Mercy Corps - Asia: Bethanchok, Nepal

Sunmaya Rumba lives at the top of a tall, craggly stone staircase in a community badly affected by the 2015 earthquakes. Her home still shows the damage: the second story is pocked and cracked and looks as though it may crumble at any moment. When Sunmaya heard Mercy Corps’ was providing mason training to help people rebuild earthquake resistant homes, she was motivated to help her community recover and mobilized a group in her community to participate. She successfully completed the 50-day training to become a mason, and though it’s difficult for her to get hired as a woman, she was able to use her skills to rebuild the home of her mother-in-law, Thulimaya Waiba (in background), which was destroyed in the disaster.
Bethanchok, Nepal, March 2018

Sunmaya Rumba lives at the top of a tall, craggly stone staircase in a community badly affected by the 2015 earthquakes. Her home still shows the damage: the second story is pocked and cracked and looks as though it may crumble at any moment. When Sunmaya heard Mercy Corps’ was providing mason training to help people rebuild earthquake resistant homes, she was motivated to help her community recover and mobilized a group in her community to participate. She successfully completed the 50-day training to become a mason, and though it’s difficult for her to get hired as a woman, she was able to use her skills to rebuild the home of her mother-in-law, Thulimaya Waiba (in background), which was destroyed in the disaster.