Community reconstruction project
45 minutes south of Kathmandu lies beautiful Kot Dada – on the hills overlooking the valley. We are working as training partner to rebuild houses in traditional architecture – an important step to promote Eco-tourism and home-stay in the village.
The people of Kot Dada was badly hit by the Earthquake and many families lost their homes. Only 9 houses were standing out of 84 houses. Most families are farmers and there is a strong need for reconstruction and new income opportunities.
We are serving as training partner, to We help Nepal Network, teaching the local people how to produce Earth Bricks and how to build earthquake proof. The purpose is to transfer construction knowledge and to empowering the people of Kot Dada to rebuild their own village. In early 2017 we set up the Earth Brick Machine and did training for the local community in Kot Dada. They are now independently producing Earth Bricks.
A few words from the first days of training:
The first day people were listening curiously and many people from the community came by to watch the training. At first there was a little bit of skepticism on their faces. The main question being: Can one actually make good bricks from only soil, sand and a little bit cement?
Once the locals had made their first batch of soil, sand and cement and pressed their first brick there was a sudden spur in energy – many happy faces spread across the crowd and after this point the energy picked up!
Building a model house
We have built a model house in Kot Dada where the locals were being trained in earthquake resistant construction. The goal has been to empower the locals to rebuild their own homes in traditional architecture. They can save cost in construction by using their own labor or increase their income by producing Earth Bricks and selling to others. Currently, there are 5 more CSEB houses being built in Kot Danda with a lot of enthusiasm.
Traditional architecture and promoting Eco-Tourism
At Build up Nepal we are very happy for the progress in Kot Dada – more than 8 families have rebuilt new homes!
