The quakes damaged many of the country’s historic sites, from temples to monuments. That included four World Heritage sites in the Kathmandu valley.Less than a month later, on May 12, a 7.3-magnitude quake hit eastern Nepal, near Everest. More than 100 people were killed and thousands were injured.
Since then, Nepal has struggled to rebuild. Some 800,000 buildings were damaged by the quakes, and many remain covered with temporary tarps or are simply uninhabitable. Many villages remain devastated, and tens of thousands of people lack basic services.
Spain-based photographer Omar Havana was living in Nepal when the earthquakes struck and his images of the aftermath were published widely. Since then he has spent considerable time in the country, documenting the slow struggle toward recovery, through his book project Endurance (support it on Kickstarter).
“The Nepali people were given a lesson on life, but the world did not care anymore,” Havana says of the country’s ongoing struggles. “Football matches and famous people were occupying more space in media than the fight of a country against the devastation of Mother Earth.”