Home help: Nepal

Published on Tuesday 30 December 2008 12:44

THE Nepalese mason took one look at our group of 22 pale-skinned wannabe builders and obviously thought to himself: "These people have never done a day's work in their lives." But over the course of a week, amid much hard labour and hilarity, our team of volunteers for ActionAid proved we could lay bricks and mix cement to build homes in Belarpur, a remote village in western Nepal.

Des Ram Tharu, a 45-year-old Kamaiya man, sits in front of the foundations of his new home alongside his wife and six children. "We did not think we would ever have a brick house with two rooms. It's a dream come true," he says.

With its thatched farmsteads, haystacks flecked with flowers, oxen ploughing the ruddy earth, flourishing banana palms and tethered goats and cattle, Belarpur looks like a rural idyll, but beneath the bucolic faade there's another story.

The Kamaiya are former bonded labourers, continuously indebted down the generations to landlords from whom they and their ancestors had borrowed money. Ram Tharu says that when the Kamaiya people were enslaved, they got up at two in the morning to start work in the fields and wouldn't finish until ten at night.

"We received just 1,200kg of rice to eat for the whole family for an entire year. It would run out after three to four months, so we had to take out a loan from the landlord to pay for food for our children.

"Our loan got bigger and bigger, so we could not leave and we were permanently indebted to the landlord. Now we are happy as we have our freedom."

In 2000, the Nepalese government said it would release around 39,000 of the Kamaiya from this system, with the promise of land and rehabilitation. They were awarded a one-off gift of 35 cubic feet of wood, 10,000 rupees (85) and a fifth of an acre of land per family, but since then, the government has only recognised 30,000 Kamaiya and only half of those have received land.

Our days on site would begin with coffee and biscuits delivered to the tent door, followed by encouraging words over breakfast from Trevor, the tour leader, and Anthony, the project manager. The plan was to start on the foundations for houses for 23 Kamaiya families.

Each ActionAid volunteer had raised around 3,000 in sponsorship to be part of the charity's First Hand Experiences. We bonded closely, despite being from different walks of life and generations (ages ranged from 22 to 69).

Equipped with steel-capped boots, sun hats and building gloves, we spent five days working under instruction from the Nepalese masons, relaying bricks from the road to the sites and helping to mix cement and sand. Calls of eta (brick), masala (cement) and tasala (bowl) ricocheted up and down the road, along with the occasional dherai dukha (work harder) barked in jest as the sweat flowed.

It was tough, physical work, sometimes made difficult by the lack of shade, and we toiled from 9am until 5pm, with a lunch and two tea breaks. Sleeping in tents with no electricity or running water was all part of the campsite experience and a huge part of the adventure.

On our first day, Diane, a GP, speculated on behalf of all the female volunteers: "We won't be allowed to lay bricks; this is a male-dominated society." But the women had come to Nepal to flex a bit of muscle, and we soon impressed our mason, Gopal.

During water breaks, the volunteers told me about what had inspired them to take part. Annie, a driving instructor, wanted to participate in Nepalese culture and do something constructive; Becci works in construction and was inspired to do something practical; Lucy, a risk auditor, wanted to do something different.

At night, at the big table where our three-course meals were served up along with songs and jokes, the talk turned to the team's fundraising skills. Among the quiz nights, car boot sales, cake sales and a work swear box, it was Salvo, a Maltese GP from Crawley, who took the prize for the most ingenious money-making scheme: raising 2,800 by shaving off a moustache he'd had since 1967. Even his wife had never seen him without it.

At the end of the week, Salvo said, "It has been great working with the local people and seeing how hard they work. There are a lot of people in the world less fortunate than I am and it is so satisfying to see the happy faces of the Nepalese here."

Helping to build homes for people who'd found themselves in such an impossible situation was a humbling experience. And seeing how thrilled Des Ram Tharu and his family were to see their dream home was incredible.

This was a challenging project, but infinitely rewarding and inspiring. Who needs five-star luxury? I'd take a basic tent and hard labour in the sun like this every time.

Fact file: Nepal

First Hand Experiences are run by ActionAid, one of the UK's leading international development charities, which works with local people in the poorest parts of the world by giving them the resources to tackle their own poverty.

Offering volunteers the opportunity to visit some of the most inspiring places in the world, First Hand Experiences are designed to be just that – a unique way of being immersed in the local culture, meeting local people and making a lasting, hands-on difference.

Anyone can take part – no experience is needed, just lots of enthusiasm and the required sponsorship funds.

For more information, log on to www.actionaid.org.uk/adventures or call 01460 238 047.