Carol and the tour group
Carol Vernal, Founder and CEO of CMAF, was in Nepal from Oct. 2011 to Jan. 2012, meeting with our partner organizations there to advance the Chisang Clinic project and get updates from the mobile surgical team for our Corrective Surgery Program. Carol also led a 10-day tour of Nepal that included physicians and nurses interested in our work. The tour provided medical presentations as well as visits to historic and cultural treasures and unique dining experiences, from high mountain peaks to jungle parks, enjoying the beauty of the country and its people.
Click on the following links to see images in our Facebook photo albums depicting CMAF’s ventures and experiences on this annual trip to Nepal. Further below are excerpts from Carol’s Travelogue and pictures of our Chisang Clinic partners and the clinic prior to its renovation, which is now underway.
Carol’s Travelogue – Dec. 21, 2011
Hello All…….
My work is done for now in Nepal, and I took a mini-vacation in Thailand. Today I found my way to the Myanmar Embassy and managed to get a visa by the end of the day. After indulging myself in Thailand – the land of $5 massages, and facials, pedicures, and beauty treatments – I’m ready to rough it in Myanmar Things are quite different in Myanmar, with limited access to the Internet and very basic tourist accommodations. Exploring new territory and learning about the culture is a big draw for me. I’m going to bicycle around the ruins of Began and then explore the waterways and towns along the way from Began south to Rangoon. I will be back on January 10, 2012 refreshed and happy to see everybody.
I heard a Christmas song today and it reminded me that Christmas is here. There is a Christmas tree here and there but very little else to foster to remind me of Christmas back home. In this Asian country with its tropical atmosphere it could be any time of the year. Happy Holidays to everybody!
Carol’s Travelogue – Dec. 19, 2011
While at a restaurant in Kathmandu, I met Marie, who is with a faith-based NGO serving children. She introduced me to Raja, a young man from India who has spent 12 years working with children in Nepal to make a difference in their lives. We all share the same heart connection to Nepal.
Raja and I met over coffee to explore possibilities of collaborating with each other. I learned that Raja was working with a village school of 600 children. I was able to provide him with 600 toothbrushes that had been donated to us. A perfect needs and supplies match-up!
I also learned later from Marie that at one of the village schools they were working with, TB was spreading quickly. The school had reported 20+ cases of TB, including one of the House Mothers. Marie asked for advice about how to handle the situation (which agencies to report to, etc.). As I am presently in Thailand, I forwarded her request to Dr. Rai. Meanwhile, I provided some basic precautions to prevent further spread of TB.
This is a typical example of how networking and resource sharing occurs in Nepal, and how we can work together for a common cause!
Carol’s Travelogue – Nov. 21, 2011
[Note: Carol and Debendra joined the Chisang Service Committee and residents of the village of Bhawanee to finalize plans and activities for the reopening of Chisang Clinic. A date has been set for the reopening: April 13, 2012!]
Members of the Chisang Service Committee
Bhawanee villagers meet with Chisang Servive Committee
A new door and wheelchair ramp will replace this window.
Carol’s Travelogue – Nov. 16, 2011
Mother and daughter in the village of Bhawanee. Most men in this village have left to find work abroad. Women are left to care for the fields, their home and children. Often times they live with health issues that go untreated due to cost and unavailability of health services. If a woman is unable to work in the fields and their families suffer. They depend on the food that they raise to support them financially and nutritionally.
Namaste!
The clinic is really moving along and everything seems to be in place for us to begin with basic services in April 2012. Of course we will grow fast from there with the ability to establish a 10-bed ward and a delivery room/treatment room within 1 or 2 years.
Our plan for the future is to establish a prenatal program for pregnant mothers with a midwife on our staff to assist birthing mothers. We will transport mothers in need of advanced assistance to the closest medical centers. General health care will be provided for all regardless of caste, religion, political affiliation or gender.
I hope that you can feel the excitement along with me as we move towards our goal of improving the lives of the Nepalese living with disease and illness without access to medical care!
Carol’s Travelogue – Nov. 15, 2011
Today I visited Koshi Zonal Hospital, a government hospital in Biratnagar, with Debendra Karki, a native of the area with a PhD in public health. We visited with two emergency room patients at random. The first was a women doubled over in pain with her husband and a friend at her bedside. She traveled with family over a very bumpy road from a village four hours away to reach Biratnagar, where she could get free medical care. A cyst on the liver and fluid in the abdomen had been detected four days prior to our visit, but due to the unavailability of a hospital bed she was kept in a crowded emergency room without treatment and enduring uncontrolled pain. When questioned about the pain medication, the husband commented that they had to do what the doctor said, which was not sufficiently handling her pain. He had no power to interact on his wife’s behalf. If I was to intercede on the patient’s behalf to request pain medication from the ER nurse, I would be labeled as a troublemaker and nothing would happen. There is no such thing as patients’ rights in Nepal. This patient’s condition most surely deteriorated before she got the proper attention from her doctor. This is a common story in over- crowed government hospitals.
A young mother with a 1-month-old child wrapped up in her arms was sitting on a window ledged of the crowded ER waiting to be seen. The pale, listless baby was suffering from pneumonia and probably would join the 7% of children who die each year before age 5 (most of them die within the first month of life).
We visited an 18-bed OB ward, with each bed filled with a new mother and two or more family members at her bedside. Our attention was drawn to a 22-year-old mother, named Sushita, curled up in a fetal position with a cover pulled over her head and her back to the 2-½ lb baby that qualified for placement in an incubator but that was not an option in this situation. We were told that Sushita went to her family home for refuge and comfort, but her mother would not take her in due to the shame caused by the daughter losing her husband. This is very different thinking for the western mind to understand, but that is what happens here. Sushita went to her aunt for help and shortly after her arrival in her aunt’s home, she started to go into labor. Prior to her delivery, Sushita displayed signs of distress and mental illness. She would identify different men as her husband. Now she has rejected the baby and is possibly experiencing post partum depression.
Why a village clinic is needed
All three of these patients would have benefitted from health education, prenatal care, and early screening, diagnosis and treatment from a village clinic near their home. Many times a person will suffer with symptoms of an illness until the symptoms become too difficult to live with. At that time they will seek free or subsidized medical care at a clinic or government hospital, usually many miles away. This often results in diseases progressing to the point where they are less treatable, and outcomes are more dire.
This is why Children’s Medical Aid Foundation is focused on raising funds and other resources for Chisang Clinic in Bhawanee., This clinic provides a model for a cost-effective means of increasing access to basic medical care for thousands of impoverished families in rural Nepal. Learn more…
