Shelters for a Shaken Community

When a massive 7.9-magnitude earthquake struck Gujarat on 26 January 2001, Chinmaya Mission adopted Bhavpur village where 2,500 residents were left homeless after 500 houses collapsed. Within a month, the Mission built nearly 500 modular row houses using lightweight, corrugated FRP (fiber-reinforced plastic) sheets. This material not only allowed rapid construction but also offered greater safety in future earthquakes.