Asian Coalition for Housing Rights

Countries

Nepal

Introduction

Nepal Earthqiake Update June 2016

It had been a year since Nepal was rocked by the 7.8 magnitude earthquake in 25th of April, 2015. The earthquake and its aftershocks left 9000 dead and rendered severe damages to almost a million houses.

During the initial relief efforts ACHR was able to mobilize support through our network in Asia . The donation raised by ACHR and CAN for very quick support to Nepal earthquake totalled close to 50,000 USD. The fund raising did not only come from our ACHR network but from larger public contributions in Thailand and friends abroad. The money from this fund raising was amongst the very first assisting budget to the needy for emergency assistance for community needs, temporary housing arrangement, food, clothing, and planning on how to work together. ACHR’s coordination in Nepal helped link Misereor with Lumanti, which led to Misereor’s support for the rehabilitation project of Lumanti in the old town of Kathmandu. The rehabilitation efforts in Nepal overall have involved many organizations in the region and around the world, however the national process has been slow to start due to various reasons. In face of this, ACHR, CAN, together with Misereor and Lumanti decided to organize a workshop to search for an alternative solution that allows communities to pro-actively start their own rehabilitation as a group, as a collective body, while trying to restore some of the old characters of their communities pre-earthquake.

An extract from2016 June E-News on hte CAN rehabilitaion workshop in collaboration with Lumanti and friends: 1-2 pages

More Updates on the Earthquake in Nepal and messages from our friends are HERE

Below: Introduction to previous work in Nepal

The national ACCA process in Nepal is not starting from scratch - it is embedded in a well-established and close collaboration between an NGO and two national people’s federations which began just ten years ago. Lumanti is the key NGO in Nepal working to support the urban poor. It was established in 1993, in a situation where the squatters didn’t know each other and lots of evictions were happening. They began supporting communities in Kathmandu in 1998, using community surveys and savings to bring people together. Gradually, they began doing training programs, exchange visits to other countries, children’s groups, upgrading activities, water and sanitation projects, and invited the municipality to see all these projects.

Nepal Community Finance - July 2017

A 7 page extract from ACHR Research on Community Finance

1.4 Mgbts

Nepal Update December 2014

ACCA in 18 Cities in Nepal
New Tools for an already active national community movement
An epidemic of city funds
Three housing breakthroughs
New support systems for poor communities
Bagmati River Evictions Update.
People preserve their own history in TECHO
First ever BANK LOANS for poor people’s housing
Community Welfare thru women’s savings cooperatives

on the above topics 4 page extract from ACCA 5 Year Report

As we construct the NEW ACHR website we will add more information on each country. For now please consider the Country Library section below where PDF downloads with copious information is available.

Country Library - NEPAL

Oct 2014 Heritage mapping for old towns in Thecho and Thankot

LUMANTI Support Group for Shelter has helped communities and the saving cooperatives in the towns of Thecho and Thankot to link with architects from PTAG (a network of technical professionals working to assist poor communities) to help upgrading settlements under ACCA funding. Mapping has proved to be an incredibly important step to engage the community in developing a passion to upgrade their housing and preserve their cultural heritage for the city.

1 page extract from CAN Newsletter

Oct 2014

COMMUNITY WELFARE FUNDS GET A BOOST IN NEPAL

In the second phase of the ACCA Program, an attempt has been made to help community groups experiment with setting up their own community-based welfare systems, of the sort that the community networks in Thailand, Cambodia and Philippines have been running for years, as part of their community savings and fund systems. Some groups have taken up the idea and used the $2,000 per city grant from ACCA to set up and test new systems for taking care of their poor, sick, elderly and needy community members, in different ways. The national network of community women's savings groups in Nepal has decided to spread the opportunity as widely as possible by using the ACCA funds to give smaller grants to more savings cooperatives, to help them launch welfare funds which they run as part of their cooperative operations. Here is an update on this interesting welfare fund experiment from Lumanti Joshi, a community architect with the Kathmandu-based NGO Lumanti:

1 page extractfrom E-News

December 2012 Extract From the 2nd Year ACCA Report: ACCA and Nepal
ACCA brings new tools to an already-active national community movement in Nepal. Some reflections on the housing project at SALYANI. A primer on ATTITUDE CHANGE in Nepal. An epidemic of CITY FUNDS

2 pages text and photos 270 KB

2011 HERITAGE CITIES IN ASIA - BHAKTAPUR, NEPAL

November 2011: In 1997 Bhaktapur, along with 6 other sites in Kathmandu valley, was inscribed as a monumental zone in a UNESCO World Heritage site of Kathmandu Valley. In 2003 UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee inscribed Kathmandu Valley and its monumental zones on its list of World Heritage in Danger, giving its reason as ‘Newari Architectural Design, which has gradually disappeared due to uncontrolled urban development’1. Among contributing factors to this ‘uncontrolled urban developments’ are population growth, economic and social changes, increase pollution, looting and illegal building activities. Read the report by by Chawanad Luansang with Suphana Sophonpanich, two young Thai architects with ACHR's Community Architects Network

22 pages text and photos 998 KB

2010 ACCA ASSESSMENT REPORT - NEPAL

This report describes a four-day assessment visit to two cities in Nepal with very active ACCA projects in process - Bharatpur and Birgunj. This was the fifth ACCA assessment trip (after visits to the Philippines, Vietnam, Mongolia and Cambodia). ACHR's ACCA Program (Asian Coalition for Community Action) entered its third year in November 2010. This assessment trip, and the ACHR / ACCA Committee meeting that was held in Kathmandu immediately afterwards, was organized and hosted by the Kathmandu-based NGO Lumanti, along with the two community federations and the national network of women's savings cooperatives in Nepal. Report from Diane Archer

16 pages text 132 KB

Extras - NEPAL -

A. Video Links ______________

Video from CAN, Lumanti and friends in Nepal

30/05/2016

Together we CAN! -

Community-led rehabilitation workshop, Nepal 04.2016 Thanks Thanawin Wijitporn for this video and music. And thanks to all CAN and our Nepali friends+community. If video has a problem try You Tube Direct at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MStxu_SLA0&feature=youtu.be

EXTRACT ON NEPAL from the ACCA Video THE WAY TO END SLUMS
6 mins.

Extracted from a longer 21-minute film called THE WAY TO END SLUMS. Made by Uncommon Media for Asian Coalition for Housing Rights.

The FULL FILM can be viewed via Uncommon Media’s YouTube page or in our Acitivities section on Video HERE

B.Videos coming soon

1.Transformation Through Saving 15:05 Mins , 2013. A film by Singha Bahadur (Saving & Development)

2. We Built This 14:50 Mins , 2013. A film by Waiwa Tamang (ACCA)

All of the above are available from ACHR on our 2013 DVD compilation.
Contact ACHR above