Name: Chandra Bohadur Lamichane
Location: Kavresthali-3 Dolkap
Date:2019.04.19
After walking through a rugged hill road, we found a small house with lots of bricks aside. Chandra Bohadur Lamichane of age over 60, who lives here with his wife and their 9-year-old granddaughter Supriya after Nepal earthquake in 2015. Chandra had a son who lost his life due to a disease, and his daughter is married. They used to live in another house nearby, it fully collapsed during the earthquake, then they stay in the tent for 6-7 months. It was a harsh experience to them, it was too freezing to stay in that tent. Chandra asked his brother to lend a house to them, which is the current house they live in. It used to be a 2-storey house, the upper floor collapsed in the earthquake; they managed to repair the rest part to be livable. However, this house is getting older and older, it might fall apart anytime in the future. In addition, there are many holes on the used tinplate that is taken to cover the house, the holes cause the heavily leaking in the rainy days.
Chandra and his wife are selling some vegetable they cultivate, and some milk from the goat, they make about 3,000 Rupees for a month, and it is almost the amount of their daily expense. Chandra has some back problem that makes him too weak to work on the farm, so his wife takes the majority responsible for their livelihood.
Their granddaughter Supriya receives the subsidy from the government to pay her educational fee, she gets subsidized as she has no parents, her father, who is Chandra’s deceased son, and right after he passed away, Supriya’s mother left her when she was 1 year old. Hence, Chandra took all the responsibility to raise Supriya.
Currently, VIN has helped to build the foundation of Chandra’s new house, that is the reason we saw many bricks around their house, and it would continue building by VIN’s volunteer from this summer. When we asked about their future plan, Chandra smiled and said there is nothing for themselves, but only wants to give the priority of any resource to Supriya’s future.
Interview by Deepak Raaz Ghimire
Photo by ChienYi Wu
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