Bring healthcare to thousands in rural Nepal

As Himalayan Healthcare continues its work of health care, education, and income generation for the indigenous people of the Nepalese Himalayas, the big news this quarter is that we have started construction on a much-needed dormitory for school students in the village of Lapa, high in the almost inaccessible Ganesh Himal.

A few months ago, we discovered that 40-50 young men and women were living rough in makeshift tents in the woods - just so they could go to school. They lived too far away to commute back and forth each day. And in this part of the world, communting means travelling by foot - there are no roads. The cooked over campfires, washed when they could at the village fountain, and tried to keep their schoolbooks and papers dry during the monsoon. Many were the first generation ever in their families to go to school - the first in their families who had learned to read. But this way of living was very discouraging, and many had gone back to their villages, or were sorely tempted to go back, and thereby forfeit their education - and their brighter future.

Himalayan Healthcare sent out an urgent letter to former donors and trekkers, and thanks to the generous response, we raised much more tha our target, and were able to begin construction on a 40-bed dormitory, divided for boys and girls, with toilet and kitchen facilities, and rooms for a male and a female proctor. Funds domated in this campaign were also sufficient to purchase the necessary bedding and other furniture and equipment.

Thaks to our generous donors, the new Lapa Hostel is scheduled to open in late Spring of 2015!

We also to continue to support education by providing stipends to 48 young men and women from the villages of Tipling, Lapa, and Shertung. The stipends pay for the scholong, and also for books, food, and uniforms.

To encourage agricultural diversification in the mountainous northern Dhading region, HHC organized an exposure tour for 15 people from northern Dhading to visit Ilam district to observe cash crop agriculture, fish farming, cheese making, and artifical insemination of cows. We also purchsed veterinary medicines and hired a veterinarian for northern Dhading who will both treat animals and train villagers in animal health and husbandry.

Continuing our work in community health and hygiene,and our efforts to help end open defecation and its associated diseases, HHC funded the construction of 75 new sanitary toilets in village households.

Continuing the effort to curb pulmonary disease caused by particulate inhalation, we built 115 new efficient smokeless wodstoves to replave the traditional and much-polluting indoor open-hearth cookstoves.

HHC's literacy and Women's Empowerment classes continue also, with six groups underway, attended by 105 women. The curriculum includes literacy and other life skills, like hygiene, sanitation, nutrition, family planning, maternity, as well as dialogue about self-image, eductaion, domestic violense, and advocacy.

To top it off, we have a student global health intern from Globe Med, Boulder, Colorado, who is doing a comprehensive population, health, lifestyle and demographic survey in the three villages of Tipling, Lapa, and Shertung.

It has been a very busy and productive three months, and could not have happended without the generous donations from our supporters. Thank you very much!