.AWASUKA Program (written by Mònica Sans)
…Monika, eklai?
Lately, this is the question I’ve heard the most in the village: “…Monica, are you coming alone?” Yes, this time I am totally alone at Bhimphedi, without any other volunteers from Awasuka or Balmandir. I am the only foreigner of the town, but the truth is that I don’t feel lonely at all, but quite the opposite. I spend time with different friends I have known for years… In fact, they do not consider me a “cuire” (white), but rather a “local”.
The supervision visits to the retrofitted houses of Supin have gone very well: the retrofitting has been very well accepted by the community and many people ask us to continue. But now the main objective of Awasuka is to be able to make as many chimneys as possible until the end of June, thanks to the collaboration we are establishing with Practical Action, and also thanks to the help of our new coordinator: Hareram Pudasaini. Soon we will explain more details about this collaboration, but in this post we want to talk about a topic that we have wanted to share for some time now: the architectural heritage of Bhimphedi.
During the development of the Awasuka program we have witnessed the demolition of several historical buildings and that has not left us indifferent. Therefore, from the Awasuka team, and in parallel with our daily work, we decided to create this document, to be delivered to different Kathmandu institutions dedicated to historical preservation. In this way we have managed to raise awareness about one of our main concerns: the loss of identity of this village, one of the most beautiful in Nepal and richest in history, but which is not registered nor published anywhere. We hope, therefore, that you enjoy the images of this first publication about Bhimphedi.
