News for December 2009

The Everest Women’s Group: Call for skilled volunteers

Everest Women’s Resource Centre, Kathmandu

In Nepal, especially in remote rural areas, child labour (especially of girls), domestic abuse, and sexual exploitation is prevalent. Additionally, girls are traditionally kept illiterate, increasing their financial dependency and keeping them unaware of their basic human rights. A number of laws also discriminate against women’s rights regarding inheritance, divorce and the persecution of abusers. Volunteer Society Nepal has been helping with various projects to address the problems of women in Nepal through education, skill training, financial and legal empowerment

Strengthening women’s entrepreneurship and access to markets is one effective method of providing economic empowerment and building gender equality. Social mobilization through the formation of a women’s group is an acclaimed way of achieving this recognised UNIFEM and the International Centre for Research on Women.

June 2008; The founding of our women’s group…

We invited interested women to a meeting and focus group. The poor and low-educated women outlined their desire to learn or improve their Nepali literacy, English language speaking, hygeine and family health knowledge, business and accounting skills, legal literacy, and income-generating skill options. Subsequently, the Everest Tailoring and Training Centre was established in June 2008. The open-front shop in Pepsicola Town, Kathmandu is where 6 women, recently trained as tailors, offer their services to customers in the local community. Other women have been given skills, seed materials and marketing help to produce and sell wax candles, a growing cottage industry in Nepal.

Plans for the Women’s Group in 2010

We would like to sustainably expand Everest Foundation’s services. We want to offer women a course with a complete set of skills and knowledge training to allow people to set up their own income-generating projects. This will spark attitudinal change in both the women’s families and in their communities. The following activities are arranged to begin in early January 2010:

• Nepali language classes for all members for as long as requested
• Counselling services for victims of domestic violence, trafficking, or violent conflict
• Lectures about women’s rights, legal comprehension, and progress of women’s groups in Nepal by the Women’s Rehabilitation Centre, an independent NGO in Nepal
• An 8-day entrepreneurship training workshop for all members given by the Microenterprise Development Program, a UNDP funded program
• A market analysis to investigate job demand for low-educated women in Kathmandu

Future volunteer contributions:

We want to maximise volunteers’ skills to improve the women’s groups. Outlined below are a series of things we would like to complete through volunteer contributions. This will allow a continuation of the group’s business development plans and ensure the success of future common enterprises for our members.

What we need from volunteers:

1. A market analysis for potential projects: Conduct a market analysis of skills, products or services that can be set up by the Everest Foundation Women’s Resource Centre. Take steps towards making these income-generating activities.
2. Do a value chain analysis for potential projects: Perform a value chain analysis for a viable industry, product or service and determine how the members can fill roles in the chain from basic production to marketing and vending
3. Business Training: Educate the women in financing, accounting, or business development for the enterprise in question
4. Health Education: Hold an educational program on home hygiene and family health.
5. Women’s support education: Present information to the members about relevant women’s issues in Nepal or globally.
6. English teaching: Create and deliver a comprehensive spoken English lesson plans
7. Overseas marketing support: Provide marketing services in your home country for clothing, candles, or other products that can be produced by this group
8. Grant Writing: Search for and apply to grant making foundations that will support the planned activities at the Women’s Resource Centre

If you would like to get involved in supporting the women’s groups then please contact us to discuss options for involvement.

Edited: December 21st, 2009

$5k needed for landless community Health Clinic

We are looking to raise $5000 dollars to improve the Manohara Landless Community health clinic. If you are able to help by volunteering or fundraising, please get in touch as soon as possible

Background to health care in Nepal:

Nepal is located between China and India. Its mountains, lack of infrastructure, and land-locked status pose extreme barriers to development. Its per capita income is just USD $218 and the vast majority of people are subsistence farmers. Nepal’s maternal mortality ratio (MMR) of 539/100,000 births ranks among the highest in the world. (In comparison, Sri Lanka’s MMR is 94, while the United States’ is just 8). Life expectancy is 55 years. Diseases of pregnant women, children, infections, and malnutrition account for two thirds of Nepal’s illnesses.

There is a gaping disparity in the quality of health care access offered in urban and rural areas. While Kathmandu, the capital city of Nepal, has 98 doctors for every 100,000 people, rural Nepal averages just 2.5 per 100,000 – and in many of its 75 districts, there is no doctor. Many approved government posts of all levels of health care workers are unfilled. For example, For example, for the whole of Nepal, 13% of all baby deliveries are conducted by trained personnel; and for the poorest fifth of the population (mainly rural) the number is just 3%.

VSN has been focusing its health programs to meet a small number of that need in urban and rural areas of Nepal. With this program hundreds of local people have been already benefited. While Nepali underprivileged people are receiving health services from health experts, overseas medical professionals, medical students, and other volunteers also receive the opportunity to work side-by-side with other foreigners and Nepali health professionals in a Third World setting. Overseas volunteers will work alongside their Nepali counterparts to organize overall health camps, examine patients, distribute medicine and consult with communities about sanitation and health care.

VSN Health Clinic at the landless community

On the banks of the Manohara River near a place called Jadibuti, there is a community of internally displaced Nepalese citizens. The Manohara Landless Community (MLC) consists of over 5,000 people (3,800 under the age of 18). These people come from a variety of circumstances. Some were driven from their homes due to Maoist rebels and associated violence. Others came because floods and landslides destroyed their villages, and more still are sharecroppers who have never owned their own property.

Despite the fact that they are squatting on public land, these people have built “camps” on this river bank and in the past 3 years have established their own community. It is unlikely that they will be removed. The conditions here are the likes of which most people in the world cannot even imagine. The homes are makeshift sheds, some held together by little more than discarded rice bags. Because it is on the bank of a river, they have no clean water or waste management system. Raw sewage runs down the middle of the “streets”. Sadly, every day hundreds of children play in these filthy conditions, and the residents use the same river water for urinating, defecating, bathing, and sometimes, drinking.

Despite their hardships, the residents of this community have established their own government. VSN contacted its leaders, or ‘elders,’ about the needs of the community. Although VSN does not have a regular donor-base for its projects and has always depended on volunteers’ fees, VSN decided to establish a small health clinic for the community, including health awareness and income generation activities. Now this community has a health clinic with an experienced health worker, as well as one other staff member who provides treatment and medicines for a minimal fee. Until overall sanitation improves, however, the sad truth is that all of this hard work will be futile in the event of a major epidemic. The objectives of establishing health clinic are as follows:

• To provide quality health care facilities for internally displaced people with either no cost or low cost
• To provide quality health care facilities to local disadvantaged women and children.
• To provide health care facilities at local level so that patients do not have to go far and expensive hospitals
• As this health clinic is located near to the orphanages run by VSN, we aim to provide free health services for the locally run orphanages
• Making a center for overseas medical doctors, nurses, paramedics and medical students where they can serve underprivileged women and children and learn about Nepali medications system.
• Organize health awareness program on a regular basis

What we need to develop the clinic:

Currently this health clinic has one junior doctor with a small pharmacy, who provides general health checks for local people. This clinic provides healthcare facilities to around 300 patients a month. As this clinic does not have sufficient medical equipments and human resources, these landless and local patients either get no treatment or they have to go to private hospitals, which is extremely expensive. VSN has a plan to expand its services to local people with more equipment and qualified medical personnel. If we have more equipment and human resources, we will be able to provide healthcare facilities up to 750 patients a month. We have three rooms. Two rooms have been used for patient examining and one has been used for pharmacy. To provide quality healthcare facilities we would be needing following equipments and human resources.

1. An X ray machine and Laboratory

For ordinary diagnosis patients have to pay lots of money or they have to go far away. If our clinic owns an X- ray machine and laboratory, people from this area will benefit hugely from this clinic. It costs approximately $3,300

2. Medicines

As we do not have sufficient medicines, we have not been able to provide health care facilities.

Helpful medical supplies that may be provided to our health clinic

• Gloves
• Cotton balls
• Bandaids
• Penlights
• Metronidazole syrup
• Amoxil 500 mg. caplets
• Acetaminophen
• Pregnancy tests
• Amoxicillin suspension
• Ciprofloxacin 400mg
• Alcohol swales
• Cold/ Cough syrup
• Oral rehydration solution
• Ranitidine 15 mg tablets
• Omeprazole capsules
• Permethain cream/ scabies lotion
• Rit
• Nurofen
• Neosporin/ Bacitracin
• Clatrimanzole/ Antifungal cream
• Tongue depressors
• Antibiotic Eye and Ear Drops
• Nasal saline
• Saline eye drops
• Batteries (C, D, A ,A)
• Alcohol foam/Gel

Optional

• Fatal Doppler
• Glucometer
• E.N.T. set
• Otoscope /ophthalmoscope
• Blade handles
• SM. needles

3. Doctor and nurses

As we have a junior doctor working for our clinic, he is looking after overall management of the clinic. But, once, we have more medical equipments; we will need more physicians, specialist doctors for part time in a regular base. Moreover, if we have more overseas volunteer specialists, physician doctors, nurses, paramedics, medical and premedical students, they will give great helping hands to serve local communities. They can be involved in three different activities.

If you are interested in helping raise funds for the health clinic, please contact VSN immediately and we will give you extra information, fundraising support and anything else you would require. Or, if you are looking to volunteer in a medical placement in Nepal, get in touch and we will discuss options for supporting the clinic

Edited: December 9th, 2009