Protected from the elements this monsoon season
Bhim Bahadur Thapa served for seven years in the 6th Gurkha Rifles, spending time in combat during the Borneo confrontation. He was made redundant in 1959 and returned to Nepal where he relied on subsistence farming to make a living.
Facing hardship in Nepal
Bhim lives with his wife in Ratu, one of the poorest and most remote areas of the Surkhet district in the midwest of Nepal. He lost his sight around 35 years ago and now needs help to get around.
Following a fire that destroyed their home in 1996, Bhim and his wife moved in with their eldest son.
A home in disrepair
Although relieved to have a place to stay, they found the home in a terrible state of repair. The room the couple slept in had no proper windows for ventilation and as the house was traditionally built from mud and stone, it was badly shaken in the 2015 earthquake. The outer walls suffered multiple cracks and the roof had leaked badly during the monsoon season.
Building a New Future
This year we built Bhim and his wife a new Earthquake-Resilient home which they moved into in April ahead of the annual monsoon, ensuring a dry safe place for them to live.
The new home has a living room, a separate kitchen, a bedroom and a bathroom. It has ceiling fans to help keep the home cool in the warmer months and false ceilings which keep heat in during cooler months and provide sound protection from rain on the metal roof. The home has also been fitted with handrails and ramps for safety and ease of access, to enable the couple to live comfortably as they age.
“We are very happy. We have never lived in such a beautiful house”