Looking back – Ten years since disaster struck Nepal.

Today marks the 10th anniversary of the devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake that struck Gorkha, Nepal in 2015.

The earthquake caused around 30,000 casualties. Entire villages in isolated rural areas were destroyed. Millions of people across Nepal were affected by the disaster.

GWT Social Supervisor in the Trust’s Rural Water & Sanitation Programme, Thakur Prasad Gurung, was in Deurali village in Nuwakot district on a project site visit when the Earthquake struck.

“I could hear cries of villagers and animals everywhere; it was a terrifying moment. Mud and stone houses with slate roofs started to collapse one by one. The surroundings were now covered with dust and it looked like a battlefield.”

The resulting damage amounted to billions of pounds. Landslides completely removed rural villages from the map, buildings crumbled and fell in major cities and a series of avalanches on Everest led to the biggest loss of life in the mountain’s history. The impact on our Gurkha veterans and widows in Nepal was no less devastating.

In total, 13 veterans or widows lost their lives. Over 2,000 homes were either damaged or destroyed. On top of this, many of our school projects were damaged as were over 75 of our water systems. In short, there was a lot of work to do.

Our Response

The Gurkha Welfare Trust mobilised immediately to provide relief to those affected by the disaster.

“It was only when rescue teams arrived on the ground that the almost complete destruction was realised. Many hundreds of thousands of people were made homeless with entire villages flattened” Lt Col (Retd) John White MBE, Head of The GWT Earthquake Response Team

Our teams set up temporary shelters for those whose homes had been destroyed and delivered emergency aid to those in the worst affected areas including food, equipment, medical aid and money to those who had been left with nothing.

Rebuilding for a stronger future

The next major task was rebuilding. Over 1,100 Gurkha veterans and widows were now homeless so our priority was to build them new, safer homes so that if another natural disaster were to strike, we could be assured that their homes would be safe.

By December 2015, mindful of the need to provide shelter for our most vulnerable pensioners before the onset of winter, the Earthquake Response Team had initiated the building of the first Earthquake-Resilient Homes. After launching an emergency appeal you, our supporters, responded with incredible generosity, donating nearly £3 million, enabling us to start rebuilding the futures of our veterans and their families.

Sunbir Tamang’s Story

Sunbir Tamang enlisted into 4GR on January 1944 but was made redundant in July 1946 after 2 years and 6 months service. He was granted a Welfare Pension by the Trust in July 2000.

After his wife sadly passed away in May 2006 he lived with his youngest son and his family in a small village called Mather in the northern hills of Gorkha district. From this remote location, it was a two-day walk to reach his nearest Area Welfare Centre.

At the time of the earthquake, Sunbir was attending a funeral in his village and luckily didn’t suffer any injuries. But his home was reduced to rubble. A total of 47 houses in his village were destroyed and one person lost their life.

Sunbir, along with his sons and their families, took refuge in a tarpaulin shelter.

The team who visited Sunbir following the disaster noted that despite his losses he was full of energy and was in good humour. He told them “Well I have seen worse cases than ours. I console myself and I am happy that our family is alive. Why should we keep grim faces? I am sure the Trust will help me.”

We provided medical and financial aid to Sunbir and started work on building him a new home which was completed in 2016.

Sunbir is still going strong at the age of 102. In 2024 the staff at our Area Welfare in Gorka threw a big birthday party for his 101st where friends and three generations of his family joined the celebration.

10 Years Later

In the years following the disaster, we have been committed to ensuring our veterans and their families will be safe should another disaster strike Nepal. We have to date built 1,700 Earthquake-Resilient Homes and will continue until every veteran and widow has a safe place to call home.

In addition to the new homes we are building, we are revisiting some of the early homes and making improvements so that they are more accessible for our elderly veterans and widows. These include widening doors for wheelchair access, adding ramps and handrails and building accessible toilets.

Thank you

We would like to say a heartfelt thank you to everyone who helped fund the rebuilding of the lives of Gurkha veterans and their families in Nepal.

Today, thanks to you, over 1,700 homes stand strong, but we still have more to build to keep our Gurkha families safe in the event of another disaster- which could happen at any time. Along with readying our emergency supply stores to provide quick disaster response aid, we are looking to build another 75 Earthquake-Resilient Homes over the next year.

You can help us stand ready with a gift today. Thank you.