Overview
Medical elective in Nepal
Supporting a rural medical clinic in the mountains
We would like to ask that medical students coming to Nepal to do an elective in the Tribhuvan hospital in Kathmandu consider helping Moving Mountains with the running of a rural clinic we have built in the mountains, near the start of the Everest trail.
We have built the clinic but now we have committed to the running costs which includes the salaries of two community health workers and nurses, maintenance of the building and a contribution to drugs and equipment. Some money does come from the payments made by local users of the facility, but rural health posts in Nepal are notoriously difficult to become financially sustainable.
Every year the charity spends around £10,000 on the cost of running this clinic and every year we run a free medical camp there which goes a long way to supporting the place for a year. But with the number of medical students coming to Kathmandu every year with Adventure Alternative, this is a big opportunity for us to keep the clinic open and even develop it over time.
There is also a chance to stay on in Nepal and visit the clinic and donate some time to working there. It's a 3 day drive and trek to get there through the foothills, and you would be hosted in the village which does cost some money, but while there you could help the nurses with everything from diagnosis and treatment to public health work in the schools, to administration of the clinic and record keeping. The more the nurses have exposure to new ideas and improvements, the better for them.
Going to the village is quite an adventure, it's very rural and quite basic, a step back in time really. The locals will be very supportive and grateful and sociable, and you will have a chance to really interact with the Sherpas and go to parties and festivals, the local Buddhist gompa and so on. For everyone who visits, it's quite a big experience.
It would be wonderful if visitors could raise an extra £1000 towards the clinic, which would really enable us to plan ahead. A lot of our time as a charity is spent on the here and now because finding funds is so hard. With some support from medical students and and other volunteers we could have a chance to think of long term plans for a valuable community facility like this.
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