Villages provide volunteer labour towards rebuild of their community infrastructure

NAFA always expects volunteer contribution from villagers in all funded projects. This engenders the spirit of partnership and ownership within communities and helps drive NAFA’s hard earned donations and fundraising income further. Following the devastating earthquakes in April and May 2015 villagers have greatly appreciated the significant commitments NAFA has made to help them rebuild community infrastructure. They are doing their bit in partnership with NAFA through their volunteer efforts.

 

 

 

 

Significant volunteer contributions from villages have included:

• dismantling of earthquake destroyed classrooms, sorting of reusable materials such as stones, windows and roofing tin in all villages;
• preparation of stone aggregate (made by hitting larger stones through a hole made in a rubber thong) needed in the mix with cement, sand and water for concreting;
• clearing and excavating land for 4 classrooms in Patle – 350 man/days volunteer labour
• village co-ordinators travelling back and forth to the district offices, up to 1 day travel/walk away, to get paperwork signed, banking etc – often taking three or four days away from their village
• managing the delivery of construction materials, sometimes taking two days to travel with the tractor
• volunteer labour carrying sand, cement, stone and roofing from the drop off point to the building site, sometimes up to 4 hours at a time
• two months of community effort to excavate recently purchased private land adjoining the school at Ladap to provide sufficient land space for new government building code requirements;
• excavations and clearing of rocks by hand, some as big as cars, of recently purchased private land adjoining the school at Tawal considered safe from landslide risk; and
• reconstruction of a 50 metre retaining wall below the school at Kutal.

 

Villagers make this contribution willingly and with purpose and pride. “The work has been hard and difficult at times but we want to get these classrooms finished so our children can get a better education and hopefully have a better life than we have had” (Baibahadur Rai, Kophu co-ordinator).

 

If an additional $50,000 can be raised, the volunteer contributions by villagers has made the goal of completing NAFA’s infrastructure rebuild and repair commitments achievable in 2017.

 

We would be grateful for any donations to help us complete the rebuild, go to Donations