Healthcare & Education in the Hidden Himalayas

Dear Friends and Supporters

Our implementation partner SHIP-NEPAL have produced their first 3-monthly report that clearly demonstrates how lifestyles and lack of basic hygiene knowledge are the principle causes of poor health in the remote mountain communities of the Hidden Himalayas. Respiratory diseases are common in smoky unventilated homes and water and food borne disorders are the result of a lack of knowledge of how basic cleanliness can prevent many health problems. 

Over the years we have seen major improvements in all these areas mainly due to our health education programmes for young people and for maternal health. Slowly but surely old ways and attitudes are changing and people are taking more personal responsibility for their health. The location of well run and staffed health clinics also helps to spot more serious disorders, such as tuberculosis, that can be treated and dealt with promptly.

A major step forward is that our Kermi and Yari clinics have now been integrated into the government health system. With Sarkegad, Bargaun and Halji this means all five Trust clinics are now part of the government system to provide a valuable health service in some of the most remote parts of Humla. This is a major improvement and we are slowly fulfilling our original objective of helping to support a unified health service.

Thank you to all of our supporters for helping to get us to this milestone. It is a truly emotional moment. Twenty years ago it was almost unimaginable as a civil war raged but a small group of local people with the help of the Trust carried on in the knowledge they would prevail. And they did!

The finishing line is still some distance as we continue to support the DHO and his staff and we will need your continuing help and support for a while yet. Please help if you can and spread the news that patience and hard work really do make a difference.

Namaste