Old life turned to rubble, people in Nepal looking at long road to recovery

Old life turned to rubble, people in Nepal looking at long road to recovery

“I was cooking food in the kitchen when everything started to shake. I left the gas on in panic and ran out,” said Janifa Bibi, chuckling loud, remembering the moment now.

Her laugh is only a mask to hide the pain of her home being reduced to rubbles. 

A resident of Deragaon village in Gorkha district, Janifa and her family are now living in her brothers house in the same village.

“Living in someone’s house is not a long term solution. We need our own house back soon," said Janifa.  

Janifa,35, and her family are residents of a Muslim cluster of the Phinam village development committee (VDC) in Gorkha district. 

A team of Oxfam from India is on the ground in Gorkha and is providing relief supplies to the survivors in the region, including the Muslim and Dalit cluster under the Phinam VDC.

Traditionally small scale farmers, Janifa, her husband Habib Mian and two sons were in the houses when the earthquake happened. They are now homeless.

“We are poor farmers with little land and barely enough money, how do we make our house again? It will take us at least three years to arrange the money required for the construction of a new house. Until then we may have to live in the open. After all for how long can I stay in my brother's house?" Janifa asks, her chuckle now a distant memory. 

Though her toilet is intact, she along with most other women from the village have to perform the additional role of fetching water for the family. 

"Water comes for two hours every morning at the roadside pipe. But it is not enough. I have to take a metal vessel in my basket and trek down the village to a water source 10 minutes away. I have to perform this chore three times every day trekking downhill and then uphill with a full container of water,” she said. 

You can help Janifa and her family get back to their feet. DONATE NOW.

 

Written by: Oxfam India staff

Photo credit: Sharbendu De

 


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