A Family's Journey from a Tent to a Concrete Home

For the Chepang community in Nepal's hill districts, a tent is sometimes more than a temporary shelter. It becomes a childhood bedroom, a kitchen, a place where families gather during long evenings. When Dhan and his two children first moved into a small canvas shelter after a landslide took their home, they had no reason to believe the arrangement would last more than a few weeks. Three monsoons later, they were still there.

That changed when a regional partner of One Home Foundation visited the riverside settlement. Within a year, Dhan, his wife, and their children were sleeping under a proper roof for the first time in years. Their story is one of many unfolding across rural Nepal, and it carries lessons that reach beyond the Himalayas.

Life in the Tent

The family settled on a narrow strip of land where the river bends. The floor inside the tent was a sheet of woven plastic, and the walls were patched with whatever scraps the parents could find. Cooking happened outside on a small clay stove, and the children walked an hour each way to reach the nearest community school.

There were nights when wind lifted one side of the tent and the family held it down with rope. During monsoon, the river rose and the tent had to be moved twice in a single week. Disease travelled easily through such settlements, and clean water came from a shared tap that was a kilometre's walk from where they slept.

The Landslide That Changed Everything

The landslide that displaced the family had started slowly. Cracks appeared in the hillside above their village, then small slips of earth after every downpour. One morning, the family woke to find that a wall of mud had carried away their kitchen, their livestock shelter, and most of their stored grain.

Relief workers brought tents in the days that followed, but tents are designed for short deployments, not for raising children. The family stayed, repaired what they could, and tried to find work picking cardamom and tending livestock for neighbours who had lost less. Each year, they waited for permanent housing that never arrived.

When Help Arrived

When volunteers from One Home Foundation arrived in the area, they did more than hand out supplies. They listened. They mapped the settlement, spoke with elders, and identified families whose situations were most precarious. Dhan's family was among those selected for a permanent concrete home, funded through donations and built with the help of local labour.

The organisation's model focuses on integrated settlements rather than isolated structures. A home is paired with access to clean water, a shared sanitation block, and a small community building that doubles as a clinic and a meeting space. For a family that had cooked outdoors for years, the idea of an enclosed kitchen with a chimney felt almost luxurious.

Nine Months of Building

Construction took nine months. Local masons mixed the cement, and villagers carried sand and gravel in woven baskets from the riverbed. The walls went up slowly because each layer had to cure in the mountain air before the next could be added. The family watched as the rectangular outline became a structure with windows, then a roof, then a door that locked.

There were moments of doubt along the way. Supplies were delayed when a regional road washed out. Funding gaps appeared, and volunteers had to pause while new donations arrived. The family helped where they could, carrying water for the masons and clearing debris from the site each morning.

Moving In

The family moved in just before the next rainy season. The home had two small bedrooms, a kitchen with a chimney, and a porch where the children could study in the evening. The youngest child ran from room to room on the first night, counting windows as if they were treasures. For the first time in years, the family slept through a thunderstorm without feeling water seep through the walls.

Health improved quickly. The shared sanitation block reduced the spread of waterborne illness, and the small clinic caught a case of pneumonia early in the oldest child. School attendance rose because the walk was shorter and the path was safer.

The home also needed the small things that turn four walls into a real household:

• Pressure cookers and sturdy utensils for the new kitchen
• Waterproof containers to store grain through the wet season
• Warm bedding suited to cold mountain nights
• Solar lanterns so children could study after dark

Many of these basics overlap with the most needed pantry items listed by community organisations working in similar contexts around the world.

Parallels in Australia

The gap between a tent and a permanent home is not unique to one country. In Sydney, Melbourne, and Perth, the number of people sleeping rough or in temporary accommodation has climbed as rents have risen faster than wages. The Australian Bureau of Statistics reports that more than 122,000 people experienced homelessness on census night, and almost 60 percent of those were living in severely crowded dwellings or improvised shelters.

Local habits shape how Australians respond. Weekend sausage sittings at community centres, fundraising barbecues outside Bunnings stores, and neighbourhood footy clubs running collection drives are familiar features of suburb life. These grassroots efforts mirror the community-led approach used by One Home Foundation in Nepal, where families contribute labour and local knowledge to every build.

Federal and state programs have started to address the gap. The National Housing Accord aims to build 1.2 million new homes over five years, and several state governments have committed to expanding social housing. Still, advocates point out that new construction alone does not reach families in immediate crisis, which is where direct support and community organising fill the gap.

Joining the Movement

Australians who want to support the mission can act at several levels. Some volunteers travel to Nepal to help with builds, while others raise funds through local events or workplace giving programs. Each of these paths feeds into the same pipeline: identifying families, funding materials, training local builders, and following through with health and education support.

There are several practical ways to get involved from Australia:

• Host a fundraising barbecue at home or in a local park
• Coordinate a workplace giving program through your employer
• Collect donations of building materials or household essentials
• Volunteer time to coordinate events or spread awareness

Those drawn to long-term involvement can learn about starting a local chapter and bring the model to their own suburb. A chapter can host a lunch, run a donation drive, or partner with Australian homelessness services to share lessons learned overseas.

Every permanent home begins with a family ready to build and a community willing to help. Dhan's story is still being written, and there are many more chapters waiting across Nepal. Consider joining the work today and help another family leave the tent behind.