A group of people started volunteering from 1st of July with VIN. This group consist 9 people of which 7 were committed fully in Post disaster relief project whereas other two volunteers were partly committed in this project. Post disaster relief project of VIN is mainly focused on constructing transitional house to the poor and deprived families. VIN staffs work as an assessment team where they find out the families who needed the transitional homes the most.
International volunteers matching up with national volunteers are divided into different teams who work in different families. This group worked at different parts of Jitpur community and helped the homeless families. During their work, they had a lot of moments where they felt really glad for being able to lend hands to these families.
One of the volunteer is here for six weeks and she has so far constructed 4 transitional houses. Her professional background is related to disaster management and she had not only been building houses but also been a first aid to the team. She explains how this work and the experience are enriching and wonderful because she found out that the families they helped is very poor and the needy ones. One of the houses she builds was for 80-years old woman was a victim who lost her house along with her family member. She is now alone and had no roof to hide her head. VIN’s assessment team found her and helped her to build a transitional house. She is alone but now she has a house to live in. She is happy, she is safe. During the construction she offered the volunteer to stay with her one night in her new house.
“The transitional house is meant for an old lady, who was very much part of the building process. She lost two family members in the earthquake. Our new grandmother wanted to help and kept moving the building materials to places that were inconvenient. When she picked up a handful of mud, one of the volunteers thought she was going to throw it at him. However, grandma wanted to fix a hole in one of the walls of her former clay brick house, which she did by throwing the mud with a lot of force into the hole. Grandma did not only appreciate the new transitional home, she also enjoyed our company. She offered the international volunteers to stay the night in her temporary shelter” said the volunteer
Other group of volunteers helped in many houses which also had lots of stories. The volunteers explained that it was bit difficult to decide before coming and was afraid to come to Nepal after the disaster but after working for the community they said it was a wonderful experience and learned a lot from community people.
After the earthquake, VIN had very less volunteers who would stay or who decided to come to Nepal. It was a difficult time but whoever came and helped us with this project, VIN’s team would like to thank them all for giving their time and effort. VIN needs more helping hands as thousands of houses were destroyed. Please come and volunteer with us for this cause. Join us now!!!
Published on: 26 Jul 2015