Sita Ghimire (28) lives in the village at Kiranchowk, Gajuri Rural Municipality-8, Dhading. Hers is one of the many families that was affected by the 2015 earthquake. Her family were left to live in a temporary hut as their house completely collapsed. They also did not register for grievances for housing grant as they were not aware about it. The house and a small patch of land were the only property that Sita’s family owned. With the support of DCA, she was connected to the local government from where she was eligible to receive the housing reconstruction support.
Finally, her family was able to rebuild their house and have a roof of their own. However, her needs did not end there as they did not have a regular income to take care of their requirements, major one being her daughter’s education. “One of the main concerns for me and my husband was to have a roof for us and our daughter. It meant that we had a home to stay, security and also a sense of family dignity, but once we could manage that we realized that we had greater responsibility taking care of her education too. The money we earned was not enough to even to rebuild our home completely, let alone provide for her education,” she further adds.
Identifying the gravity of Sita’s needs and situation she was identified and approached for a month-long soft toy/doll making training organized by DCA in collaboration with Dhading and Gajuri Rural Municipality. The objective of the training was to improve the livelihood of vulnerable families who, like Sita, were looking for alternative opportunities for skill and income. Sita learnt many new things in the training as she has never tried doll making before. She learnt cutting, designing, and filling to make different kinds of dolls and upon completion of the training she started making soft toys to sell in the market.
“Whenever I have free time, I make toys as they fetch good prices in the local market. There is a high school near my home, so the students from there mostly buy my toys which has helped with my sales,” informs Sita. “The money I save is being used for my household expenses, buying materials for toy making and my daughters education. I am very encouraged with the result, and I hope to grow this business as it helps me with income and at the same times brings smile in the face of my customers,” she gladly says.
Being a development and humanitarian organization, DCA (a Danish INGO) was active from day one after the 2015 Earthquake to reach the neediest population in hardest hit areas of Nepal. The immediate response started in Lalitpur, Kathmandu, Bhaktapur, Dhading, Lamjung and Gorkha Districts, followed by early recovery interventions. In order to have a longer-term development impact and building back better from the devastating earthquake, DCA’s effort continued during the reconstruction phase with the expansion of support to more than 30 earthquake affected districts of Nepal.
The major areas of interventions were on livelihood enhancement in both on and off-farm sector, vocational skills, knowledge and awareness on disaster risk reduction, building the capacity of local government on disaster preparedness, gender issues during and after crisis, among others. Dhading remained as one of the most focused districts, where the support ranges from livelihood, disaster risk reduction, local governance, Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), market systems strengthening and tailored support as per the need for the most vulnerable communities in the district, who were pushed back by the earthquake and further challenged by the Covid-19 pandemic.
