Koshi Province, Nepal

Forty-five percent of people in Nepal live in substandard housing and 30% have unsafe pit latrines. Residents in the region mostly live in thatched homes and have limited access to health care, a water supply and educational opportunities.

East Nepal is an important housing innovation region for Habitat Nepal, where they have supported local bamboo farmers and helped establish bamboo treatment centers to supply sustainable home building materials. Since 1997, Habitat for Humanity Nepal has reached more than 17,600 families with new homes, and in 2022 alone, helped 32,021 families finance their homes, which totaled more than $41 million.

Habitat Nepal has active projects in Koshi Province, including the Impact 2026 initiative, a collaboration between Habitat and the Hilti Foundation to create safe, green and durable bamboo housing solutions. Habitat volunteers will help a building contractor and local volunteers build new homes made of bamboo.

Some of the construction tasks include:  

• Mixing mortar.
• Moving bricks.
• Preparing bamboo columns and beams.
• Weaving bamboo walls.
• Applying mud mortar to walls and paint.

Volunteers will stay in double-occupancy rooms at a hotel. Single-occupancy rooms are available by request for an additional charge. Please contact your team leader to request a single-occupancy room. Meals will vary slightly from day to day. Breakfast will be provided at the hotel. Lunches will be served on the build site on workdays and dinner will be at the hotel, local restaurant or arranged by the country program.
 

Graham Robb loves how a Habitat Global Village build brings together people who don’t know one another to travel to places most have never been and to work alongside people they have never met — all while doing something entirely new. Seeing how this experience creates moments of friendship and camaraderie while dramatically improving living conditions for families in need of decent housing is what makes it so meaningful for him. To learn more about this build, please contact Graham at [email protected].