The “Hand in Hand Build” March 2011
One of the most rewarding trips I’ve undertaken was in March 2011 when I travelled with a group of 100 women to a poverty stricken area in southern Nepal with the aim of building at least 10 homes.The project was run during the centenary of International Women’s Year by Habitat for Humanity and the women we were building for were all either widowed or abandoned by their husbands. In this society, that meant they were the lowest in the pecking order: so to have a house to live in, was a dream they didn’t believe would come true.
Every day during that week, we travelled over an hour each way on the long and dusty road from our Hotel in Biratnagar to a tiny village in the Itahari area, strangers but united by the desire to do something amazing.
From the start of the build, our every move was watched by curious villagers who couldn’t understand why western women would give up time to build a house for someone they didn’t even know. But by the end of the week our shy build partners, their children and family members as well as the local police sent to “guard” us were all pitching in doing whatever they could to accomplish the task.
Watching these women change reminds me of the way a lotus blooms. The roots of a lotus are in the mud, the stem grows up through the water, and the heavily scented flower lies pristinely above the water, basking in the sunlight… though there are other water plants that bloom above the water, it is only the lotus which, owing to the strength of its stem, regularly rises eight to twelve inches above the surface.