KATHMANDU, MARCH 21

The Japan government handed over an emergency shelter and training center to the Community Development Center (CDC) in Durga Bhagwati Rural Municipality, Rautahat District on Thursday.

The new building was constructed through the Project for the Construction of an Emergency Shelter Facility and Training Center in Rautahat District with the assistance of USD 78,414 (approximately NPR 9.15 million) under the Grant Assistance for Grassroots Human Security Projects (GGP) of the Government of Japan, according to the press release issued by the Japan Embassy in Kathmandu.

Tamura Takahiro, the Deputy Chief of Mission of the Embassy of Japan in Nepal, attended the ceremony and congratulated and expressed his appreciation for the efforts of all those involved in the project. He also expressed his hope that the facility will contribute to the further development of the community.

This project was implemented by CDC, which was established in 1998 and has been providing disaster preparedness training, vocational training, and educational support for children in the district. The project site is located at the confluence of the Bagmati River and its tributaries in a flood-prone area. However, residents faced a lack of adequate emergency evacuation facilities. The newly constructed facility is expected to be used for the evacuation during floods and other disasters, as well as for training to improve residents' knowledge of natural disasters, the statement added.

GGP was established to implement projects that directly benefit people at the grassroots level for the socio-economic development of communities. Since 1991, over 200 GGP projects have been implemented in Nepal, Japan Embassy said.