Nepal
Nepal Earthquake Relief
April 2015
All Hands & Hearts (AH&H) is working to create safer learning environments by rebuilding school facilities, offering community training sessions, and providing Disaster Risk Reduction and Female Mason trainings. We’re also running child protection programs, as well as Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) sessions, to support and empower the entire school community.
Disaster Profile
On April 25, 2015, a 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit Nepal near the capital city of Kathmandu, the most powerful in over 80 years.
The earthquake caused widespread destruction of homes and infrastructure, claiming the lives of over 9,000 people and injuring a further 23,000. More than 8,000 schools were damaged or completely destroyed. On May 12, 2015, a second 7.3 earthquake struck the country, causing further devastation and loss of lives.
More recently, on November 3, 2023, a separate 6.4-magnitude earthquake struck Nepal’s remote Jajarkot District, causing significant damage to homes, schools and essential infrastructure. AH&H responded to this disaster as well, supporting recovery efforts in a region already vulnerable due to its geographic isolation and limited resources.
Our Work
AH&H will begin our 31st program in Nepal in November 2025, addressing the unsafe learning conditions faced by students and staff at Shree Basic School, Jhunga, for almost a decade since the 2015 earthquakes.
AHAH will begin its 31st program in Nepal in November 2025, addressing the unsafe learning conditions faced by students and staff at Shree Basic School, Jhunga, for almost a decade since the 2015 earthquakes. We will provide two new disaster-resilient school buildings with six classrooms using Compressed Stabilized Earth Brick (CSEB) technology for over 220 students and 11 staff members. With our local partner Relief Nepal, we will also conduct Disaster Risk Reduction trainings to encourage disaster preparedness in the community, as well as Child Protection and Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) trainings with the school community. We will additionally launch the newest phase of our Female Mason Training Program, providing local women training and employment in masonry to help build the school.
Sustainability
Constructing With Sustainability
We are committed to using environmentally conscious and durable building practices wherever possible when rebuilding after disasters. Our latest school construction projects in Nepal utilize Compressed Stabilized Earth Brick (CSEB) technology, an approach that benefits the environment while providing durable, disaster-resilient infrastructure. CSEB uses a combination of locally-sourced soil and sand, mixed with a small amount of cement, to create bricks for infrastructure that are environmentally responsible, cost-effective and resilient.
CSEB reduces transportation costs, energy and CO2 emissions compared to traditional bricks due to their use of local materials. The bricks offer excellent thermal efficiency, reducing the need for artificial heating or cooling. Additionally, they are disaster-resilient, with metal rebar reinforcement enhancing their ability to absorb shocks, making buildings more flexible and durable than other methods.
Training
Female Mason Training: Livelihoods, Gender Equality and Disaster Risk Reduction
We piloted the Female Mason Training Program in 2017, with the goal of training Nepali women in earthquake-resilient construction skills as a means of improving their economic situation.
The program has since provided social and economic empowerment while playing an important role in rebuilding a more resilient Nepal. Professional Nepali masons are in charge of teaching disaster-resilient building methods to the women, and trainees work in rural communities to rebuild primary and secondary schools or clinics. Our in-country partner assists graduates in obtaining mason certification, paving the way for them to secure fairly paid employment in the future. Through their subsequent jobs, program graduates then become agents for disseminating disaster-resilient construction methods in the region.
Sita, a program trainee, told us that since working with AH&H, she feels more financially secure and organized in her life. The Female Mason Training Program offered the opportunity to gain skills and access to education in a realm usually reserved for men. After the devastating impact of the 2015 earthquakes in her country, Sita recognized the significance of teamwork and the idea of “many hands making light work”. Additionally, Sita noted the benefits earned from women partaking in work traditionally done by men – when women and men work alongside each other “even the most difficult work becomes manageable”.
Listen to Sita’s story below.
Nepal
Response Projects
Kathmandu, Nuwakot and Sindhupalchok, April 2015
72 hours after the first earthquake struck in April 2015, we were on the ground assisting affected communities. We launched two response programs, one in Kathmandu and the other in Sindhupalchok. Across both projects, a total of 104 debris sites were cleared and 13 damaged homes were safely brought down. We built 50 transitional homes in Melamchi (Sindhupalchowk), 15 transitional homes in Kagati (Nuwakot) and 35 transitional homes in Hulchowk (Kathmandu) addressing the short-term needs of disaster affected households. 12 community shelters were built to provide safe structures for communities to come together and 21 disaster-resilient homes were rebuilt. In response to the devastation of many schools in the area, 23 temporary learning centers were built and repaired in order to restart educational activities.
