IamA Team Leader of a Nepal Earthquake Emergency Project for DCA. We are two days away from reaching the anniversary of the devastating earthquake that approximately affected 8 million people AMA!

What do you prioritize when it comes to dealing with a disaster like that?

It depends on the context, as each context is different. You have the initial assessments that each agency carries out that gives a good idea of what is going on and where the damage is. In our case the priority was getting food, tents and tarpaulins to those living on the street after the impact. The second priority was some support for shelter so that people has roofs over their head during the monsoon rains. Then we started looking at rebuilding damaged infrastructure especially for water and sanitation. So you have to reflect on the needs and design your programming accordingly, often within a very short space of time.

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Hi Andrew! I have traveled to Nepal before. Would you please share how is the condition there in a year time?

Hi there, well there has been a lot of work done so far, but the needs are still really great in terms of shelter reconstruction and also in terms of rebuilding damaged water supply. A lot has been done but there is still a lot more work that needs to be done

Do you want to go trekking with me this weekend ? There is huge WASH needs in my village...

Sadly we already have our programming areas, so I do not think that this would be possible, but thank you for the offer.

Can you share them moment when you felt achieved leading this project?

Hi Sweta, thanks for the comment! I think that there are few, the first is cash for shelter where we assisted around 11,000 households for immediate shelter, and assisting around 3500 for cash for livelihoods. I also think our work on psychosocial assistance helping people to recovery emotionally as well as psychically from the disaster was important and where trained community members in mediation to resolve local disaster related problems and issues.

but i think also standing at a completed water scheme knowing that people have received real assistance and seeing people use the latrines that the project has built has real emotional resonance for me.

It ia 3am on the West Coast. What is your favorite kind of bread?

Interesting question, I think I prefer brown multi-grain! No specific type other than that really.

I prefer Olive bread.. They make really good Olive bread in Kathmandu

I havent tried olive bread here, its more chapati, but some places do a really good naan, although its kinda hard to find a proper tandoori naan, most people say they have tandoors, but they dont, its disappointing in a way.

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It depends which sites. For example the main tower a Budhanath was destroyed and there was damage to Bhaktapur and other sites, so this was quite extensive. The main issue is whether the authorities are going to be able to conduct effective restoration. So yes the damage to heritage was extensive but hopefully the reconstruction efforts will work.

In terms of human trafficking actually this did increase after the disaster, although not as much as feared. One of our partners was actively involved in raising awareness of this. However trafficking is a long term development issue for Nepal, so yes it did increase after the earthquake.