TOKYO-2016

Endurance

  • Photographer
    Omar Havana

On April 25th, Nepal was hit by the devastation of Mother Nature, an earthquake of magnitude 7.8 that killed almost 9000 people and injured more than 22.000. Almost 3 million people have since then been made homeless and many parts of the country need to be rebuilt. Minutes after the earth shook in Nepal, the country became a united family, as everyone hit the streets to help, to fight and to search for signs of life. As time has passed since then, aftershocks have continued to hit the country on an almost daily basis; a magnitude 7.2 hit the country in May adding more devastation, but the country will rise again. Day and night, the Nepali people are fighting hard, working most of their time on their own while keeping a smile on their face. While most of the country is standing despite what the rest of the world has been shown, the population of Nepal has started to come back to their daily lives in the 14 districts affected by the earthquake. For months, the population of Nepal has been waiting for the Government to release the more than 4 billion dollars donated to the reconstruction, and the passivity of the Government has forced them to take control of the situation. Demolishing houses with ropes and their hands while saving bricks and pieces of wood to rebuild their homes has been the goal of the population for months, while local and international organizations have put their efforts into rehabilitation, education and to provide help to those in need across the country. As a direct witness of the earthquake being based in Nepal, this project has also served as a personal therapy to cope with the psychological impact that the earthquake left on myself. For more than 5 months, Endurance has been a personal fight to tell the world the reality of the people of Nepal; day after day, their resilience and their smiles have become lessons impossible to forget, making Endurance a project dedicated to the people of Nepal and to their resistance: a tribute to those who are working hard to see Nepal rise again.