of around ten workers took part in the reconstruction over a 4-week period. As Jange’s family is one of the poorest in the village, the workers offered 24 days of voluntary work.
First local elections in 20 years in Nepal
key stage in the country’s political stabilisation, results in Rapcha
After the promulgation of a new Constitution in Nepal in September 2015, local elections were finally held, after 20 years of turmoil, in May and June 2017, in all the country’s local authorities with three forces in attendance, the Congress party, the Marxist-Leninists and the Maoists.
According to our local Nepalese correspondents, voters in the new Rapcha/Basa municipality have nominated Tej Bahadur Magar, well known to our association as Asarman and head of the local association “Motherland Improvement Club” or MIC, as the representative of the section or Ward 2 located in Rapcha.
A presentation of the association in the form of panels and a commented slide show, as well as an exhibition of photos of Nepal, were on show to the public.