Health Post Funding in Nepal

GlobeMed at Tufts’ partnership with PHASE Nepal has continued into the 2018-2019 year as we continue efforts to raise awareness about PHASE’s work in the health, livelihood, education and earthquake relief sectors and fundraise to help support some of these efforts. Over the past year, GlobeMed at Tufts has raised over $8,000 through to fund the efforts of PHASE Nepal, namely their health post Bajura, a remote district in Nepal in Mugu. There are about twenty total health posts supported by PHASE and each is estimated to cost around $30,000 to keep running over the course of the year. Our funds help support the supply of various different medicines and services offered by the Bajura health post. The health staff at these posts provide curative support and also conduct health-promoting activities and education programs at schools to better equip the local community with the proper tools to live healthier lifestyles. Some of these programs facilitate nutrition education, pregnancy training, and mother group events among other things.

During the GROW trip for the summer of 2018, a research project was undertaken by the GROW team to assess how food diversity and nutrition levels affect child growth in the village of Baruwa in the Sindhupalchowk district of Nepal. More specifically, the GROW team studied the prevalence and risk factors for stunting, underweight and wasting children among children under five years of age. A descriptive survey using a structured questionnaire was used to determine food and nutrition habits of families while the height, weight and MUAC (middle upper arm circumference) of children below five years of age was measured. In some cases, the sample size was too small to determine significance and there was a factor of error considering that the data collected was based on respondents’ memory recall. The data revealed a prevalence of stunting to be 36.5%, underweight to be 16.05%, and wasting to be 11.68%. By World Health Organization standards, Baruwa has a high prevalence of stunting, medium prevalence of underweight, and a serious wasting problem. Statistical analysis using Fisher’s Exact Test suggested that diet in Baruwa may lack vitamin a-rich vegetables and fruits as well as meat, eggs and dairy products to the point of affecting child growth. This data was presented to all of PHASE staff with recommendations to continue further data collection to increase sample size as well as increasing accessibility to more diverse food groups.

Additional research was conducted after the GROW team’s departure to add to the data set and analytical body. This work will be used to assess the need for nutrion educations programs to reduce adverse effects on children, especially during the critical years of development. In this way, we hope to continue to assist PHASE in any way necessary according to their model - conducting extensive research to assess need and implementing programs to address those needs.

In addition to the health posts that receive the funding our chapter provides, the GROW team learned about some other projects PHASE is currently working on. These projects include the construction of a new school in a more rural ward of Baruwa, implentation of farmer education programs to promote sustainable healthy living and artisan support to promote entrepreneurship among skilled community members.

Going forward, PHASE will continue to communicate their research findings and applications with us while we continue to learn more about their projects and focus our funding to maximize PHASE Nepal’s outcomes.

Thanks to the generous donations of our supporters, as well as our chapter members' work with on-campus campaigns, and our partnerships, we have officially met our goal of raising $8,000 this academic year to send to PHASE Nepal! This money will go towards staffing and supplying a health post in the town of Bichhaya in the Bajura district of Nepal. We are proud of having been able to meet this commitment, and are grateful to all those who supported us in doing so. Thanks to these funds,

• 2000 Patients will be provided with primary treatment at PHASE Supported clinics
• 25 Child births will be supported by skilled birth workers
• 100 pregnant women will be visited at least once in PHASE supported clinics
• 100 new born babies will get health checks by PHASE health staff
• 110 children under 5 yrs of age will be treated by PHASE staff
• 250 sessions of door-to-door visits will be organized to provide health education, ANC/PNC counseling and general health
• 230 people will benefit from family planning counselling services
• 20 Health and hygiene education sessions will be organized for school children
• 20 Health and hygiene educaiton sessions will be organized to raise awareness of diarrhoeal diseases in the community
• About 20 traditional healers of the community will receive PHASE training
• About 200 Community people will be aware on social taboos such as Chaupadi etc through street drama
• 15 School teachers and community leaders will be aware on child protection

Right now, three of our members, Luke, Anar, and Jackie, are on a GROW internship in Nepal with PHASE. GROW stands for Grassroots Onsite Work, and is a critical piece of the GlobeMed model. During their internship, they will be learning more about PHASE's work, and assisting with a research project that PHASE is in the process of conducting. They will also be discussing the details of our partnership for this coming year, and will determine which PHASE project our funding will be best used for next year.

Thank you again for all of your support. We hope that you will continue to support us and PHASE Nepal in the coming year.

We are happy to report that the recent bi-annual GlobeMed at Tufts trivia night raised over $200, all of which will go towards supporting the PHASE Health Post in Bichhya. Since July of 2017, we have raised almost $2, 700 and with your continued support we are on our way to reaching our fundraising goals for the 2017-2018 school year. With these funds, PHASE is able to continue to implement community health programs, as well as support an abundance of child and maternal health programs, such as immunization and school health education initiatives in Bichhya. For example, PHASE health staff teaches lessons on safety, first aid, personal hygiene, and adolescent health to schoolchildren between the ages of 13 and 16 as a part of its preventative health education curriculum. Last year, 474 adolescents received such education, and 861 community members received similar education through the door to door health education program. Going into the new year, PHASE has continued and strengthened such efforts. Thank you again for your continued support! 

GlobeMed at Tufts is partnered with PHASE (Practical Help Achieving Self-Empowerment), which is an NGO that works to reduce poverty on a sustainable basis in remote Himalayan regions of Nepal through integrated programs in healthcare, education, and livelihood. Established in 2006, PHASE has been working to address the needs of these remote communities through a practical and people-centered approach. GlobeMed at Tufts has specificially been funding a health outpost in Bichhya, Bajura, in Far-Western Nepal. Bichhya, the community within the Bajura District where PHASE runs a health outpost, is very remote due to its location of about a 4 days walk from Bajura district headquarters over mountainous terrain. Therefore, challenges like accessibility and basic service delivery such as healthcare are prominent within this district.

PHASE has been working to increase the accessibility of such health services, and has provided general health services to a total of 5, 216 people from June of 2016 to July of 2017. Common health problems faced by the beneficiaries of the PHASE health outpost include gastritis, gastroenteritis, respiratory issues such as pneumonia, malnutrition, and ENT problems. Child health has also been a focus of PHASE in the past year as children's immune systems put them at a higher risk of infectious diseases. PHASE has therefore emphasized CB-IMNCI, or Community-Based Management of Neonatal and Childhood Illness, a set of guidelines developed by the government of Nepal, and helped to provide immunization to 435 children and growth monitoring for 656 children from June of 2016 to July of 2017. 

In addition to basic health services, public health activities such as community health education programs, immunization programs, child protection programs, door to door health education programs, and health program management committee meetings have been emphasized in Bichhya. PHASE has also run several Traditional Healer Training programs to empower traditional healers such as Dhami and Jhakri with fuller understanding of the diseases that villagers often come to see them for and to ensure referal to community health centers when it may be necessary. 

We at GlobeMed at Tufts have been working hard in preparing for the upcoming school year and planning several fundraisers to continue supporting the health outpost in Bichhya. We truly appreciate your contributions, the generosity of our donors, and the effort and time each of our chapter members have dedicated to GlobeMed at Tufts.