Twenty-five stonemasons and carpenters now feel much better equipped to rebuild houses devastated by the dreadful earthquakes in Nepalese villages.

On 26 March they completed a short but intense training programme on earthquake-resistant building techniques, sponsored by four Rotary clubs successfully working together.

The story started when Binod Amatya, a civil engineer and member of the Rotary Club of Twickenham upon Thames, travelled back to his home city of Kathmandu to see what help was needed. Binod's early conclusion was that simplicity was the keynote. "There is clearly a shortage of local skills", he reported to his colleagues, "and an overriding priority for training in the essential skills needed for making buildings earthquake-proof”.

Binod worked with members of the Rotary Club of Mount Everest, situated on the spot, and they developed the training programme, provided qualified trainers and venue and selected the candidates.

But, of course, a programme like this involved funding and Binod and Mark Scudamore, the Rotary Club of Twickenham upon Thames’s International Committee chairman inspired the club to fundraise locally. Extra support came from the Rotary clubs of Epsom in the UK and Aarau in Switzerland. A total of £2,856 was raised and all of this went directly to the Rotary Club of Mount Everest at the start of the programme.  Local industries in Kathmandu provided tools and extra support.

“It was an absolute win-win situation,” said Mark “The trainees will be able to train others, so the value obtained from the initial funding will be multiplied over the next months and years. Although it was a truly international co-operative effort, we are comfortable in the knowledge that the programme was run by the local Nepalese Rotary Club."

Article supplied by Margaret Gilroy-Smith