By Dawn Anderson | Director, Board of Directors
Fall 2013 Himalayan Healthcare Update
Himalayan Healthcare continues to work with the people in rural Nepal to provide medical care, build toilets and stoves and provide educational opportunities. We have continued to provide medical services at our hospital in Ilam with a medical camp being held in a village near there in August and a gynecologic camp in September. We continue to work with our Rotary Club colleagues to safe build latrines and efficient stoves to increase people’s daily health.
A medical camp was held in August in the village Antu Danda in Ilam. Patients came from the surrounding area and waited in long lines while 375 patients were seen over two days. Patients had access to physician-level care as well as pharmacy and laboratory services.
Dr. Paula Dhanda arrived with a team of medical volunteers to provide medical and surgical education at our hospital in Ilam this September. They were involved in training surgeons and midwives from the Ilam area. 960 patients were seen and 36 gynecologic surgeries performed over the course of the week.
We continue to work with the Rotary Club of Kopundole in Kathmandu and receive funding through a generous Rotary Club in New York. We have a village latrine program and have built 50 toilets since January in the villages of Tipling, Sherthung and Lapa; 50 more toilets will be completed in 2013. We have also built 100 new efficient woodstoves in homes in these villages to reduce dangerous exposure to smoke and to decrease fuel needs, preventing deforestation.
It is with great sadness that we cancelled our fall medical trek – the first time in 20 years we have ever had to do this - due to the current political instability in Nepal. There is an impending Maoist (Vaidya group) shutdown (bandh) for 10 days. This shutdown is in opposition of the elections and will start on November 11th, the same day our trek was to begin. Because of this unstable political climate, we could not guarantee the safety of our medical volunteers or staff members. As an extra precaution, the Nepali government is mobilizing the army for protection of the election centers; this is not normal protocol for elections. The government has stated that they would not be able to provide us with security or predict the situation. A spring trek, however, is planned for April.
Your continued support of our organization in these difficult political times is crucial to our work and we are grateful for all the support we have received from our Global Giving supporters. We are hopeful that the political situation will stabilize and we will be able to return to the villages in the Dhading region soon.
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