Dilli Prasad Poudel in front of his newly constructed house
Dilli Prasad Poudel is a local resident of Kaule Village Development Committee (VDC), in Nuwakot district. He is a retired health assistant at a health post in nearby VDC. After the passing away of his wife last year, he’s been living with his son, daughter-in-law and grandson. Their ancestral house was completely damaged by the earthquake and Dilli Prasad felt he had the huge responsibility of building an earthquake resilient house for the next generations of family.
At first, Dilli Prasad had no idea about house design and estimated cost.
When Build Change, in partnership with the Nepal Red Cross Society and the American Red Cross, started its reconstruction project at Kaule, Dilli Prasad was one of the first prospective homeowners asking for technical assistance. He took the Homeowner Training and became aware about the different aspects of building earthquake resilient houses in rural areas including the use of local materials incorporated with seismic elements to construct earthquake safe houses. Build Change provided Dilli Prasad with a tailor-made safe design for his house that met his needs, matched his plot of land, and that he could afford.
Dilli Prasad then hired Build Change trained local builders and began to rebuild his house.
During the following weeks, Build Change technical staff monitored each step of Dilli Prasad’s house construction, providing advice and making sure that Dilli Prasad’s house met minimum safety criteria. This was done using the Fulcrum mobile monitoring system installed on Build Change staff smartphones.
Here are sections of the house’s final compliance report:
Dilli Prasad has successfully completed his house now and the whole family is very happy to live in a seismic resistant and beautiful house. With all smiles, he says “When I showed a picture of our house to my son who is overseas, he said it looked very safe and strong. He also asked how I came to know about earthquake resistant construction. I then told him that there are engineers from Build Change in our village now, so it is no longer difficult to build earthquake resistant houses.”