KEY FINDINGS
A joint assessment was conducted in 7 northern hard-to-reach VDCs of Gorkha district between 1 June and 8 June. Focus group discussions were held with key informants in 13 communities to collect information.
Food security, shelter and communication were the first, second and third priorities respectively. Food was perceived as the most important need given coping mechanisms of stockpiling food for the monsoon had been disrupted, along with loss of food stocks due to shelter damage. There were also uncertainties about how much food aid would be provided.
These areas are normally connected by trails and were accessible by foot and pack animals prior to the earthquake. Active landslides were encountered in the eastern VDCs rendering existing trails impassable and hazardous, limiting access to helicopter only. Communities remained fearful of venturing out given the risk of landslides.
Several communities reported extremely high proportions of single- or female-headed households (from half to two thirds of total households). This is indicative of a lack of a young, able bodied and willing male workforce presence to contribute to the rebuilding necessitating a need to hire labour.
A fear of returning to school reflected both the concerns of parents to send children to school and children to attend school. Trails to access schools were reportedly hazardous for children to traverse alone. The combination of fear and hazardous access resulted in very poor attendance rates despite the (somewhat limited) capacity of some educational facilities to resume operations.
Given the current commercial environment with traditional access routes for goods and supplies blocked, cash was reported to be of little use. The provision of in-kind humanitarian assistance had negated the need to purchase goods.
The preferred sources of communication were telephone and radio. However, not all areas were covered by phone network, in some cases due to damaged phone towers. This has resulted in limited community awareness and increased uncertainty regarding pipeline humanitarian assistance; consequently, this has impeded planning and instigated uptake of negative coping strategies.
The results are specific to these VDCs although the themes may be relevant across many other remote and difficult to access areas in the earthquake affected districts.