Executive Summary
Community Service of Nepal collaborated with Dr Mahesh Kumar Subedi, the Director of Statistics for the Nepal Government and Achieve Nepal, a 501(c) 3 nonproit based in the USA to design this survey of a purposive sample of 411 earthquake survivor families in Chaughare Ward of Konjyongson Rural Municipal Area, Lalitpur District, Nepal.
As far as we have been able to determine, this survey is the first systematic effort to ask the opinions of the earthquake survivors themselves how they are living and what they believe thy truly need.
Training Session for the Survey Teams
We trained and supervised interviewers to survey family representatives in thirty-four widely dispersed settlements in Chaughare Ward of Konjyongson Rural Municipal Area, Lalitpur District, Nepal. ACHIEVE! Nepal has done the analysis in the USA using IBM SPSS software.
The Situation Among the Earthquake Survivors:
Representative Results
The survey revealed that 83% of the family homes had been completely damaged by the earthquakes, with another 13% partially damaged but able to be lived in, for a total of 96% homes damaged.
The economy has suffered greatly. Two years later, only 20% of the families are supported by business, and 16% include someone with a job. The rest of the families are relying completely on subsistence level agriculture.
Ninety-two percent of the families surveyed have some plot of land, and 96% of those plots are under cultivation, even though only 28% of the land is being irrigated.
It should be noted that 86% of these families are also on foot in widely dispersed, highly rugged terrain.
Over 25% of the families will be able to survive less than three months on their farm income. Another 66% will be able to survive more than three months up to 6 months. Altogether, that is 91% of the families who will be able to survive for six months or less.
What Interventions the Earthquake Survivors Themselves Believe Would Help Their Situation
98% of the families are interested in learning farming skills. Their interest is matched by a desire for vocational training, with 98% of the families saying it would help them care for their families, and 88% of those saying it would “Help a Lot.”
98% desire vocational training. 17% believe such training would benefit the family economically, 36% said it would benefit the family’s health, and 46% believe it would help the family both ways.
75% of the families expressed interest in Female Health and Menstruation education despite about half of the family representatives being male members of the very modest Nepali culture.
96% have an interest in learning Basic Law, including Legal Rights.
Community Service of Nepal has successful interventions that address these needs. The Lalitpur District Development Committee of the Nepal Government has acknowledged their work.
These interventions are ready to be scaled up to reach larger segments of the population.
Other Select Results:
Community Service of Nepal 