Dave Burbank/Provided

Arjun Kumar Karki, Nepal's ambassador to the United States, speaks May 6 at Warren Hall.

Arjun Kumar Karki, Nepal’s ambassador to the United States, was on campus to give the opening keynote address for the Cornell-Nepal Earthquake Recovery Partnership (CNERP) spring workshop, held May 6-7. However, he told the audience in Warren Hall that he didn’t come to Ithaca primarily to give a speech, but to learn.

The focus of Karki’s quest was the research of a group of Cornell master’s students, primarily from the Cornell Institute for Public Affairs (CIPA) and the Department of City and Regional Planning, who are assisting his country in its ongoing recovery from the April 25, 2015, earthquake that killed more than 8,000 people.

The students, part of CNERP, presented possible project designs for work on  community planning and housing, water and sanitation, schools and education, health and health care facilities, and rural income generation during the workshop. Student designs were created with careful consideration of input from a group of Nepalese community members who visited Cornell in April. 

In his keynote, Karki focused on the resilience of the Nepalese people in the face of the extraordinary damage caused by the earthquake.

“We have not lost our hope and sense of community,” he said.

While Nepal has received more than $7 billion in donations and credit since the earthquake, the ambassador believes that the country’s greatest rebuilding effort must come from within. He hopes that Nepal uses the opportunity to redevelop and strengthen its economic, political and social power.

Karki cited the concept of “Building Back Better” as an influential motivation in Nepal’s efforts, but not only as it pertains to the use of sustainable materials and methods of construction. “Building Back Better” also means confronting and fixing the social and economic problems facing Nepal, including issues involving gender, race and ethnicity, he said.

Donovan Russell, Ph.D. ’73, former director of the Peace Corps in Nepal, and Scott DeLisi, former U.S. ambassador to Nepal, were on hand throughout the workshop to offer feedback and direction on the student projects

The events were co-sponsored by CIPA, the Department of Anthropology, and the South Asia Program.

Breonna Freeman ’19 is a writer intern for the Cornell Chronicle.