Chaudhary Foundation is building transitional shelters for the survivors of the devastating earthquake that hit the country on April 25. You are also aware of the fact that we are constructing buildings for schools destroyed by the earthquake. We invited you here today to share with you the progress we have made so far on this post-disaster reconstruction and rehabilitation initiative. I sincerely thank you for the support you have extended toward us on this initiative.

On the 6th of May last year, we had announced through a press meet the Foundation’s commitment to build 10,000 transitional shelter homes to the earthquake-affected communities under ‘CG Ashraya’ project, out of which 1,000 would be built through Foundation’s own funds and 9,000 through partnership with national and international organizations. We had also announced the Foundation’s commitment to build buildings for 100 schools under ‘CG Shikshyalaya’ project.

Today, we are with you again presenting our progress so far. We feel proud to announce that that the Foundation has completed building 1700 transitional shelters to this date. Out of them, approximately 1000 have been officially handed over to the local communities. The rest are also being used by the beneficiaries although a formal handover event is yet to be conducted. There are more shelters under construction and we hope they are completed soon so that the people could use them this winter.

Likewise, we have completed building 30 school buildings, out of which 12 have been handed over to the local school management committees through formal handover events. Rest of the buildings that are not yet formally handed over are also being used by the respective schools. Our efforts to help rebuild schools continue.

We aim to run the CG Ashraya and CG Shikshyalaya projects in the 14 most affected districts in central Nepal. Currently, we have been working in 10 of these districts, namely Ramechhap, Dolakha, Sindhupalchok, Kavre, Bhaktapur, Lalitpur, Kathmandu, Dhading, Nuwakot and Gorkha. We hope to take the shelter and school projects to other districts also.

The past few months have not been easy for the country. The fuel crisis came as a second shock to the country after earthquake. Our entire functioning was affected. We were not able to transport construction materials to the affected areas. But still we endured. With our strong will and commitment to support the communities in need, we overcame these hurdles and continued our work on shelters and schools. We are making considerable progress on it, and it gives immense satisfaction to us.

We have reached some of the most impoverished areas of the affected districts and built transitional shelters. I would like to cite a few examples: We built shelters in the majhi (fishermen) community in Hattitar village of Ramechhap district. We reached Kavre’s Dolalghat VDC where the whole village was destroyed. We built 200 shelters there. I feel so happy to see the whole village getting a new life. We reached two of Gorkha’s remotest villages – Gairung and Taklung to build shelters.

The happiness we feel when we see the smiles on the faces of the people in these areas is beyond measure. We are making our best efforts to bring smiles to the faces of more and more people who were rendered homeless by the earthquake.

We believe that the earthquake affected communities should be made economically self-reliant for their sustainable rehabilitation. As our contribution toward that end, Chaudhary Foundation is launching vocational skill training programs this month in the affected districts through CG Polytechnic.

Chaudhary Foundation is willing to work together with the National Reconstruction Authority of Nepal on our campaign of rebuilding Nepal. We hope that the rebuilding efforts give Nepal a new impetus for economic development, and through Chaudhary Foundation we would like to contribute to this drive to the best possible extent.

I would like to hereby thank all our donors who partnered with Chaudhary Foundation to help the citizens of Nepal overcome the devastation caused by the earthquake. 

(Excerpts of the statement delivered at the press conference. Chaudhary is a Chairman of Chaudhary Foundation)