Pictured: Sajana Shakya from the Nepalese delegation and
Stewart Fergusson, MD Orbit Heart of England
A group of social housing experts from Nepal have visited Orbit
to exchange ideas and gain insights into new ways to provide more
affordable homes to slum communities.
The five-strong delegation was from a community-based
organisation called Lumanti which was founded in 1993 to help
alleviate urban poverty in Nepal through the improvement of shelter
conditions and living environment.
They spent three days finding out about Orbit, which is one of
the largest housing associations in the country with 36,000 homes
in the Midlands, East, London and South East.
The group spent time with a range of staff including Orbit Heart
of England neighbourhood teams in Leamington and Warwick, contact
centre and corporate services staff, and Orbit Homes, which
develops around 1,000 new homes a year.
The visit was organised by Coventry-based charity Homeless
International, which aims to tackle global housing poverty by
working with community-based housing organisations and Governments
here and overseas. Lumanti is one of 17 international partner
organisations that Homeless International supports in Africa and
Asia.
Boris Worrall, Orbit's Director of Strategy and External
Affairs, said: "The visit was a huge success. We certainly learnt
an awful lot and hopefully were able to pass on some knowledge to
our guests. Their commitment to helping build much-needed
affordable housing for people in Nepal was really striking."
Lumanti is supporting local groups and working with the Nepalese
government to address a range of issues, from exploring rental
housing solutions in Kathmandu to co-operative housing for
communities in peri-urban and rural areas.
Nepal has a population of 30 million people with around 2.8
million of those living in slum housing. More than half of all
people living in urban areas are housed in slums. One of Lumanti's
projects is a community-led scheme to help 150 families build their
own homes in five settlements in Kohalpur. The project is helping
strengthen the partnership with the Nepali government and
demonstrate community-led solutions at scale.