Health Care in Tibet /Yushu

Dear Friends,

[The back story]

We depend on your support, the support of individual donors big and small. This project, in its 30th year, proves that it is possible to realize a dream --of healthcare and empowering women-- with an inspired but uncomplicated narrative.

When I first arrived in 1987, there was no clinic and there were only ruins of this 500 year-old monastery.

in 1992, when we signed the partnership agreement with the Chinese Government, Qinghai Province to build the clinic, we soon received the $150,000 for the clinic construction. This was to be the only substantial donation we received.

The building took 3 years to complete. Since I come from a background of teaching and also wholesale and retail sales you might wonder how we could succeed. I was asked that very question many times by NGO and PH professionals.

[Enter Kevin Costner]

In perfect 202-20 hindsight, knowing nothing about public health -- outputs and indicators, Gannt Charts and logframes-- I remember being asked by an official at WHO, “how do you know you will succeed if you build a clinic?” I answered her, “Did you see the movie “Field of Dreams” when Kevin Costner’s character asks the same question and the ghost answers him, “build the field and they will come”?

Kevin Costner: "build it and they will come."

But where my creds were non-existent, my instincts were good. And our connection to the community was even better. The clinic we built was the only new construction at Surmang since the disastrous years of 1959-1966. When I first got there, most of the monastery buildings were flattened, in ruins. Our work was the first exposure of this remote place to the outside world and the first vote of confidence in its future.

Now 32 years later, the monastery is in a robust growth cycle. The clinic has gone from “the free clinic,” to one of the more successful experiments in remote primary care. Don’t forget, a big medical school or school of public health doesn’t have our back.

[Empowering women and girls]

Not only that, but the focus of our work on women and girls has begun to bear fruit in our asymmetric war against the low status of women and girls. We also discovered that a very inexpensive model of providing health care, inexpensive despite the fact that all the services and meds are free. With no co-pays or insurance, our model at Surmang is truly “single payer,” and explains why our costs, according to a study by Peking University is $7/patient visit, vs $35 in the public sector.

[This year]

Last year through your kind support we added a water system.

This year, we will add upstairs

--an oak floor to the second floor --replace the kitchen floor

--replace the kitchen cabinets --remove the wall between the dining area and the small bedroom, opening up the space

--re-finish the small br in the NE corner, adding a new window. downstairs

--build bathroom and shower --create storage space for meds in the current tromb entrance whole building

--replace all broken all broken double-pane windows --install Hunter-Douglas style thermal window treatments.

Please support us this year. $500 or $5, it matters not.

Lee

Links:

• Find us on the web
• Surmang Facebook page

They make 50¢ a day.They live in one of the most exotic, beautiful remote places in the world: East Tibet, SE Qinghai Province, China. 

They have no transportation, public or private and the nearest hospital is over a broken road, a 6000 m pass, and when women bleed to death it’s in the fields in unassisted births. If you are a child, 1 in 5 die from dehydration caused by diarrhea. Women and girls have low status.

On the other hand, in this beautiful place, it’s not hard to make a difference, giving free care to whoever walks in the door, tracking pregnant women with one of 40 Community Health Workers, giving gynecological exams on the the only ultrasound within 75 miles. 

We give asking nothing in return, a service, a free service. Years ago it seemed like the only option not it’s clear we plugged into their primary religious value: generosity, or jinpa in Tibetan. There was no other way; we could not distringuish the nomad who had 30 horses from the one who had 3, based on how they dressed. 

The accident of not knowing how to collect for services and meds led us to not only give them away, but also to tap into their primary cultural value. The result has been 130,000 patient visits in the last 10 years.

Our doctors are both MDs in the Chinese allopathic system. We have had high level doctors train them every year: Chinese, Canadian, Norwegian, American, Dutch, German. For nearly every one, the experience was a watershed moment in their life. 

Now approaching our 31st year, we look forward to further government partnerships, distance consultation, and futrther improvements to our clinic. 2018 was the year we installed running water. 2019 is the year we hope to partner with the government to fill the gap in epidemiology, and remote consultation. Our work is a brilliant model of cooperation and service. Please join us.

Links:

• Find us on the internet.