My Experience as Field Investigator for National Housing Reconstruction Survey in Dolakha

Kshitiz Paudel was working in Dolakha District for National Housing Reconstruction Survey as Field Investigator. He shares his experiences being part of this survey:

Before joining the work I once asked myself,”Whether I can work over such a challenging scenario?” and the answer was of course I can. Many people from abroad are working in remotest part of country so why can’t I? It’s my motherland and my people are suffering. Keeping these things on my mind I signed the contract with HERD for ‘National Housing Reconstruction Survey’ as Field Investigator.

The training/guidance/facilitation provided by CBS Team and Technical Mentors were milestone to start my work. Four days of training along with field visit to Duwakot, Bhaktapur was a great experience for me and it provided me a great enthusiasm to work for this survey. After moving towards Dolakha immediately after training, we had effective interaction programme with senior government authorities and in same programme we got chance to introduce our self  with our team members – the social mobilisers. After spending sometime of preparation at Charikot (District Headquarter), we moved our steps towards our specified enumeration area and in my case, it was Katakuti VDC. The day after reaching my area, we started our work after consulting ward coordinator along with other community leaders of that area about the household locations and other relevant information. Collapsed houses, earthquake victimized people, cold and many other problems were surrounding the place. Ignoring the various difficulties caused by earthquake, with smile on face, greeting from heart and purity of soul people provide respective answers for our questions and made our survey successful. Problems were in one hand but the hospitality, respect and love provided there made me realize that problem can be minimized by smile on face and understanding the context of the time.

The help support provided by my team member Aruna Adhikari, VDC President/Secretary Santosh Khadka, Ward Coordinators, various party representatives, whole family of Khadga Bahadur Khadka (Shambhu Buwa) and of course all people of that specified area will always remain in my bottom core of heart and I will always be indebted to them for their support. On the other hand, I am also thankful to HERD Team, CBS Team and all government authorities.

The knowledge gained, experiences acquired in this project will be always inspiring and helpful towards future steps in my professional and whole life. Enhancement of some technical abilities and recognizing management skills over me will make this work remembering forever.

Lastly, I am again thankful to HERD for providing me an opportunity to work under this project. I wish reconstruction work will start sooner as informed through the data collected as part of this survey.