Sabita's hopes

Sabita did not notice anything unusual, until she heard her mother’s screams.

It had started out like any other Saturday, a day off from school. She remembers she was sweeping the front yard, while her siblings played nearby. In the small blacksmith shed, on the side of their home, her parents were hammering and forging tools, from near molten iron. Suddenly her mother was screaming at them, to get away from the house.

It was then that Sabita felt the ground beneath her feet trembling. Dizzy, she bolted to her mother’s side, and clung to her crying.

The hills convulsed, as the earthquake rumbled across the valley. It snapped trees like toothpicks, pried huge boulders, and hived off hunks of hillsides, sending thick brown clouds mushrooming into the sky.

Sabita and her family huddled in fear outside, as it tore down their home. What Sabita didn’t know then was that it would put cracks in her dream of becoming a doctor.

In the district of Sindhupalchok, where the family lives, the tremors struck with particular ferocity. While Sabita and her family escaped relatively unhurt – falling debris broke one sister’s arm and her brother suffered a facial wound – many others were not so lucky.

Across the country the quake destroyed more than half a million homes and buildings, crushing stores, and levelling government offices. It claimed nearly 9000 lives, and left about 22000 injured.

In the Sindhupalchok alone, 3500 people died and more than 1500 were injured, leaving the district in distress. The devastation that day, 25th April 2015, has been so severe experts believe it will take about a decade for the country to recover.

Nearly two years later, tens of thousands of people – mostly women and children – still live in makeshift shelters. Out of the total 626,000 households waiting for the government aid, only around 50,000 have started reconstructing their homes, while hardly 3500 have been able to complete construction with the aid money as of April 2017. And thousands of children study in damaged classrooms that lie open to the elements.

The tens of millions of dollars donated to Nepal are slowly being channeled towards reconstruction, but progress has been slow. It has led to heavy criticism of both government and aid agencies, raising questions about stifling bureaucracy and poor planning.

Anirudra Nepal, a government official in Sindhupalchok, admits that “things are not moving as expected.”

But he argues there are several reasons why people are not able to faster rebuild their homes.

Nepal who heads the District Disaster Relief Committee in Sindhupalchok says: “Some (people) do not have their own land, others are living on public land. Many of them have lost employment and livelihood opportunities and it is a big challenge to get them back on their feet, as it takes a long time, resources, and capacity.”

Reconstructing earthquake-resistant houses requires technical guidance and expertise, and accessing government grants involves following time-consuming paper-work and procedures, says Nepal. He adds there is a “serious crunch of skilled manpower,” for reconstruction, as many workers and youth have migrated abroad, in search of jobs.

The situation makes for an uncertain future, for families such as Sabita’s.

The 15-year-old speaks softly when she talks about what it was like in the days after the quake. She recalls the water shortages, and her parents having to borrow food, to feed the family.

With the school shut, and her textbooks buried in rubble, there was little studying to do, in the weeks that followed. When aftershocks would strike, she and her siblings would cry in fear. And for several weeks, Sabita would suffer from epileptic fits.

More than two years later, on the surface, life in the hills of Sindhupalchok can seem routine, but it belies a life of struggle.

For Sabita, the eldest of four children, little remains the same. In her old home, she had her own room, with a small TV, some toys, and a place where she could study without distraction.

The makeshift one-room home that now accommodates the family is too cramped, so for most of the week her parents work and live with their toddler, in the rebuilt community blacksmith shop, an hour’s walk away.

Sabita looks after her other brother and sister, cooks and cleans the house, tills the family’s small field, gathers firewood, and feed the goats.

School resumed a few months after the quake, but learning conditions remain far from ideal. Sabita studies in a classroom where walls remain cracked and crumbled. With the added responsibilities and no space of her own, focusing on school work is tough, she says.

In a developing country such as Nepal, it can take five to six years for life to regain some semblance of normalcy following a major disaster, says Renaud Meyer, Country Director for the UN Development Programme (UNDP).

He adds that while recovery was gaining momentum, “the adoption of a new constitution in September 2015 led to political turmoil that hindered the rebuilding process.”

“Given the size and complexity of the reconstruction challenge there is a need for innovative ways to channel funds from the international community for more effective recovery,” Meyer adds.

Despite the millions of dollars pledged to the recovery effort, aid agencies say, more funds are needed to bring life back to normal for millions of people.

Australia and Japan are among a host of countries, which have provided funding for reconstruction in Sindhupalchok.

Glen White, Australia’s Ambassador to Nepal says its support for reconstruction is aimed at developing stronger local economies through social enterprise programs, especially targeted towards women.

“Women, as leaders in their communities, have a strong role to play and so Australia has focused its work on assisting women and girls by creating business opportunities and promoting the education of girls,” says White.

Masashi Ogawa, Japan’s Ambassador to Nepal says his country is committed to helping Nepal rebuild. But he points to three issues that are critical to reduce casualties and damage in the future.

Ogawa says, investments must be made in reducing risk from disasters; that there should be better collaboration between the government of Nepal and all other actors engaged in supporting recovery efforts; and that the country needs to ‘build back better’ to withstand future earthquakes.

“It is necessary to pass the memories and lessons learned from this earthquake disaster to the next generation,” he adds.

For Sabita’s parents and other blacksmith families in Sindhupalchok, that international support has resulted in a better community blacksmith shed. And it has led them to procure a store in town, where they sell the tools they produce.

The income though meagre provides a ray of hope for a new home, and for Sabita a chance to perhaps one day have a room of her own.

On moonless nights, the hills of Sindhupalchok are cloaked in a near-blinding blackness. Tall conifers stand like silent sentinels, visible only up close.

But under the beauty of a star-struck sky, the night gathers fears for Sabita and her siblings. They are aware they must be home before dark. The goats must be locked up in a shed, lest they be eaten by leopards. Dinner must preferably be done in daylight, as electricity is patchy. Once darkness falls, they lock their door and huddle under quilts.

In spite of the fears, for Sabita, the night brings a break from the hard labors of day. As she gets ready to sleep the world around falls mostly silent. Somewhere in the distance a lone dog barks, sometimes the wind rustles thorough leaves, crickets chirp steadily, and occasionally there are sounds that are hard to place.

She would feel safe if her parents were home, but for now that hope must wait, for when the new home is rebuilt.

Among the yearnings for the future, the desire to become a doctor. For that to happen, she knows she will have to study much harder. Right now that isn’t possible. Neither home nor school are conducive for the effort and focus it will take.

Yet, she wants to keep studying. If not a doctor, she says she would like to be a teacher. What she knows for certain is that she does not want to be a blacksmith, like her parents before her. She dreams of career, of building a better life. She wants to go to college, she says, but somewhere far away from the Sindhupalchok hills that she has known all her life.