Contribution Of First Relief Materials To The Devastated Village Of Laprak, Gorkha.
Home > Contribution Of First Relief Materials To The Devastated Village Of Laprak, Gorkha.
Relief Work In Laprak. June -July 2015
The support KFN provides has been dependent on the amount of funds we were able to collect. We had also verbally agreed with institutions such as The Northface Nepal who were also collecting funds, on the possibility of jointly supporting the same village. In addition, we had other friends who were collecting funds and our plan was to join all these funds together so that our resources were jointly directed towards making a more effective impact.
Estimate Fund Raise 30.000€0%
BACKGROUND
Laprak is a hill village located at Laprak VDC of Gorkha district. The village has a very rich traditional Gurung culture where more than 90% of the population is Gurung.. Interestingly all 9 wards of the VDC are close together. The village is situated 2100m above sea level. Laprak is about a 6 hour walk from Barpak, ascending and descending 900m before walking 800m downhill to arrive at Laprak. Laprak is also accessible from Tatopani in the East and Gumda in the South.
This Gurung village, along with Barpak was at the epicentre of the 25th April earthquake that devastated Nepal. With 611 households, the entire village was devastated and the villagers migrated to safer grounds and dispersed into five new locations with the exception of a few elderly villagers who refused to move to other places.
Getting relief to Laprak has proved to be very complicated and therefore the villagers have been suffering the lack of most of the materials needed for recovering from the disaster.
New Settelment at 2700 meters.
The villagers migrated to safer grounds and dispersed into five new locations with the exception of a few elderly who refused to move to other places. While Laprak is at an altitude of 2200m, the currently highest migration settlement is at 2700 meters.
Route Katmandhu Laprak.
Getting relief to Laprak has proved to be very complicated. Due to the sheer remoteness of the village and almost non-existent access by vehicle,
The government is taking the initiative to clear the seasonal road and it is hoped that it should be open soon.
However, we are really worried as the monsoon is fast approaching and the seasonal track will once again be closed due to the rain and massive landslides.
Due to the sheer remoteness of the village and almost non-existent access by vehicle
Suman And His Team
Suman Gurung, is a professional mountain guide (IFMGA/UIAGM) born in Laprak village. Whilst he was trekking in the Tsum Valley, he was trapped in the mountains as the earthquake struck and immediately teamed up with five other friends from Larpak who also work in the trekking sector, to head out to his birthplace and lend a helping hand to his fellow villagers and family members.
Due to the sheer remoteness of the village and lack of vehicle access at present, official government relief or international community had not yet reached his village. He along with his team were the first to provide relief materials to his suffering villagers with limited funds provided by friends and family, in Nepal and abroad.
First Contributions
Half a dozen of trucks and tractors were arranged for providing food, medicines, hygienic products, petrol, gas for cooking and materials for shelters (mostly corrugated sheets for building walls and roofs) before the dirt road was finally closed by mid July.
Before the monsoon arrived there was an urgent need for adequate food supplies, basic medical supplies and a better shelter to survive during the rainy season as even access by foot is difficult due to the rain and landslides.
Drinking Water
Make suitable arrangements for safe drinking water and any type of storage for drinking water for household. Water storage it is insuficient for all the villlagers.
The villagers are working hand by hand
The villagers will salvage wood and other materials that they can and use local manpower so we will not be using funds in human resource. Bringing materials up to the camp
Comunity Center
One community centre (which will also be very basic) with 4-5 rooms where one room can be used as an infirmary with basic medicines and others can also be used as a guest house for visiting social workers, which can be managed by the mothers group. For example, even we can pay a basic fee for board and lodging. We will still need to use sleeping bags but there will be a room with two basic beds & a mat, maybe a solar light, toilet and eating area. Incase people start falling ill, this same area can be used to house the sick as well and other similar uses.
Provide metal roof sheets along with necessary nails, door locks, chimneys, etc required for setting up a more permanent shelter as opposed to the current tarps they are using. I have not promised them any quantity (in terms of dwellings) and have said we will go as far as our funds allow.
When the monsoon started there were already a couple of projects (construction of a nursery school and construction of a building for the youth association of Laprak) planned for the time in which the dirt road would be opened again. At the moment this projects are in stand-by because the government has not decided yet to bestow the villagers the land in which the have resettled and so they are reluctant to construct permanent buildings until they have the confirmation from the government. We are looking forward to having news from the government to keep working on this projects.
GETTING INVOLVED for a better future of Nepalese children.
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