Buddhi Maya Nagarkoti-A Beneficiary Story
Buddhi Maya Nagarkoti lives with her five children, her mother in law and her husband in Dhodeni. The family have lived in the community for over 20 years and are one of the oldest families in the community. Her husband works abroad but came home during the COVID-19 related lockdown. The family depend on him for their income, as the children study and she takes care of the home.
She recalls the day of the earthquake as a bad nightmare. She thought the whole earth may be destroyed following the tremors. Their mud and stone house was completely ruined, but thankfully, her family survived.
The family moved to an empty old house in their community. The house had been damaged by the earthquake but was still standing and therefore became their temporary home. However, as the structure was not safe, the family continued to dream of building a new home.
The dream became achievable when Buddhi came to know about the STFC during a site monitoring visit from the Colony TSC. Shortly following this, she learnt more about the project during a homeowner meeting and training event held for her and her neighbours. She then received support in the form of a free architectural drawing, technical site monitoring and administrative support in receiving the tranches.
The family visited the TSC for support and was grateful for the helpful advice and services provided to them. Additionally, through the ongoing monitoring of their construction, Buddhi and her family learnt about earthquake resistant construction elements from the engineers.
Due to the amount of knowledge gained, Buddhi stated that if she was to ever build a house again, she would feel confident in her understanding of the requirements of an earthquake resistant house and what is needed to become resilient.
At the time of writing, Buddhi and her family have completed their construction. The house was DUDBC certified for the third tranche and their third tranche has been received. A toilet had been constructed and a final inspection by an NRA engineer was scheduled.
