Goat Donation for Prakash

This is the story of Prakash who, as Robert Rose says in his story below was badly burned when he was young due to falling into the cooking fire while suffering an epileptic seizure. We meet up with Prakash while in Pokhara for the eye camp and were able to present him with 3 goats to help him with his dream of rearing goats in his village. The goats were donated by John Price from Australia, the Goodwill Community Foundation, USA and our friends Pam and Pete Schon from New Zealand. We also provided him with $30 to go towards building a shed to house his goats.  We hope that the one male and two female  goats will provide the start to a positive and profitable future for Prakash.



Prakash receiving his new goats

Story of Prakash Gurung

This article is about a young man named Prakash who is now 22 years old.  He lives with his grandmother in a village about two hours bus ride outside of Pokhara (about a 6 hour drive from Kathmandu).  Prakash suffers from epilepsy and when he was only 14 years old he had an epileptic fit and fell into the fire suffering severe burns.  The local doctors helped heal the wounds but didn't have any plastic surgery knowledge so he lived on in the village, disfigured, teased and ostracized. 

Last summer Rotarian Ashok Shrestha from the Rotary Club of Dhulikhel (Nepal) met Prakash while visiting that village area and he vowed to find support so that Prakash could have the needed treatment to control his epilepsy as well as repair his facial deformities.  Ashok contacted myself and two other Rotary Nepal trip-alums- Judy Ginn from RC Seattle International District and Susan Sola from RC University District.  Their clubs agreed to provide the needed financing to make this happen (only about $1,350) Rs.114,000. The first surgery was done on February 28th 2012 and there were several weeks of in-hospital recovery required.  Prakash also began taking a medication to control the epilepsy. 

Rtn. Ashok brought Prakash to my host-family's home in Kathmandu to meet me.  The plastic surgeons have done a remarkable job in creating a lip (as well as other corrections) which, as you can imagine is a critical part of being able to eat and drink properly.  Prakash was a very happy and engaging person.  He is excited to return to his home and plans to raise goats to help provide the money he'll need to live and pay for his medication.  He'll need future surgeries so that the doctors can help re-form some of his other facial features but this was a fantastic start.  Since he started taking the epilepsy medication he hasn't had a single seizure!

 

Rtn. Ashok is an prime example of what you are able to accomplish through Rotary.  He isn't just 'in Rotary', he 'IS Rotary' living its ideals and connecting the dots to many projects and opportunities that change lives. 

 

Rotary has given me the opportunity to be so much more as a human being and to impact lives in ways I could never have imagined.  If you are a new Rotarian or one who is searching for ways to make an impact in the world, please 'dive-in' and see how rich an experience you can have through Rotary! 

 

Robert Rose, Rotarian from USA  



The goats on the way to meet their new owner

Prakash inspecting the new goats