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NGOs keep Nepal going while its government fails to function effectively. The Nepal Pariwar Foundation Foundation supports clinics in remote areas where sometimes women have to walk from home for a day in order to receive services.
When I traveled to Nepal in October, 2009, I met with a number of impressive
NGOS (some already described in Women’s Giving Tree) and my best experience
was with a grass roots organization, a women’s health clinic, located in
the foothills 2-3 hours outside Kathmandu. The clinic is one of four village
clinics established by World Neighbors, an American NGO, but are now independent
nonprofit community clinics. Friends of Nepal Pariwar Foundation (pariwar
means family) provides partial support for salaries of nurse-midwives;
other expenses are covered by small fees for services and margin on medicines
sold. The clinics work on very little money and serve a very wide area.
We drove down a steep mountainside to a hamlet surrounded by rich green rice paddies. The clinic served even more distant villages by providing basic gynecological and obstetric services to women who often walked a day to the clinic to receive care. I met a woman, toothless when she smiled, who was being treated for uterine prolapse, a common problem resulting from either early childbirth or lack of rest after delivery. She was incredibly grateful to be given a vaginal ring, which cost little and made such a big difference!
The clinics do about two-thirds general care and one third women’s and maternal care. Two thirds of the clients are female from all ages. In the last year close to two thousand women were provided family planning services with 81 percent using Depo-Provera, a contraceptive injection given every 3 months, often at “depo camps” stations set up along the road. Family planning users increased by percent in one year. The clinics performed 259 clinic deliveries, a 28 percent increase from the previous year and included prenatal checkups. As Tom Arens, President of the Foundation, observed, “It’s common for a woman to arrive in the middle of the night for delivery, carried from a remote village in a basket or a chair usually used for a bride being carried to her wedding.” Tom takes travelers to Nepal on visits to the clinics – it’s an amazing experience
The four clinics manage on their own small earnings and a grant under $15,000 a year. I know that my small annual contribution goes a long way. Won’t you join me in helping the rural women of Nepal? For more information or to make a contribution, email tarens@sonic.net
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