Earthquakes - Northern Dhading and Other Areas, Nepal (II)
the adventure
"This was the first time anyone trained us in leadership or disaster preparedness!"
Project Taja Asa (Fresh Hope) comprised two key thrusts. The first was to rebuild physical infrastructure, and the second was to invest efforts in community leadership and disaster preparedness training. Together, these two thrusts would help to uplift some 80 Nepalese communities and enable them to eventually be more capable of tackling their realities.
​
It took some effort to get the first key thrust of physical reconstruction going. The months following our intial ground recce in January 16 were consumed by several front-end challenges, such as securing land titles, surveying land plots, assessing risks, selecting designs, and appointing a trustworthy main contractor willing to undertake so many infrastructural projects scattered all over Nepal. Somewhere in late May 16, construction work finally began.
​
With the first key thrust started, it was time to attend to the second one.
​
Our vision was not merely to train a capable village leader in every target village. Instead, the intent was to raise a leadership team of 12 in every one. This way, every village would have a critical mass of capable and willing servant-hearted leaders that would more effectively influence and mobilise their communities, drive change and tackle problems. Over time, they would become more self-reliant.
​
Our pioneer leadership course was conducted in the ruggedly beautiful mountains of Dhading, during the monsoon season of August-September 16. Journeying to the Dhading mountains to conduct this course was a difficult adventure in itself: dangerous landslides, watery mud trails, slippery rocks, omnipresent leeches, heavy rain, scorching heat....But, we made it.
​
The first key village leaders came from far and wide. As we introduced the concept of servant leadership and disaster preparedness via games, mission exercises, personal reflections and peer sharing, we witnessed first-hand the encouraging process of osmosis among the village leaders. On Day 1, they were initially reserved. By Day 3, they were fully engaged students. And, as they completed the finale exercise on Day 5, they were all fired up with fresh attitudes and skills to serve the thousands of villagers under them. An important breakthrough had occurred!
​
Throughout, they took copious notes, participated eagerly in every activity, and most importantly, laughed, empathised and learned together. For them, this course showed them a very different way of learning, provided them with many practical skills and techniques to tackle their challenges, and helped them to begin shifting from a previously-rigid mentality to a growth mindset. And, their shared experiences also strengthened their bonds and sense of unity.
This was certainly a challenging, but highly rewarding and fruitful, humanitarian adventure for my team and I. In the absence of electricity, we did not use a single PowerPoint slide or fancy props to conduct training. Instead, we went completely old-school, We showed the Nepalese how to improvise training aids using simple resources from their rural environment, and how to maximise the rugged outdoors to good effect.
​
As we look ahead to the subsequent courses, we are bracing for a ramped-up training demand. From a small initial cohort of key leaders, we may now need to accommodate 80 to 100 students in each future course. Many courses will need to be conducted, and many improvements to the course design, logistics and administration will also be necessary.
But, we are facing all these challenges with confidence and optimism, because we believe strongly in Project Taja Asa's community development approach, and we have come to love these Nepalese people.
​
So, planning for the next adventure challenge begins afresh!
