Health

Health center in Meshipa, Thulopakar

The health post provides basic health care and regular and permanent assistance to 6,000 inhabitants of Thulopakar district – a mountainous area above 2,000 metres close to the Tibetan border - and to some inhabitants of bordering Sunkhani and Thumpakhar districts.

Beneficiaries
Directs	Number of patients estimated is 15/20 per day
Directs	Vaccination for 2,000 children in two years
Indirects	6.500 inhabitants

Sponsor

Raffaella Piva Fund

Many rural areas in Nepal lack health services and people, especially children, do not receive basic treatments. Many diseases could be prevented or cured with basic health care provision. Most of the times people in rural communities need to walk for kilometres to access the closest health post.

In Thulopakhar area only a small government health post provides medical services to a limited number of villages. The nearest option is another government health post located in a small urban area three hours' walk. As for relevant needs or necessary surgical operations people have to bear in Kathmandu.

Based on the needs identified by the population, Sagarmatha International Foundation built a health center to provide permanent basic medical services and regular assistance to 6.000 residents in Thulopakhar district and some inhabitants of Thumpakhar and Sunkhani bordering districts. The health post will be soon credited under the local government authorities.

Beneficiaries

The number of patients estimated is 15/20 per day, assuming 50% of the population uses the health service 1.5 times a year. It is expected to pay particular attention to children and preventive care.

The building

The construction was based on a participatory approach at every stage and used knowledge and abilities of local building traditional techniques still alive in the area and local materials. The health center consists of 4 rooms: the acceptance area, a waiting room, a consulting room, clinic.

The strong community participation and local skills set up a local working team active in every phase of construction. It was as well a working opportunity for the villagers as alternative to the usual seasonal migration.

The villagers also contributed part of the work on voluntary basis.

Operational activities

Annual management costs include the hiring of a nurse. For the first year, and probably also for the second, it will be a figure outside the community as this kind of professionalism is not available in the area. Starting from the second year Sagarmatha International would like to train (or to sponsor) one or more people in the community to study and become nurses.

Sustainability

The health post has been sponsored by "Raffaella Piva Fund", which contributed with its own funds and received a grant from the Italian Province of Trento.

Sagarmatha International Foundation is running the health post with support of Raffaella Piva Fund and is looking for further support to provide better services to the people.

Further objective of the project is to send volunteers (medical students) to the health post. In Nepal there are many internship programs to be attended by students from all over the world. Sagarmatha, once credited the health center under the local government authorities, will send the volunteers to serve the community.