We have just completed 2 days of health camp in Argali
Village, where with our team of doctors we set up a mobile clinic in the local
primary school. Our team of around 20 included; general doctors, women’s health
doctors, dentists, an optometrist and pharmacists. Each discipline sets up a basic
clinic in one of the classrooms, and in the cramped space organised chaos
reigned for 2 days. There were lots of local volunteers to assist with
registering patients, and to ensure it all ran smoothly.
Argali, with a population of around 6000 has only one
medical professional at present – a Community Medical Assistant – meaning they
have had 18 months of training for the job.
Although Argali is only 2 hours drive from Tansen, where good medical
facilities exist, we definitely saw the need for better health care
locally. The good news is that the
government is building a facility that will eventually have one doctor and one
nurse working there. Over the two days
we saw a total of 1370 patients, our one optometrists did an amazing job to see
302 patients in one day!
Overnight we were lucky to be hosted by the locals in their
homes (there are no hotels there) and we were quite simply spoilt by their
hospitality. We were given the best room in the house to sleep in, despite our protests (we are still not sure if it was the master bedroom), and upon waking a cup of hot tea was waiting. We had a great time communicating with our limited Nepali and our hosts limited english, that definately made for many laughs! The village joined together
to formally welcome and farewell us and to cook us all our meals – a delicious dal
bhat of course.
Argali village, about 2 hours drive outside of Tansen along
the steep winding hillside road is a beautiful peaceful village, nestled
amongst the mountains. It showed us a
side of Nepal that we don’t see often, as most of the projects we have been
involved in to date have been in the Kavre District and Terai region of Nepal. It
was also a welcome relief from the sticky heat of the Terai – a sweltering, and
de-motivating 35 degrees at the moment. Argali
was the first of many locations for our mobile health camp, so we will keep you
posted on how we get on.
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| Queues waiting to see the optometrist |
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| General doctors consultations |
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