Healthcare & Education in the Hidden Himalayas

Dear Supporters

In our last report, we set out our plans for the Nepal Trust Healthcare and Education Programmes in the Hidden Himalayas through to 2028 and hopefully, with your continued support, beyond.

These followed the deliberations surrounding the restructuring of our UK Board and the reshaping of working arrangements with international partners, but were very much based on the input and feedback from the members of staff at SHIP, our local delivery partner.  They are responsible for the delivery of the healthcare programme across Humla, with input from individual members of the local communities.

The continued delivery of our Little Doctors and Mother and Child health awareness programmes remains core to our plans, as does our aspiration to launch an adult First Aid and Health Awareness programme. Over many years of operating in Humla, we are well aware that funding education in healthcare and hygiene is as important as the provision of medicines and treatments.

In this report, we are sharing with you some of the feedback received from one of our health workers, Prajit, one mother, Jaspuri, with small children in Bargaun village, and a grandmother, Nakder, along with some facts and figures relating to the programme outcomes in 2023.

Jaspuri earns her living in agriculture and has had 7 children, one of whom sadly died. After her first baby died, she asked for help from a traditional birthing helper for her next deliveries, which were successful. The babies were delivered at home with help from the birthing helper, but after delivery she was always weak as she did not receive any additional care or support, nor nourishing food.  She has very little knowledge of child birth issues and her family are not able to give her much information.

Nakder also worked in agriculture, now aged 92, only helps in the simpler tasks, made similar comments and observations. She had 13 children, of which 5 died and only 8 survived. Her views were that it was very difficult to be pregnant when she was young, as at that time there were no health services available at all, and there was no opportunity to get a health check-up, or get advice and information on pregancy, delivery and aftercare; also due to lack of food she suffered malnutrition after her deliveries, which made her feel very weak.

When she was young, the government was not able to provide health services. At that time, people were ashamed of talking about these issues with other people and she did not think too much about the future and just had many babies because society demanded it. But now, she observed, there has been a significant change in her village due to the arrival of the birthing center constructed by Nepal Trust. However she cautioned many people still lack awareness and education and not all receive proper help even when it’s available:  more educaton in the village is required. Nevertheless, she is happy with the progress achieved and that her children and grandchildren can have better health services in comparison to when she was young.

From these two stories, which have been repeated many times, you can appreciate why our mother and child healthcare programme needs to maintain its focus on education and awareness.

Prajit, a Health Assistant at the Simikot hospital, views the benefit of the Nepal Trust birthing centers and health posts is giving an easy and accessible way of getting health services and addressing problems with basic treatments. Not only can villagers come to talk about their problems, but also they can get information which raises their awareness on health issues.

Prajit would like to see more centers with sufficient medical equipment, as to enable local healthworkers to carry out their work. However as the government lacks the funds to provide this, the communities remain dependant on other organizations such as the Nepal Trust to achieve this aim.

Slowly people are recognising the difference between modern healthcare and the traditional ones and more and more people are accepting modern healthcare methods which they see are proven to work. He see’s the Nepal Trust Little Doctors programme, which we plan to continue delivering for many years to come, as a vital component in maintaining this trend.  However a core problem remains - people often don’t have access to such services and do not have enough money to pay for treatments.

We have already built 8 primary healthcare posts with birthing centres, yet in Prajit’s opinion more are needed. In Humla, the villages are scattered around and it can take hours if not days to reach a nearby health post. More clinics are needed at strategic locations, though of course funding them would be a real challenge.

Turning now to facts and figures in the period April to June 2023, the following treatments were recorded across the Nepal Trust clinics in Humla:

• Water/Food borne illnesses (dysentery, diarrhoea,...)   428
• Other infections (Bronchitis, pneumonia,...)                   674
• Nutritional related                                                             42
• Skin diseases                                                                 313
• Nose & Throat Infections                                                251
• Oral and dental issues                                                     96
• Eye problems                                                                   66
• Obstetric and Gynae Problems                                        90
• Cancer related                                                                168
• Falls and Injuries                                                             895                                                                                

Going forward the provision of treatments and cares for diseases and incidents will also remain at the core of our programme. Your continued support is making a real difference.

Thank you and Namaste