Hello everyone,
Wednesday, Thursday and Friday have been spent on logistics for our next village run to Raut Besi where we were last Tuesday. Plans are coming together to spend four days in this village region. Our departure date is still not determined, but will be in the next few days
HAND has put together a fantastic international group of volunteers. One volunteer Amber, has collected about 100 lbs of medical supplies to establish an interim birthing center in Raut Besi, which serves a VDC (Village Development Community) of 9 wards (villages) of 750 families. Tendi has purchased 4 tents which we will use to make the birthing center. Another volunteer, Sarah is bringing in a large number of donated tarps from Vietnam. Eric is putting together birthing kits here in Kathmandu. Curtis, Robin and Brian Smith are putting together the logistics and contacts needed, with multiple meetings each day, over the past three days.
Amber is being cleared by the Nepal government to give direct medical aid, as she is a labor and delivery charge nurse in the USA. She will ultimately be in charge.
We will be inserted into Raut Besi with another 8000 lbs of rice. Our first food drop will be exhausted by the time that we arrive again. After dropping us, the truck will leave and we will truly be on our own in a remote village 80 miles or so above Kathmandu in the mountains. We will go to work immediately constructing the birthing center and organizing the medical supplies in preparation for the 78 women that are pregnant. Should a woman go into labor during that time, Amber will deliver the baby on her own. It doesn’t happen quite like this in the US, but the alternative is for the woman to deliver the baby in the mud without any outside help, which often does not end well. HAND will potentially save 15 babies lives with this mission.
In addition, we will spend two days walking between villages (3 hours a part on narrow mountain trails) so that Amber can meet with the other pregnant women and assess them, and their needs. She will also offer training and counseling to these women, as well as to the local VDC charge (a very scared guy about 19 years old) with some training.
We were not able to get up to visit our longtime project Raj Kumar today because we could not find a taxi out to Anandaban Leprosy Hospital. We will try again tomorrow morning.
Posted for Brian Smith by Matt E. Please consider a tax free donation to HAND