CEE Himalaya : Rebuilding Trust

The Affected Area
Baramulla and Kupwara are the two worst affected districts from the earthquake that struck the Himalayas on 8th October 2005. Of the 8 sub-divisions of the Baramulla district Uri was worst affected. A total of about 29 villages of the Uri sub division were badly affected. In Kupwara district Karnah sub division was worst affected having a score of 42 villages. Most of the houses and schools were collapsed or badly damaged. Centre for Environment Education (CEE) has put together a rehabilitation programme ‘Rebuilding Trust’ for the affected people, with the objectives of:

   • Offering relief by providing shelter to the worst affected
        families
• Offering trauma relief to children and continuing their school
      programme
• Building the foundation for undertaking an integrated
      Rehabilitation programme in the long term

CEE's 'Rebuilding Trust' programme is being implemented in phase wise manner focusing upon interim relief to long term interventions building the foundation for undertaking an integrated rehabilitation.

Phase I
In the first phase main focus is on education, shelter and capacity building to meet the immediate rehabilitation needs.

I. Education and Trauma Relief
Children and adults equally were traumatised by the earthquake. Almost every village has one or more primary schools, but the buildings are damaged and cannot be used. The construction of school buildings was to take time. Most of the teachers were from the same area and were also under trauma, fear and stress. The felt need was to resume teaching to not only help children and teachers get over the shock but also to ensure that children's education is not overly affected. CEE initiated education, trauma relief and awareness-raising as primary areas of intervention. This programme has two components:

a. ‘Umang Programme’ – 'Umang' is a 'joy of learning' through 'school without walls'. The Umang school methodology is combination of formal and informal learning, with partly curriculum based activities. All the damaged schools in Uri and Karnah Tehsils are covered under this activity.....

b. Teachers training to help teachers understand the earthquake-associated problems that people, including teachers and students, are facing, and what can be done to ameliorate them. The workshops also help the teachers add value to their teaching methodology in these circumstances......

II. Interim Shelters
During the need assessment interim shelter emerged to be the most urgent and immediate requirement as most of the people were displaced from their homes, some shifted into make shift camps while others were on the road itself. Aftershocks were frequent and fear of stone batting or landslides was prevalent. At places people had evacuated the entire villages for the fear of unforeseen.

Classroom shelters – The earthquake resulted in damage to most of the schools in the area. Classes are being conducted in open making teaching difficult under adverse weather conditions. CEE is providing temporary class room shelters in twelve schools to facilitate smooth teaching till the construction of proper school buildings is completed.

Capacity Building for Local Technicians being organised for local technicians to equip them with technologies suitable for earthquake resistant construction. They have been found to be quite skilled but after the earthquake, they lost confidence in the sustainability of the traditional practices. This aspect is also being addressed through the workshops.....

I. Construction of Anandshala Model Schools – CEE is constructing ten schools in Uri area as Anandshala schools. ‘Anandshala’ literally means ‘school of joy’. The objective is to make model rural schools that are sustainable. This is done through improving school infrastructural facilities, involving the schools and communities in planning, implementation and upkeep of infrastructure, imparting life skills to the students through innovative and interactive pedagogy......

II. Civil Society development - CEE is restoring the damaged water supply in Bugna village. Baghna has 310 households with a population of around 3000 people. The restoration of water supply will make point source water supply, each point serving to 10-15 households. This arrangement is good enough for the village to fulfill their immediate water requirement. It would provide safe drinking water to about 3,000 beneficiaries.

III. Livelihood Support - Considering the need for economic rehabilitation, CEE is providing livelihood support to 300 most needy and vulnerable families in the three village cluster adopted. This support is focused to benefit the women and under privileged through promoting local traits. .....

Currently CEE is promoting non-farm based technologies like apiculture, mushroom culture, off season vegetable and floriculture in the poly-house, poultry etc by providing training and establishing training cum-demonstration centres in Uri sub-division. Youth and women from 10 villages have come together to form Self Help groups who are being trained to run these demonstration centres. These trained members would earn livelihood though the demonstration centers as well as provide training to people form other villages. The initiative is expected to benefit above 20 villages.

The entire Himalayan belt is prone to earthquakes and other natural disasters hence the awareness and preparedness about the disasters in these areas is of paramount significance to help save human lives under the disaster situation. With this objective CEE is beginning DRR campaign in 700 schools in districts Baramulla and Kupwara. The campaign will focus upon general awareness about the natural disasters, school evacuation plans, mock drills, first aid and do's and don'ts etc. This will also include a component of teacher training programme on DRR and to enable them for developing disaster mitigation plans at village level.

VI. Networking
After the earthquake many NGOs and GO have started activities in the region. All these activities are currently organization specific and there is little coordination on relief & rehabilitation (R&R) efforts. Even with best intentions the chances of duplication are quite high. CEE is trying to put together the information on various relief efforts and make available to various agencies in the region. It will stream line the process of R&R and help reach out and help every victim.

CEE HIMALAYA
Kanli Bagh, Baba Rishi Road
Baramulla
J&K 193 101
Tel: +91 95-2210440, +91 95-2235695
Mob: +91-94195 10699/ +91-9419510776/ +91-9419084767

CEE HIMALAYA
Main market
Opposite-Sumo Stand
Tangdar-193225
District - Kupawara
Jammu & Kashmir