Bring healthcare to thousands in rural Nepal

Dear friends,

It has been four months since the magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck Nepal, taking more than 8,000 lives and impacting countless others. The effect the quake has had on the remote villages served by Himalayan HealthCare (HHC) has been devastating with more than 600 deaths reported in the region and thousands without shelter after their homes, schools and health clinics have collapsed.

To see more than 23 years of community development work literally fall to pieces has been heartwrenching. The Timla Dormitory--inaugurated by HHC just days before the earthquake--was leveled. The dormitory had been built by HHC to provide shelter and a safe space to study for students who must otherwise walk four hours each day, or sleep in the surrounding woods, to attend school. Livestock--a significant source of sustenance and livelihood in northern Dhading--were lost and crops ruined.

But HHC’s two decades in the villages of Tipling, Sherthung, Lapa and more recently Jharlang have not been in vein. Our team’s knowledge of the region and its reputation among the Dhading government and population allowed HHC to provide immediate relief to these remote, hard-to-reach villages and to serve as a trusted local partner to a number of international aid organizations. 

Within 24 hours of the earthquake, HHC had seven metric tons of food and a medical relief team in Dhading. Within ten days, HHC had:

• Donated generators to the district administration to reestablish power and telephone service to facilitate disaster relief; 
• Equipped the 25-bed district hospital so it was capable of carrying out surgery; 
• Secured 40 metric tons of food, one and a half metric tons of medicines and three metric tons of non-food supplies including tents and blankets; 
• Placed two medical teams in two isolated and badly hit villages; 
• Sent a surveillance team of engineers to assess damage in northern Dhading; and 
• Helped organize communities in four northern Dhading villages to fix trails so that long-term relief and rebuilding can be carried out more efficiently. 

HHC has also assisted with the logistics for NYC Medics, AmeriCares and GlobalMedic and has been selected as the local partner for World Food Programme to carry out ongoing food relief and livestock replenishment in northern Dhading.

Given the scope of the damage, HHC is continuing to lead long-term relief and rebuilding efforts in the villages it has served for 23 years as well as surrounding areas. This includes, but is not limited to: 

• Rebuilding 30 schools using materials and processes that will reduce casualties in the event of a future earthquake;
• Overseeing government-mandated relocation of certain villages; 
• Supervising reconstruction of more than 2,400 homes;
• Ensuring new structures have appropriate toilets and clean cookstoves to promote public health; 
• Rehabilitating agricultural and livestock programs that have been affected by the earthquake; and
• Ensuring children are able to continue with their schooling by providing temporary facilities. 

HHC’s earthquake relief efforts are directly supporting more than 35,000 individuals.

Our relief work has been publicly endorsed by New York’s Governor Andrew Cuomo and supported by more than 1,000 individuals around the world as well as GlobalGiving, Brother’s Brother Foundation, American Jewish World Service, AmeriCares and many other institutional donors. 

We are extremely grateful for the outpouring of concern and generosity and we invite you to follow updates on our relief efforts via our website.

Thank you for your support as we continue to rebuild communities and restore hope to the people of Nepal. 

Sincerely, 

Christina Madden 
US Director, Himalayan HealthCare

Links:

• Himalayan HealthCare's Earthquake Relief Photo Gallery
• Himalayan HealthCare's Earthquake Relief Updates

Dear friends,

The report that follows was submitted to GlobalGiving during the week prior to the magnitude 7.8 earthquake that has since devastated Nepal. In light of the sobering news from the villages we serve, this account of our Spring 2015 Medical Trek now seems out of a distant past. The Timla student dormitory that we inaugurated just weeks ago has been leveled along with countless homes, schools and health clinics. The fate of the hundreds of villagers who proudly attended the inaugural ceremony as well as the patients we served in Lapa and Jharlang remains unknown.

Himalayan HealthCare's on-the-ground staff has been working tirelessly to provide food, clean water, shelter, medical supplies and emergency care to the more than 35,000 villagers we serve. Our updates on these efforts are available on our website and will be posted to our GlobalGiving Earthquake Relief Fund.

In the meantime, we invite you to read the following report with the knowledge that our effort to rebuild these remote communities has already begun and that Himalayan HealthCare will continue to serve as a source of hope to the people of Dhading.

We thank you for your support.

Christina Madden
US Director, Himalayan HealthCare

Thank you to all of our generous donors who continue to support Himalayan Healthcare’s health, education and income generation projects in Nepal! We've just concluded our Spring 2015 Medical Trek through the villages of Dhading with 19 volunteers from the United States and Canada. Roughly half the volunteers had trekked with us before, with a handful joining us for the third time.

We are enormously grateful for the genorosity of these volunteers who took time away from their jobs and families back home to provide valuable training opportunities to our local health staff and to help them treat 758 patients during two medical camps in the villages of Lapa and Jharlang.

Patients came to the HHC camps with a wide range of ailments, including respiratory infections, serious burns, vision problems and more.

Among these patients include one who came to us complaining of abdominal pains. Although it was not possible to come to a conclusive diagnosis at the Jharlang camp, HHC volunteers and local staff took precautionary measures for the patient to be taken to Kathmandu where she ultimately received a life-saving appendectomy the next morning. We were pleased to hear that the patient has made a speedy recovery and had already arrived back in Dhading by the time of our departure to Kathmandu. Our sincere thanks go out to the volunteers and staff whose good judgement and quick thinking helped to save this patient's life.

Another young woman came to us with debilitating seizures occuring up to 9 times per day, interfering with her studies and other activities. HHC staff and volunteers spent two days with the patient, speaking with her and her family and evaluating the extent of her disorder and its impact on her day-to-day life. After these discussions, the patient accompanied HHC to Kathmandu where she is undergoing further evaluation. We are hopeful that we will be able to bring her seizures under control so that we can put her through school and help her to live a more full life.

After the two medical camps, our team of 19 volunteers and more than 100 staff made its way to Timla where we inaugurated a 40-bed dormitory for school students in the area. The students who will be living in the dorm come from the remote corners of northern Dhading and previously had to walk two hours everyday to and from school, sleep out in the rain and cold away from their families, and cook, live and study on their own. It is our hope that, with the completion of this dormitory project, these children will have a clean, happy place to study and live together.

Although our initial appeal for the Timla dormitory was for $15,000, with your help, we raised more than $50,000 for the project from 130 individuals. Your genorosity has allowed us to not only build the hostel but to also put in lights, water supply, beds, tables and chairs for the children. It has also allowed us to invest in additional education and income-generation projects.

These include:

• The Lasang Karpo Primary School, in the village of Tipling, which has 68 students. HHC will invest $2,500 for water supply (as they currently have no water), desks and benches for the students and wooden planks for the classroom floors to keep the children warm during the cold months. (Water supply: $1,000, furniture and wooden floor: $1,500)

• The Saat Kanya Pre-primary and Primary School in remote Lapchet, a corner of Lapa village, with 115 students. We will invest $7,500 to help build a classroom for the playgroup, furnish it, provide drinking water supply and build additional toilets for the students. (Building and furnishing play group classroom: $6,500, drinking water and two toilets: $1,000)

• A Model Farm and Nursery will be established with the purchase of roughly half an acre of land for $13,000. Farmers here will have access to seeds and seedlings, plants, fruit and other types of trees, fertilizer, technology and other farming materials. A small center for farmer training and workshops will eventually be created on this property by HHC. This project will help over 10,000 farmers for decades to come. (Half-acre of land: $13,000)

In addition to the health professionals on our Spring 2015 medical trek, we were accompanied by a Nepalese social architect and a Canadian engineer who surveyed and assessed a variety of sites and who are continuing to assist HHC in developing a Master Plan for the construction and renovation of additional schools in Dhading's villages.

We thank you again for your continued support in helping to improve the lives of the people of Nepal.

Links:

• Himalayan HealthCare's Earthquake Relief Fund