Rebuilding Sipapokhare

Sipapokhare sits in the mountains about 40 miles north-east of Kathmandu, in the southern part of Sindhupalchowk. Of its roughly 998 homes, almost none survived April and May 2015 intact. Around 100 of the VDC's 3,700 residents were killed and another hundred injured. Every surviving household was living under tarpaulin or salvaged material, and the monsoon was weeks away.

Most families in the VDC farm for a living, and the land produces enough to feed them for about six months of the year. The rest is earned through labouring in nearby towns. Tamang, Damai, Kami and Sarki households, among the most marginalised communities in Nepal, make up much of the village alongside Brahmin and Chhetri families. In the makeshift shelters that went up after the earthquake, up to thirty people from five families were seen sharing twelve feet by twelve.

Sipapokhare was chosen at a meeting of volunteers and local leaders in Kathmandu on 2 May 2015. Around 600 VDCs across fifteen districts had suffered comparable damage. Sipapokhare was picked because local activists could be organised quickly, because around half the villagers came from indigenous communities, and because a cluster of houses hosting a wedding had collapsed there, killing more than five dozen residents and guests.

The shelter

The first concept, drawn up with Team Karma in the weeks after the earthquake, was a bamboo structure with walls reinforced by clay and cow dung and a corrugated zinc roof, costed at around US$170 to US$200 a unit. What was actually built was heavier and more durable. A timber frame carries the roof; the walls are laid up from stone recovered from the collapsed house and bedded in mud; the plinth is stone with a cement course; the roof is corrugated galvanised iron. Tie bands run at sill level and above the window and door line. Lintels were absent from the model house and were added in the revised design: wooden logs rather than iron beams, since the roof load is light.

The itemised budget in the July 2015 proposal comes to NPR 43,497.50 a shelter, about US$435 at the exchange rate of the time: sand, aggregate, seven bags of cement, 30 kg of reinforcement bar, 2.25 bundles of CGI sheet, hold-fasts for the frame and posts, binding wire, enamel, nails, four man-days of skilled labour, transport, and a share of operating cost. In September 2015 the engineers submitted a modified design and MRN added a procurement manager and a site engineer to oversee quality. The per-unit cost settled at about US$450, and that is the figure the organisation used in its appeals from then on.

Built by the households who would live in them

MRN and Team Karma supplied the materials, the tools, the safety equipment, the technical supervision and the training. The residents supplied the labour and built their own houses. Team Karma is a group of US-based doctors and an architect, all of whom grew up in Nepal; MRN and Team Karma took decisions on the project jointly. On the ground the local partner was Sindhu Utthan Kendra, an NGO that had worked in the VDC for years and provided office space, storage, community outreach and access to local resources. Engineering and business administration students, many of them from Himalayan White House College, volunteered on the ground team, and a steering committee of villagers was formed to organise local materials and labour.

Households with elderly members, infants, toddlers or expectant mothers were given priority. Residents led the identification of building sites, since where a house goes is a contentious matter in a village, and the ground team facilitated rather than directed. Sites were only accepted where the ground was judged geologically stable, which after an earthquake and before a monsoon was not a formality.

“During that time, the residents of Sipapokhare welcomed me into their lives, not just to work side by side with them in rebuilding their homes, but to immerse myself in their community. Though I joined MRN as a volunteer to lend a hand to the villagers, I left having received far more from them.”

Two long interruptions

The first was the monsoon. By 19 August 2015, 71 of the 76 houses at Adchale tole were finished and work stopped: bad weather, and roads that could not carry material. The second was worse. From late September 2015 a fuel crisis and the closure of the Indian border cut off cement and other raw materials. On 15 November MRN told its donors that 100 houses were under construction, that they could not be completed even in two months for want of cement, and that the project would be suspended indefinitely. Eight days later the organisation had bought enough cement for those 100 houses from multiple sources at above-normal prices, and construction resumed.

What was actually built

Five model homes were finished by 19 May 2015 and the first seven houses by 1 July. Fifty-eight were complete by the end of July, and the first handover ceremony was held at Sipapokhare on 12 September 2015 with Dr Bhagawan Koirala as chief guest. By mid-February 2016, 265 houses were complete and 175 handed over. A second handover took place on 12 March 2016 on the grounds of Rajeshwori School in front of about 1,500 villagers, bringing the total delivered to 368. Around 450 were standing by the end of May 2016 and around 500 by mid-June, with 250 more under construction. The final handover ceremony was held on 21 November 2016.

1. 2015-05-02

   Sipapokhare VDC selected at a meeting of volunteers and local leaders in Kathmandu.

2. 2015-05-19

   Five model homes completed. Materials bought for an immediate 200.

3. 2015-06-27

   Memorandum issued to government officials and stakeholders: MRN owns and manages the project, Sindhu Utthan Kendra is its local partner.

4. 2015-07-01

   Seven houses complete, materials on site for 45 more. About US$62,000 raised for relief and rebuilding combined.

5. 2015-08-19

   71 of 76 houses complete at Adchale tole. Work halted by weather and road conditions.

6. 2015-09-12

   First handover ceremony at Sipapokhare, with Dr Bhagawan Koirala as chief guest.

7. 2015-09-24

   Revised design published. Per-unit cost rises to about US$450.

8. 2015-11-15

   Project suspended indefinitely. Cement unobtainable during the border blockade.

9. 2015-11-23

   Cement secured at above-normal prices for 100 houses. Construction resumes.

10. 2016-03-12

    Second handover ceremony at Rajeshwori School before about 1,500 villagers. 368 houses delivered to date.

11. 2016-11-21

    Final handover ceremony.

12. 2017-06-14

    Ward-by-ward verification complete. 800 houses confirmed delivered and the project closed.

Questions donors asked

Tie bands and lintels

Tie bands run at sill level and along the top of the walls at window height. Above the door and window line there is a ply board, and between that board and the wall a long wooden beam acts as a lintel. Lintels are conventionally iron beams, but the roof load on these houses is light enough for wooden logs to carry it. The model house was built without lintels; the revised design includes them.

Team Karma

A team of medical doctors and an architect based in the United States, all of whom grew up in Nepal. Team Karma worked with earthquake survivors from immediately after 25 April 2015 and then partnered with MRN on the Sipapokhare transition homes. The two organisations took crucial decisions on the project jointly.

Sindhu Utthan Kendra

The local NGO that acted as MRN's partner in the VDC, supporting logistics, community outreach and local management, and providing office space, storage and access to local resources. All of the funds applied to the project came from MRN. A memorandum issued on 27 June 2015 stated plainly that MRN owned the project and Sindhu Utthan Kendra was its local partner, not its owner.

How money reached Nepal

Donations were deposited in MRN's US bank account and transferred as needed to its sister organisation's account in Nepal, where withdrawals required three signatures. Each wire cost US$30, counted as an administrative expense.

How spending was controlled

The country director and the Nepal board submitted a monthly estimate. Forty per cent of it was transferred in the first round. When roughly 50 to 80 per cent of that had been spent, the Nepal team had to send receipts and expense details for everything bought in the field. Only then was a further 30 per cent released, in two equal instalments, at a speed determined by how quickly the documentation arrived.

Were the volunteers paid?

No board member or staff member drew a salary. Ground volunteers had their basic project-related expenses covered, and that money came separately, out of the pockets of the project committee, through a seed fund the board contributed to. Administrative and operating costs for the first phase were met the same way rather than from donations.