On the morning of 26 August 2026, Dawa was working at a hydropower plant in the Rasuwa district of Nepal when the alarm sounded.
“The warning siren blew, and I ran immediately. As we fled, my friends were swept away right before my eyes,” she told One Chance Global.
A massive collapse of rock and ice from a glacier in the Himalayas had triggered catastrophic flooding.
“In the panic, people were stepping on top of each other to survive,” said Dawa. “Somehow I kept running and made it out alive.”
Dawa's story is one of thousands. Flooding along the Bhotekoshi and Trishuli rivers caused devastating loss of life and displacement. An estimated 352,000 people have been affected by the disaster in Nepal. Among them are more than 98,000 women of reproductive age, including some 5,030 pregnant women.
Extensive damage to health facilities, impassable roads and disruptions to public transport have severely constrained maternal health services. Displacement and overcrowding in temporary shelters are heightening risks of gender-based violence and exploitation, particularly for women and adolescent girls.
One Chance Global and its partners are working alongside the Government of Nepal to reach the women and girls most at risk, across displacement centres and within affected communities.
Here, Dawa and five other women share how the floods have affected their lives.
