Kathmandu, January 18

Chaudhary Foundation (CF) — the philanthropic arm of the Chaudhary Group — has announced it will soon begin conductingvocational trainings for earthquake victims. The move is aimed at linking them with economic activities so that affected communities can become self-reliant, which in turn could aid in their sustainable rehabilitation.

With the support of Tata Strive-India, CF will initiate skill development trainings for the quake victims of Sindhupalchowk and Gorkha by mid-February and the initiative will then be expanded to other affected districts. It is reported that CF is going to launch vocational skill training programmes this month in the affected districts through CG Polytechnic. Similarly, CF will also operate the skill development centre, particularly for women, under the banner of ‘CG Unnati’.

“Immediately after the quakes of April and May, we focused our activities towards providing relief and rehabilitation, and now we have taken another initiative for sustainable rehabilitation of the quake victims,” said Binod Chaudhary, president of Chaudhary Group, during the press briefing organised here today.

CF had announced relief and rehabilitation package for earthquake victims worth $2.5 million immediately after the devastating April 25 quake. On May 6, CF had announced it would build 10,000 transitional shelter homes for the earthquake-affected communities under ‘CG Ashraya’ project, out of which 1,000 would be built using Foundation’s own funds and 9,000 through partnership with national and international organisations. Likewise, it had also announced it would rebuild buildings for 100 schools that suffered damages under ‘CG Shikshyalaya’ project.

During the press meet today, CF said it had completed building 1,700 transitional shelters to this date and approximately 1,000 have been officially handed over to the local communities. CF has also provided trainings to the communities of the earthquake-affected areas on building transitional shelters.

Also speaking in the programme, Nirvana Chaudhary, managing director of Chaudhary Group, said CF has completed building 30 school buildings, out of which 12 have been handed over to the local school management committees through formal handover events.

“We aim to run CG Ashraya and CG Shikshyalaya projects in 14 most affected districts in central Nepal,” he said.

Currently, CF has been working in 10 of these districts — Ramechhap, Dolakha, Sindhupalchok, Kavre, Bhaktapur, Lalitpur, Kathmandu, Dhading, Nuwakot and Gorkha. CF has also expressed keen interest to work with the National Authority for Reconstruction to take forward their campaign of rebuilding Nepal.