DAI Helps Meet Urgent Need for Shelter in Hard-Hit Nepalese Village

May 21, 2015

DAI has contributed £2,000 to support pressing reconstruction needs in Nepal following the earthquakes and aftershocks that devastated the country in late April and early May.

The funds will be directed specifically to Danda Gaun Village of Panchakhal Municipality in Kavrepalachowk (Kavre) District, some 65 kilometers from Kathmandu. In Danda Gaun, all 61 houses have been destroyed.

(Destruction in the village of Danada Gaun was massive.)

The inhabitants of the village are very poor, most of them landless people working as tenant farmers. Tents and food aid are being provided by international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), but victims of the disaster remain in urgent need of more durable shelter in time for the arrival of the monsoon in June and July.

DAI is working directly with Kavre Sewa Samaj (Kavre Service Committee), a local NGO that is providing support to such victims. Our donation will fund the purchase of low-cost building materials and construction of basic shelters. Work will begin by the end of May and should be completed by the end of July, with oversight provided by local DAI Associate Biswo Ulak.

DAI’s corporate donation follows a separate contribution recently made by DAI staff to assist the Grace Home Orphanage in Kathmandu.

DAI Staff Host NDU Classes on Asia, Economic Growth

DAI staff made presentations last week to military and civilian members of the Agribusiness Industry Study Group from the National Defense University. The group visited DAI headquarters in Bethesda, Maryland, on February 29 to receive training in food security and competitiveness, from bioterrorism and economic development perspectives, targeting Asia and the Pacific.