Nepal: One Year After the Earthquake

A year has gone by since the devastating earthquakes in Nepal – and Nepal’s people have shown their incredible resilience and determination.

True, there are reports of promised aid not getting through, and a lack of comprehensive planning – but the PEOPLE have just pulled together and made the best of it. TRAS members who have visited recently talk of cheerful, smiling people going about their daily lives -it’s almost as though the disaster has drawn them closer to support each other and do what they can themselves to make life bearable.

These photos, from the Times of India, show that many buildings have not been rebuilt, but they have cleared away the rubble,  tidied up, repaved damaged streets and it’s almost business as usual!

The world has suffered new calamities recently and  many people have moved on to help in other places – but those of us who love the beauty of Nepal and its people know that much still needs to be done to bring lasting improvements. Several aid agencies and charities are still working hard to support the local efforts, TRAS among them.  Strong, sanitary toilets are being rebuilt in the Dolakha villages with the funds TRAS members have sent.

Nepal: Response, Relief & Recovery

2015-05-29 03.02.27TRAS Speaker Series is very pleased to present:

A evening with Professor Mark Turin

Date:  March 4, 2016

Time:  Doors open at 7:00 pm – talk at 7:30 pm

Location:  Sutherland Secondary School, 1860 Sutherland Avenue, North Vancouver (free parking)

Cost:  By Donation.  (Handicrafts and baked goods will be on sale) Proceeds to TRAS

SPACE IS LIMITED – REGISTER by email at cbunbury@sd44.ca  or by phoning the TRAS office at 604-224-5133

Event Details:

In this presentation, anthropologist, linguist and broadcaster Mark Turin will share insights from his 25 years living and working in Nepal and the greater Himalayan region. Mark’s richly illustrated talk will position the nation’s response, relief and recovery, following the catastrophic earthquakes of April and May, 2015, in a deeper historical and social context. Reflecting on Nepal’s extraordinary ethnic and linguistic diversity, Mark will speak to the creativity and resilience of the country’s citizens in the face of mounting uncertainty.

Speaker bio:

Mark Turin is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at UBC, where he also serves as Chair of the First Nations and Endangered Languages Program. Prior to moving to Vancouver, Mark was an Associate Research Scientist with the South Asian Studies Council at Yale University, and the Founding Program Director of the Yale Himalaya Initiative. He directs the Digital Himalaya Project, of which he is a co-founder, and the co-editor of the longest running open-access journal of Himalayan studies, entitled HIMALAYA. Follow him on Twitter: @markturin

Mark and his wife Sara were instrumental in bringing to TRAS the ‘Twin your Toilet’ reconstruction project in Dolakha.

This special event is co-hosted by the new Global Perspectives Program at Sutherland Secondary School in North Vancouver.
 

 

Sikkim Project Update

December 2015: The latest news from Lama Paljor is that the children are much healthier now that they are enjoying a nutritious lunch. For many who come from extremely poor families, this lunch is the most substantial meal of the day. The children are not falling asleep during the afternoon classes, and are better able to concentrate.  Almost all the mothers are now able to work in their fields, and work on the roads – but this work is intermittent; they may get work perhaps for a month, and then none for a couple of months. Lama Paljor feels, therefore, that he cannot ask the parents to pay for the lunch.

Lunch program 2015
He had hoped to have the greenhouse up and running this past summer, but heavy rains and landslides (caused perhaps by  the massive Himalayan earthquakes this year) have prevented the construction.  The land has been levelled, and the supplies are purchased, so we hope he is soon able to build the greenhouse and start growing vegetables.

TRAS has agreed to fund the lunch program for a further three months.

Sangam Community Library ‘Women Computer Literacy’ Project

Project 321 – 2015

Nepali women living in the village of Sangam in Udayapur District, eastern Nepal, are poor and their children go hungry.  They have never had a chance to find work. 

But thanks to a pilot computer course at their local library, 15 women are now computer literate and 3 already have good jobs. Who knew one could train to be an insurance agent, a mushroom farmer or a tailor via the internet!

TRAS is collaborating with the Nepal Library Foundation in Kathmandu to purchase 11 computers and enlarge this program to train many more women.

Cost of one computer? $500                      Cost of independence for one family? Priceless!

Sangam Computer Literacy Class
Sangam Computer Literacy Class

 

 

 

 

 

Dolakha – Rebuilding in Nepal

Project #323 – 2014-2015

Why TRAS and why toilets?

The Trans-Himalayan Aid Society has a long history of assisting public sanitation in the Himalayan region.  It also has a long association with UBC.  TRAS founders George and Inge Woodcock called upon their UBC colleagues & friends over 50 years ago as they established the NGO.

Now, TRAS is collaborating with UBC Anthropology staff Sara Shneiderman http://anth.ubc.ca/faculty/sara-shneiderman/ and Mark Turin http://anth.ubc.ca/faculty/mark-turin/, to assist in a rebuilding project in Dolakha district, Nepal.

Sara Shneiderman and Mark Turin are advisors to indigenous citizens in this region, and alerted TRAS to the dire need for help to reestablish public sanitation after the May 12 earthquake flattened most existing latrines.  TRAS is partnering with Shree Fashelung Social Service, in Suspa-Kshamawoti VDC, to assist in this vital rebuilding project.toilet project - 3

Through this project, local residents will reconstruct toilets for each household of Suspa-Kshamawoti VDC (S-K), Ward No 5, to ensure a healthy and sanitary environment. The population of Ward 5 is 90% Thangmi/Thami (a highly marginalized indigenous group), with whom Shneiderman & Turin work closely.

Shortly before the earthquakes hit, Dolakha had been declared an “open defecation free zone” by the Government of Nepal, as major progress had been achieved in building toilets across the district in recent years. The earthquake undid much of this work, as it destroyed toilets that people had built with the financial aid of other NGOs who no longer working in this area.  Where they can, local residents are using what is left of their latrines, which are often unsafe and unsanitary, with broken footplates, open exposure to the elements and dangerous cracks.  Without safe or sanitary toilets, some people have gone back to open defecation.

Your dollars to TWIN YOUR TOILET will assist local people to maintain and improve the health of their children and families.  This rebuilding project helps people in Nepal to regain some of the ground they had achieved before the earthquakes, and to pick up their lives for a more promising future.

The cost for construction materials, footplate, water pipes and tap is $210 per latrine.  TRAS has committed to funding 80 latrines from funds already raised for rebuilding and will fund additional toilets from donations received.

Thank you for your generous gift.

January 22, 2016 – Funds received to date will build 188 toilets – only 12 to go!