Welcome to HealthCare Nepal (HCN), an all-volunteer organization now in its 27th year of helping improve health and education in Nepal, the poorest country in South Asia where 25% of the population lives below the poverty line.
Thank you to all who are responding to the recent appeal from Drs. Frederick Basilico and Judith Waligunda. Since 1998, your generosity and compassion have helped thousands in Nepal through medical camps, free vision and dental care, chemotherapy for children with cancer, autism services to children and families, earthquake and flood relief, construction of school classrooms, water and sanitation facilities, and much more. Your continued support is improving — saving — countless lives. Thank you!
Jack Starmer, Director
A Brief Review of Our Activities in 2024
Dental Camps
We held three dental camps this year in Solukhumbu, Sindhupalchowk, and Taplejung Districts. At the November camp in Taplejung , a team of 5 Nepali dentists and 5 support staff flew from Kathmandu to Bhadrapur on the India border and then drove 170 miles for 10 hours — an average speed slower than American school zone speeds — where we set up camp in a village health post. Over 4 days 550 patients received free care. In all, the number of procedures — fillings, extractions, cleaning, etc. — was well over a thousand.
Eye Camps
In partnership with the Ophthalmology Department, Nepal Medical College Teaching Hospital, Kathmandu, HealthCare Nepal is sponsoring monthly eye camps. Over the past year almost 900 patients have been screened for various eye conditions. When needed, patients have received free medicines and glasses. Those requiring cataract surgery have had it for free, with HCN covering the cost: $75-90 per eye. Comparable surgery in the United States can run between $3000-$5000.
Pediatric Cancer Care
In collaboration with our Nepali partner organization, Sagarmatha Health Foundation, and Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital in Kathmandu, HealthCare Nepal is committed to providing free chemotherapy for up to 15 children with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL). Treatment is for 2-3 years at a total cost to HCN of $5,000 per child. Two adolescents have already completed their treatment. The 5-year survival rate is 90%.
Deaf-blindness
This year HCN has begun to support the Society of Deafblind Parents, an organization dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for children with deaf-blindness through education and life-skills training, as well as providing support, including occupational training, to their parents. Two staff at their center in Kathmandu have been trained at the Helen Keller Institute for Deaf and Deafblind in Mumbai, India. HCN looks forward to deepening our ties with this organization and supporting its important work.
Autism
HealthCare Nepal has supported AutismCare Nepal Society for 14 years, helping it grow from a small group of committed parents with autistic children to a national resource providing education, parent training, vocational training, and advocacy to children and families across the nation.
Smokeless Wood Stoves
Wood cooking fires are quite common in kitchens in rural Nepal and a cause of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. Smokeless stoves were delivered to 20 families in the Sherpa village of Bochur, Solukhumbu District.
Next Generation Nepal
Our good friend, Rajman Tamang, has retired as Principal of Shree Ram Higher Secondary School, Kavre District. We supported Rajman’s school for 17 years in many ways, from classroom construction to teacher training and more. Rajman has now established a non-profit organization in Nepal to allow him to continue to serve the needs of local children and their families. Through NGN we recently provided curricular materials and school uniforms to 70 children in a very poor school near him. We look forward to continuing our friendship and collaboration with this remarkable man.
Your support has made all this, and more, possible. Thank you!
National Public Radio’s Car Talk and HCN. An example of “Automotive Cardiology in the Field” as practiced by Dr. Subarna Acharya, another of HCN’s close friends and collaborators. In 2001, we hosted him in the USA for advanced training in cardiology.