We’ve helped over 2,543 people in 17 communities build safe resilient homes.

Here are a few of these happy homeowners.

NUWAKOT, NEPAL

Gita, Bikesh & Binisha

Gita is super mom to young Bikesh and Binisha. Her husband died while working abroad to earn money for the family. When we met her she was living in a temporary space, working another’s farm to feed her kids.

She told us about the difficulty of living there without her husband. Of how the required obedience, submission, and fear that she and her kids would be evicted, weighed on her and kept them living in fear.

When Gita met NIVAS, she was ready to do whatever it would take to own her own home, from procuring land to gathering reclaimed materials and beyond. She joined our construction training, going out of her comfort zone to become knowledgeable about the endeavor she was embarking on.

Working together we found the necessary resources and sweat equity to complete a beautiful two room brick home, where Gita, Bikesh and Binisha live today.

solukhumbu, NEPAL

Debata & Sons

Debata, her husband, and two sons signed up for our program in 2015 immediately after losing their home to major earthquake. Before construction began, her husband was struck with a life-threatening lung infection. The family spent their life savings and went into debt transporting him to the hospital. By the time he reached care the medical professionals couldn't save him, and Debata lost her husband.

Now without any resources to join our matching program and without as much physical capacity to provide labor, Debata was afraid she would lose her option to build a new home.

This gave us the opportunity to work together with her to build a whole new section of the NIVAS program addressing the needs of those pushed to the margins and our single women and mothers program was launched.

During this time, Debata never gave up for a moment. She knew, even against societal pressures, it was up to her to care for herself and her two sons. She gathered every material she could and negotiated for those she didn't have access to. She vied for her family's future and today she has a beautiful new home alongside the main access to the village where she has opened a convenience shop.

NUWAKOT, NEPAL

Ram Maya & Dipesh

Ram Maya is a single mother to her son. Her husband died after devastating effects of the 2015 earthquake. The first time the NIVAS team went to meet Ram Maya in her village, she was sharing a small storage space on the open-air porch of her relative’s earthquake damaged house. Still, Ram Maya had the aura of confidence and inner strength. She had already built the foundation for her new house. However, she was struggling to meet her son’s daily needs and was without any other financial means to finish her house. When NIVAS proposed to help her build her house, she hardly believed what she had heard.

After joining forces to ensure her house would be completed before the nearest water tap went dry for the season (ie no water for concrete), Ram Maya became heavily involved in the process and in collaboration with NIVAS. She proposed that windows in our homes need grills for the safety of single women against threat of assault and wild animals. This was such a powerful insight, which was immediately incorporated into all NIVAS homes as women’s safety is of utmost priority for us. Ram Maya has been constantly inspiring our team and other local women through her attitude of perseverance even amidst constant hardships.

Today Ram Maya is safely focusing on her son and his schooling as well as her new goat farming operation.