On April 25th 2015, a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck Nepal, destroying or damaging 700,000 houses and claiming more than 8,000 lives. Nearly three million people have been displaced. Ten days after the earthquake, Build Change dispatched a rapid response team to perform an initial survey of the earthquake-affected areas, including in and around Kathmandu and several remote rural areas, with the g
oal of understanding why some buildings collapsed and others did not. The completed engineering reconnaissance report is available on Build Change’s website. Build Change is continuing to broaden its programming in Nepal with the aim of scaling impacts by advocating and implementing disaster-resistant housing and school construction programs with key stakeholders, including government agencies, institutional donors, non-governmental organizations (NGO), and the private sector. Build Change’s objective is to leverage its extensive experience in implementing homeowner driven permanent reconstruction to empower the most vulnerable people to build back safer, through collaboration with local governments and NGOs; to facilitate access to reconstruction subsidies that support the building of safe homes; and, through providing technical assistance and training to families and communities, empower them to undertake safe construction activities themselves.
