The village of Kotada is no exception; most of its 490 houses collapsed, and its residents still live in temporary shelters. But out of this total destruction, life here and elsewhere in Gujarat is slowly beginning to return to normal.

Better than normal, in fact. In Kotada and 22 other villages, a joint rehabilitation program run by CARE and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) is working with other organizations to rebuild the villages with schools, day care, proper drainage, toilets and paved streets -- amenities that many of these communities lacked before the earthquake struck.

"Earlier, we had to walk at least 3 kilometers (nearly 2 miles) to fetch water," says Saraswati Behn, who lives in Kotada. "Also, we had to bathe at the one public tap in the village." But with funding from the European Commission Humanitarian Organization (ECHO), a public bathing facility has been constructed with separate tanks to wash clothes. Clean drinking water also is provided next to the baths.

In Lakhdirgarh, cotton farmer Mohan Ganesh says that although the new houses planned for his village will be smaller than the one he had before the earthquake, they'll be safer, which is more important. The FICCI-CARE Gujarat Rehabilitation Project has developed a standard design for quakeproof houses built out of reinforced concrete blocks.

"I would rather have a house that will not collapse than endure months of living in a tent," says Ganesh. "Moreover, our children will get a proper school building, and we will also benefit from other facilities like a community house and a panchayat (village council) room."

The project also is de-silting local check dams (small dams built across drainage ditches or other wet, low-lying land) as well as building new ones. "Water is our major problem," Ganesh explains. "Most of the crops we plant are dry crops that require little water." But with a new check dam being built exclusively for irrigation and another for drinking water, Ganesh is confident he'll soon be able to grow other crops that fetch a better price.

As CARE and its partners help construct new and improved villages in Gujarat, they also are strengthening communities with new ways to build livelihoods and ensure financial security. "We are using the opportunity to train the youngsters in plumbing, carpentry and electrical fitting," says CARE field officer Parvez Ahsraf. "Also, all the women in the villages are being given life insurance policies."

Community spirit in Gujarat, however, needs no further strengthening. Take the village of Nilpar, whose 36 houses collapsed during the earthquake. Like several other villages in the project, Nilpar is being resurrected in a new location. "Our village used to be located over there," says village sarpanch (leader) Arjan Bhai, pointing out a spot over the hillock. Nearby, some of its new houses have been completed, and the others are almost finished, yet no one has moved in. Bhai explains: "We want to wait until every villager gets his house, then move in together ... We are hoping to soon have a grand inauguration of our new village."