Welcome our Construction Committee!

The construction of a new, bigger clinic may have been slow, but it definitely is underway.

A construction committee, consisting of local villagers, has been formed. They will be the ones who will make the arrangement in all aspects of the task, from collection and purchase of wood and stones (which are located far from the village) to performing and overseeing the entire construction. This is our strategy to involve the local community in development and giving them an opportunity of income generation. We do not believe in simply providing handouts. We do not want the people to develop a mindset that everything will be provided for free. We want to empower them to take charge of their life and take responsibility in the development of their own community. Currently, the committee is still in the phase of material collection of wood and stones. The actual building work will commence once sufficient materials are gathered.

While we eagerly wait for the new clinic, which will have facilities for both Tibetan and Western medicine, to be completed, the smaller existing clinic for the estern medicine section, managed by our two capable nurses, will temporarily serve its function.

 

Topmost: The two nurses (in white and blue) for Sama Gaun.

Top: Medical record of the patients.

Clinic Construction to Commence in May 2011

There had been some encouraging progress on the healthcare project in Sama Gaun. During the opening ceremony of the Sama Boarding School, a Hawaiian doctor came with the group specially for the purpose of giving medical consultation and treatment to the ill villagers.

A doctor who specialised in telemedicine will also visit Sama Gaun at the end of 2011 for reconnaissance, to check the specifications for a suitable Internet infrastructure for the village for the purpose of telemedicine.

It was also heartening that through this journey, the foreigners who visited Sama Gaun with the Rinpoches experienced first-hand just how hard life was in Sama Gaun. Thus, under the name of Mingyur Rinpoche's organisation Tergar International, the group had made a donation of USD$5000 to the next project that was already on the cards -- the construction of a clinic in Sama Gaun. And this was further supported by S.E.E.D.S, which donated USD$10,000. S.E.E.D.S had been a long-time supporter of the development projects in Sama Gaun.

With a part of the funds secured, the clinic construction will commence in May 2011 by Zeal Infrastructure Services Pte Ltd. The total cost of construction is estimated to cost 1998,568.66 Nepali Rupees (approximately USD$27,642.72 or S$35,183.65) And if the remaining funds can come in soonafter, the clinic was targetted to complete in November 2011, before the harsh winter sets in.

Finally...Nurses for Sama Gaun

It was an excellent news for Sama Gaun that finally, there are 2 very experienced nurses who will be stationed in the village for long term. They will be great assets in providing the much needed assistance to the villagers when they are sick by giving them health checks, dispensing the right medications and providing outpatient and inpatient care. Since July 2010, the nurses have already started to see and treat the patients.

This is only made possible with Samagaun Development Foundation's collaboration with another Nepali-based non-profit organisation named PHASE Nepal. Set up in 2006, PHASE (which stands for Practical Help Achieving Self- Empowerment) Nepal works to to improve the livelihoods of rural people by providing immediate support and empowering them. The organisation have projects in 3 districts, in which VDCs (Village Development Committee) in Gorkha (in which Sama Gaun is within this district) are one of them.

So for the time being, PHASE Nepal will help the villagers of Sama Gaun by providing and supporting 2 nurses (staff) and medications. This will continue for a few years until the village comes to a state of self-sustainability.

Currently, another non-profit organisation called the S.E.E.D.S had sponsored some village children to study nursing in Kathmandu. These children will be fully supported in their entire course of studies until they undergo a specialty training programme in nursing, which is a 3-years course. Once these children graduate from their advanced education, they will return to the village and employ what they have learned to benefit their village people.

Until this wonderful day happens when Sama Gaun can finally rely on its own people as fully qualified nurses, the nurses from PHASE Nepal will have an important role to play.

Top: Conducting basic healthcare training for the village women community

First and Foremost : Clinic Construction

The first and crucial task the organization will undertake is to construct a clinic for the villagers of Sama Gaun. Currently, there is no clinic in the village to take care of the villagers’ healthcare needs. Those who are ill will have to walk for days before they can get to the nearest clinic to seek treatment.

Because of the harsh Himalayan climate, malnutrition, a lack of sanitation and basic healthcare facilities in Sama Gaun, the infant mortality rate is high and it is common for the people, especially the children, to develop fever, diarrhoea, infections, tubeworms in the stomach and other diseases. As a result, simple and easily treatable diseases often develop into more serious conditions. For villagers who have more severe and complicated illnesses, they will have to go to the hospital in Kathmandu, which is about 6 days trek from the village or 2 hours by helicopter, which exorbitant cost the villagers can ill afford.

With the assistance of an experienced architect who had assisted in the designing of the proposed clinic layout, the initial quote for the total cost for construction materials, material transportation, electrical and sanitation works, site development works and workmanship costs had worked out to be an estimate of 3,303,000.00 Nepali Rupees (approximately USD$45,684.65 or S$5,8147.00). However, we are currently in the midst of looking for other quotes so as to secure the best for the new clinic.

Please kindly email to us should you have any enquiries and we would greatly appreciate if you can kindly give us your support. For online donation, please visit http://www.ammado.com/donate?114040.

Kickstart the Clean-The-Village Campaign

2010 will be a busy but definitely fruitful year for the Sama village and the villagers.

It has always been a priority to improve the villagers' state of health. However, it is insufficient to merely build a clinic and set up the basic healthcare infrastructure in the village. The villagers themselves have to learn certain things and adopt some good hygiene practices so as to reduce the incidence of common preventable sicknesses, which are direct results of poor hygiene practices.

As part of the healthcare objectives for 2010, a 'clean-the-village' campaign shall be implemented. Every household shall receive a bin or basket which they can discard their trash into. Currently, this is not practised by families as they dispose their rubbish everywhere (and nobody cleans up these garbage) or leave them lying around in their houses for months! So the objective of this initiative is to teach them in a practical way, that garbage should only go into designated bins.

The plan is as such: During their weekly holidays (either Friday or Saturday), the school children will be assigned into groups and perform this volunteer service of collecting the trash from each households. They will then bring the garbage to a common dumping area where the biodegrable trash will be burnt. Those non-biodegradable ones such as plastic bottles etc, will either be kept for future recycling or used to make toys and handicrafts. Other recyclable items such as glasses and metals, will also be kept aside for future recycling.

In 2011, the plan will be to bring those non-biodegradable and recyclable items to Kathmandu to sell to recycling companies. However, there is much logistical issues which will have to be ironed out, such as the cost of transportation, which company to sell these items to and so on. Hence, this will have to be looked into before implementation.

 

Top: 2 children peering out from the roof of their houses.

Bottom: A glimpse of the houses the villagers stay in.

Updates from Kathmandu trip (30 Jan - 6 Feb 2010)

A group of us from Singapore had gone to Kathmandu from 30 Jan to 6 Feb 2010 to follow up on the progress of the project and discuss what needs to be done. There had been some promising progress which we would like to share with you.

(1) Some funds had been raised in Singapore since May last year. These funds will be used for 'SAMA - School' project to complete the building of 2 uncompleted classrooms, roof and windows for the new Sama Boarding School. The completion of Sama Boarding School will ensure that the approximately 100 village children will have a new and more conducive place for study.

(2) We had also met with an experienced lawyer Mr Surish, who will assist us in the registration for a formal foundation/ organisation status. After submission of the necessary application documents, it will take approximately 15 working days for the approval process. Once approved, this will surely boost further our development work in the Sama village and we really look forward to that.

(3) With the new Sama Boarding School almost in completion, we are looking to focus on 'SAMA - healthcare' project -- on the immediate healthcare needs of the people. First, we are looking to set up an internet infrastructure in the village to facilitate medical consultation via the web by volunteer doctors in Kathmandu. A generous Singaporean donor had already kindly sponsored a huge bulk of this internet set-up cost.

(4) The construction of a simple clinic is also underway -- we had discussed with an experienced architect, who had done a similar clinic project for a remote village in Lukla, in a Khumbu region of eastern Nepal, where most trekkers ascending Mt. Everest will start. He will be helping us in the functional and structural design of the clinic.

(5) Previously, there had been no formal development projects for the village. Foreign assistance is limited to trekkers donating their medications which they brought along for their journeys. It was only until last year that some foreign doctors offered some medical assistance. Very soon, on 22 Feb 2010, a group of 11 Japanese students will be going to the Sama Village to bring solar panels to be installed onto the Sama school.

Please visit our blogsite for more updates.

Solving the Current Healthcare Woes: Effective Clinic and Internet Technology

Current Situation:

There is only a temporary clinic located in the house of a village family that serves the entire community. The nearest hospital is in Gorhka, which is some 5 to 7 days trek away. The Nepali government provides their assistance by giving medications to the village.

However, it was an uphill task to find a good doctor who is willing to station in the long-term in such a desolated village faraway from home when there are plenty of better-paying opportunities in Kathmandu. Occasionally, some foreign medically-trained volunteers will go to the Sama village and offer their expertise by providing consultation and prescribing appropriate medicine to the villagers who are sick.

There had been 2 medical missions to Sama village in 2009:
1. From April - May 2009: Led by 1 Malaysian and 2 Danish doctors.
2. In December 2009: Led by 1 American doctor.

Immediate Plans:

1. To make use of internet technology in consultation.
In December 2009, the American doctor who had visited Sama Village proposed the use of internet and web-camera technology to facilitate foreign volunteer doctors based in Kathmandu, to give consultation to the villagers who need medical attention. Since then, discussions with the doctors had resulted in positive outcomes, as they are very interested to provide assistance. Hence, the setup of an internet infrastructure to support this innovative process with the kind assistance from the right medical experts, will definitely benefit the village, just as many rural villages in other parts of Nepal did. This will serve to complement the traditional face-to-face consultations. What's better, with the basic internet infrastructure set up and in place, there are further potential to use this technology to enhance education and as a source of livelihood (e.g. Internet cafe for foreign trekkers, which will be managed by villagers)
2. To build a clinic equipped with the necessary medicine and medical equipment.

3. To retain good and trained medical staff.

4. To support foreign medical/nursing volunteers in providing healthcare training to the local people.

Topmost: A Malaysian and a Danish volunteer doctor giving medical consultation to the villagers.
2nd from top: A sick child was fed with medicine by Lama Ula Jigme.
Middle: The volunteer doctors attending to a local monk.
Bottom: An old woman suffers from goitre, a condition caused by a lack of iodine in the diet, which results in the swelling of the thyroid gland.