Despite the rains setting in for a second season following last year’s earthquake, INF is making progress towards rebuilding in Gorkha as the GRACE project gets underway. Eddie Ozols, Operations Manager for Anglican Aid Australia, joined INF last month to see the impact of some of the post-earthquake relief that INF has been able to do in partnership with Anglican Aid and joined in self-help group meetings with families being assisted with rehabilitation and rebuilding. In his photo essay, posted 24 June 2016, Eddie describes how he saw first-hand the challenges just to access the affected communities and then the difference that the project will make in these people’s lives.
“I thought I had been on the worst road in Africa a couple of years ago”, Eddie further explained to an INF staff member, “It took three hours to cover 80 km. However, to visit Thalajung to see the temporary learning centres that INF constructed from earthquake relief fund which Anglican Aid contributed to it took three hours to drive just 16 kilometres on a muddy four wheel drive track. We then had to walk 1.5 km down an incline to reach the village where the school was!”
Eddie was impressed by the efficiency of INF, not just in terms of delivering relief in such challenging conditions, but setting up a new office in Gorkha to deliver the GRACE project over the next five years. As part of the GRACE project, INF will assist with reconstructing homes for 108 families affected by disabilities in the Gorkha District and provide modifications for another 40 dwellings.
An awareness campaign and capacity training is already underway and self-help groups formed as part of this initial work. Eddie joined INF in attending a meeting in Chhoprak [another village in Gorkha], a special education resource centre for children with disabilities in Palungtar and witnessed signing of contracts with families who will receive assistance.
INF is pleased to be partnering with Anglican Aid. To read more about Eddie’s visit and see photos of the project area, please click here.