National
Alps nations come to reconstruction aid
Countries from Alps have joined forces to impart masonry and carpentry training to locals of a rural village in eastern Nepal to help them in rebuilding works after the devastating earthquake in April last year.Countries from Alps have joined forces to impart masonry and carpentry training to locals of a rural village in eastern Nepal to help them in rebuilding works after the devastating earthquake in April last year.
The Permanent Secretariat of the Alpine Convention based in Austria, a coordinating body for eight Alpine nations to work on sustainable development of Alps in Europe, has provided 15,000 euros in grant (approx. Rs1.7 million) for a project in Aiselukharka Village of Khotang district. EcoHimal, a non-governmental organisation, is implementing the programme in Nepal.
“Our Help Nepal project was born from the need that, we in the Alps felt for helping another mountain region in need. I am very happy that so many of our countries and partners join in the initiative,” said Markus Reiterer, secretary general of the Alpine Convention on the Help Nepal project.
“We are perfectly aware that this is only a modest contribution, but we strongly wished to support very concretely the re-building process after the earthquake last year” he added.
As a part of the ‘Capacity training for Reconstruction in Nepal’ project, a group of 12 trainees from Aiselukharka will be provided training and education in masonry and carpentry as well as in construction of seismic resilient buildings. It is expected that the three-month training will be helpful both in carrying out reconstruction works and wider post-disaster livelihood recovery.
Soon after the April earthquake last year, Barbara Hendricks, German minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Construction and Nuclear Safety and secretary general at the Alpine Convention had jointly made a call for donation to support Nepali people in their time
of need. The Help Nepal initiative was launched as a call for help from one mountain region to the other, according to the Secretariat. The Alpine Convention is an international treaty between the
Alpine countries—Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Slovenia and Switzerland as well as the EU, for the sustainable development and protection of the Alps.