Bir Bahadur Ghale, an Ashoka fellow who has been operating a micro hydropower plant in Barpak village since 1991, talked about the difficulties the earthquake brought about and how they overcame it.
"Almost no house was standing in the village, and the rain that followed made things worse. Under the broken roof, rain dampened our rations. Since the hydropower dam was damaged, electricity couldn't be generated. But storycycle, through crowdfunding, helped bring a generator there which made things a lot easier."
Adding further he also stressed the importance of being a bit more organized with housing arrangement in the future. "The open spaces in the area helped save a lot of lives. We then realized that we need to keep this in mind while building houses in future."
Saurav Dhakal, founder and curator of storycycle talked about their new initiative, 'Build your own place.' "Storycycle aims to help develop villages. But it works only by providing a platform to build its profile and share its stories. It also works only when the approach comes from the grassroots. Therefore, a person willing to take the initiative to build his/her village will have to share information regarding their initiative on our website and once the story begins to circle, we help in crowd funding the initiative by collaborating the initiator with local stakeholders," Dhakal explained.
Recounting his experience, Ghale said that politics poses a big challenge while rebuilding or developing a village. "Every village has a key person, who can affect the project in many ways. You have to watch out for them."
Worth of stories
