IOM Nepal Earthquake Response: Shelter Kits and Essential Relief Items

Enabling owner-driven shelter reconstruction through provision of materials and Build Back Safer training

According to the Post Disaster Needs Assessment 2015 carried out by the Government of Nepal, over 600,000 houses will need to be constructed and approximately 250,000 to be repaired. Fearful of aftershocks or further collapsing of damaged buildings, hundreds of thousands of people moved to open spaces and established temporary settlement camps.

Until March 2016, IOM jointly, with its partner network composed of 49 national and international organizations active in 19 districts, distributed of shelter and non-food items to over 297,000 households, reaching nearly 1.5 million individuals. The shelter and non-food items distributed included plastic tarpaulins, ropes, bamboo poles and corrugated iron sheets to help families to build a temporary shelter as well as blankets, kitchen sets and solar lights to respond to the immediate needs of those families who had lost belongings. Blankets, tarpaulins, solar lights and PE foam were also distributed as part of winterization programming to community households and to displaced populations residing at the temporary sites.

As rebuilding efforts begun, IOM established Shelter Centers in Sindhupalchowk, Gorkha and Dolakha districts to serve as ‘one stop shops’ providing information and training on how to ‘Build Back Safer’ as well as supporting the coordination of reconstruction activities.

In line with the reconstruction strategy of the Government of Nepal, IOM is promoting safer owner driven reconstruction to enhance communities’ resilience. IOM worked closely with the Shelter Cluster and further with the Housing Recovery and Reconstruction Platform (HRRP) in order to develop user-friendly materials such as the ‘10 Key Messages for Build Back Safer (BBS)’ as well as to build capacities among earthquake-affected population to reconstruct safer houses incorporating disaster risk reduction measures. Thus far, IOM has delivered BBS Awareness Training to over 1,700 households in Dolakha, Sindhupalchowk and Gorkha districts.

Mainstreaming disaster risk reduction strategies into shelter activities will continue to be a focus of IOM’s shelter response. BBS training and the provision of shelter toolkits will be continued to support communities with the building of safer structures as well as distributing non-food items to meet the basic needs of vulnerable households.