After everyone had boarded buses for the windy road through the mountains towards Kathmandu and Pokhara, there finally came a chance to reflect. This year’s health camp has been an incredible experience for all. For one, we had some amazing numbers…
Total numbers 2016:
1,630 patients
2,793 consultations
Total Numbers Past 4 years:
7,271 patients
10,369 consultations
But most importantly, behind each one of those numbers, is the meaningful difference the team made in the life of the people who came to visit the camp this and every year. There continues to be a great need for accessible, free, and quality health care in the villages we visit. Year after year, cataracts are identified and removed, patients referred for surgery or further testing in Pokhara, reading, prescription, and sunglasses are distributed, women receive reproductive counseling and care, teeth are cleaned, restored, and removed, pain is addressed and treated, ears are cleaned, chests cleared, and many other actions taken to better the lives of the people we see.
In addition, we got to see some of our other projects up and running in the community. From Bob and Sally Blair’s Library and Computer Lab in Ale Gaun, the improved community health post refurbished and restored with donations from Jim Park, to the birthing center opened with donations from the One World One Heart Foundation we have seen the difference that can be made when people choose to help make a difference. With some help, members of the community are taking their community’s health into their own hands and providing year round care.
As this year’s camp comes to a close, we look to the future of community health in the villages we serve and the scope of the care we can provide. Every year we come up against difficult cases that require extensive care, surgery, or examinations. We do our best to give each and every patient the treatment they deserve. You can help us through donations. Anything counts. We as a team thank you for your interest in our work and hope you will stay involved!
Check out our donor organization One World One Heart foundation and donate to the Nepal Health Camp initiative.
or
You can also donate to Himalayan Quests Foundation and help fund the other projects they host in the Himalayas.
Want to volunteer your health expertise or volunteer to work in the camps? Working in the camps is a hard but rewarding experience. All team members live with host families in Ale Gaun and Sirkot villages and work during the day. Conditions include squat toilets, simple meals of rice, lentils, and vegetables with meat at times, days spent outside, long vehicle rides on windy roads, mild to strenuous hiking, the chance to be part of an amazing team, and beautiful views of the Himalayas.
For more information on donating or volunteering from the US contact delendres@gmail.com
For more information on donating or volunteering from Nepal contact info@hqfoundation.org.np
