By Cesca Eaton | UK Operations Manager
COVID-19 NEWS: as COVID-19 lockdown measures begin to ease in many parts of the world, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Nepal continues to rise. As of 24th July, there have been 18,374 cases of coronavirus infections active in 76 districts, with 44 deaths, but Nepal is far behind the West and the number of cases, and ultimately deaths, is certain to rise.Very few hospitals or health-workers in Nepal have any form of PPE, so Doctors For Nepal is currently hosting a silent online auction to purchase this much needed equipment to help protect our doctors, nurses, and students. Funds raised will be used to purchase PPE and ensure its distribution to our teams across Nepal. It is extremely challenging for us to raise funds in these extraordinary times as we try to help these forgotten communities, so If we succeed in raising over £5,000, the additional funds will go towards the continuing tuition fees of our students. Please do go to our website for more information.
3rd year DFN medical student Dhanendra has already been making his own efforts to find PPE. He heard that health workers in his remote part of Nepal– Dailekh, Kalikot and Bajura – have no access at all to basic PPE. He really wanted to do something about this and was talking to his friend who is studying nursing in USA. Together they came up with a plan.
Dhanendra explains “I read news in national daily paper that health workers working in Bajura treating patients without PPE or even masks and that make me so sad. I shared the news with my friend in USA. We talked a lot on the phone and she told me that she can contribute if I can organise. Due to lockdown international flights are canceled and so it was impossible to send masks from USA. So what i did was I call to my friends who are living near city in Nepal. One of my friends sourced the masks in far west Dhangadhi. I called the shopkeeper and made a deal on the price – he was happy with 25 rupees per surgical mask. My friend on USA then put the money in the shopkeepers account and I arranged for a jeep to drive for 2 days to deliver the masks to my home town. We managed to deliver 1800 to 4 rural municipalities and 2 municipalities. It makes me very happy to do this.“
STUDENT NEWS: we are overjoyed to announce that 5th year medical students Apsara and Kamal have both passed their final year medical exams and are now our 5th and 6th Doctors For Nepal. HUGE CONGRATULATIONS to Dr Apsara and Dr Kamal - we are very, very proud of them. All their hard work over the past 5 years has paid off and they are both truly dedicated to serving the remote communities of Nepal. Both will now work as interns for a year at Patan Hospital in Kathmandu before hopefully finding jobs as doctors back in their remote regions.
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