Photo Essay: The people of Kusunthali
Only one house in Kusunthali village, just outside of Kathmandu, is still standing – everything else has been reduced to rubble by the earthquake on 25 April 2015. A fateful day for its inhabitants: As members of the tailor caste, they depend on day-to-day wages and earn their living with sewing. The tailors belong to the Dalit, the lowest Hindu caste.
Almost all of the sewing machines are now buried under the debris, and as everyone is re-building, nobody spends money on clothes. The people of Kusunthali do not own the land they live on, they have no land to farm and no livestock to sell. LWF supports them in re-building their lives.
Photos: Lucia de Vries/ LWF Nepal
6 August 2015
A sewing machine pulled out from a destroyed house. Kusunthali village is inhabited by tailors, who earn their daily income by sewing clothes. The earthquake has destroyed all their sewing machines.
Only one sewing machine in the village has survived the disaster. Neighbors pulled together and repaired it, so they could start working again.
Sharmila Paryar continues to sew clothes by hand. But even so, business is going slow. After the earthquake customers stopped coming to the village.
Rosni Paryar in front of her destroyed house. She is the first woman in the village to finish high school, and has been applying for a job as a teacher. But as she is a member of the Dalit caste, she finds it hard to find a job.
LWF Nepal is assisting with tanks for drinking water and other core relief items. They are also looking for ways to help people rebuild their livelihoods.
