Then the charity Plan International visited her village Suspa, with food, tarpaulins – a blue one still covers the rubble of her home as we talk – and an idea.

“They suggested I become a mason,” she says.

Even in the UK, women working in the construction industry are rare. In a highly patriarchal society like Nepal, it was practically unheard of. But in many ways it was the only solution, because Nepal had another problem in the wake of the disaster: a lack of men.

According to the United Nations, a third of all Nepali households have at least one member working and living abroad. In almost all cases, it is the men who leave. In a population of 27.8m, nearly 10% have sought better-paid work overseas, from building the World Cup stadium in Qatar to masonry in Malaysia. Many companies did not let their workers return home after the quake, including the one Makha’s husband works for.

“It was hard,” she says briefly, eyes clouding over. But the suggestion that she become a mason changed her life.

“I didn’t ever imagine we would work like this,” she says. “I always thought they were the jobs of men. But only after the earthquake, when the demand for masons was so high, I realised I can learn and do the job.”

She had two days of training and now works in a team of three to build shelters in her area. The first two she built, after the second major earthquake on 12 May, were for her family.

It’s not a happy ending: Makha and her husband still have $5,000 of debt on their now-collapsed home, and they pay a shocking 36% interest on the loan. But she now makes 19,800 Nepali rupees a month ($186), compared to nothing before, and believes women have a huge role to play across Nepal.

“It was good for me to learn a woman can have skills like this. Now more and more women come to me and tell me they want training,” she says, as her two children – a 12-year-old son and an eight-year old daughter – chase goats around the yard.