Himalayan Healthcare for 5000: Save Lives in Nepal

For the reporting period from mid October to mid January, the following numbers have been reported from our health workers in Maila:

• Our health staff, Junila & Rita were working for 68 days in the sub health post and 4 days in the outreach clinic
• A total of 1246 patients were seen: 1027 sick patients, 20 came to the clinic for family planning and 199 for prenatal or postnatal check-up, delivery or newborn examination
• 139 children under 1 and 166 children between 1 and 5 years old were examined and treated
• 1 child was delivered in the outreach clinic and 13 in the sub health post

Some of the other activities conducted by PHASE Nepal health staff that took place in Maila:

• 4 village cleaning programmes were conducted
• 21 door to door health education programmes
• 2 FCHV – female community health volunteer – meetings
• 6 school health education programmes
• 9 community health education programmes
• 10 clinic health education programmes

4 Village cleaning programmes were conducted. Maila is divided in 9 wards and our staff are organizing cleaning programmes from time to time with the people of the different wards to clean up their own area. In every ward, there is a committee responsible for cleaning paths and public spaces from animal dung, dead plants and the (relatively little) plastic waste that accumulates on the paths. During the cleaning, awareness campaigns are conducted to inform the community about the importance of hygiene.

Door to door health education programmes: PHASE Nepal health staff regularly visit families in their homes to inform them about the ongoing health programme and services that are offered in the health post. Issues that are covered are depending on the needs of the community that can be seen in the visits of the patients to the health posts and in other families while doing door to door visits. The staff talk with families about topics like family planning, hygiene and nutrition and create awareness about certain common diseases.

FCHV meetings are conducted usually monthly to give the female community health volunteers an opportunity to report about their work and to discuss further programmes and interventions. FCHVs are local women with very basic training who give advice to pregnant women about the importance and timings of antenatal checkups and professional help with delivery, they help the professional staff in immunization and Vitamin A programmes and they have access to a limited amount of medicines. - they work closely with our health staff and refer patients to the health centre as needed.

School health education programmes are conducted in the local schools. The content of the programme depends on the age of the children. For primary level, it mainly covers personal hygiene like hand-washing and brushing teeth and the importance of safe water and proper sanitation. For classes of secondary level, issues like reproductive health and family planning are also covered and basic first aid training may be given.

Community health education programmes are conducted in regular intervals in different wards of Maila. These programmes are conducted in the open and are accessible for all members of the community. Subjects are chosen based on needs in community that can be identified by our staff in the course of their work. This can include awareness about pneumonia, communicable diseases, family planning and/or hygiene education as well as health problems caused by alcohol and smoking.

Clinic health education programmes are conducted in the health post when several patients are gathered together, to give more information in an efficient way about certain diseases, nutrition, hygiene, family planning ….

All these activities help to increase the long term impact of our health project in Maila, as the local people, especially women, who often cannot read and write, have little access to any reliable health information. For many, the meetings our health workers organise are the only opportunity they get to learn more about their bodies and to ask questions or get information about the causes and treatment of common health problems.

PHASE Nepal and the community of Maila thank you for your ongoing support!

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