On April 1, in the presence of many invited guests, the former Minister of Finance of Nepal, Mr Shanker Prasad Koirala and our chairman Jan Post, handed over the birth center to the community and VDC.
The next day there was a vaccination day for babies and toddlers.
Now that such a beautiful school building has been realized, the village development committee [Village Development Committee=VDC] has asked whether the foundation can also support in setting up a medical support center annex birth center. A first aid facility has recently been opened with limited opening hours. For real medical care, one has to rely on hospitals in surrounding places at a 3 to 4 hour walk. For pregnant women, it is a challenge to walk for more than two hours through fields and mountains to the nearest birth center (or one to three hours by truck).
The support center is being set up in collaboration with the existing clinic (Gaughar clinic) where a small hospital facility has now also been built. All this under the guidance of Dr. Uddave Koirala.
The medical support center will be the Managaun location, a plot of government land in the vicinity of the school is available for this and is being prepared for construction. The local government [VDC] will also guarantee the medical staff, salaries and all operating costs.
The goal is to provide medical service 24 hours a day.
a) For whom: community and especially pregnant women of Shailung VDC
b) Size of the group: In Shailung VDC = Shailungeshwar is a village development committee of 8 villages in Dolakha district in Janakpur zone of northeast Nepal.
A total of more than 13,000 inhabitants in an area of 100 km2
Reach Medical Support Center Managaun[VDC] approximately 3000 inhabitants
c) The needs: building 6 rooms for medical and maternity support, temporary admission, 2 staff accommodation, storage of medicines + equipment and technical space.
During the visit (Nov 2021), there were also consultations with the former, current and incoming presidents of the Rotary Kathmandu mid-town to discuss support for the Managaun Medical Support Point. People are positive about it and we will jointly investigate to what extent we can collaborate with Rotarians in the Netherlands and Germany to achieve good support.
Three days after the opening of the school, Makkar, Krishna and Jan visited mr. Rameshwor Upreti to view the medical center, in what we call Sailung mid-town, and to discuss the desired support for expanding the medical support post near the school. This should develop into a fully-fledged medical support post and birth center which will be occupied 24 hours a day, every day of the week.
The Health post in “mid town” (Sailungeshower) was donated by Unicef in 2018. A small hospital is currently being built to further expand medical care in the region. There's even a helicopter landing pad. The plan is to have 3 full-fledged satellite posts from the central medical post, with the post at the school being the furthest away from the central post with a 2 hour walk.
A piece of land is available and the VDC has formally asked if the Ton Memorial School Sailung Foundation can provide a building there. VDC will take care of the occupation and exploitation.
The school board, community and construction team have indicated that they would be happy to commit themselves to the realization of the Medical Support Center if we can get the sponsorship of the project.
October 2022 we were able to give the green light for the start of this new project, trusting that we can fully realize it with your financial support.
The approved construction drawings have been made available by VDC. This is based on a delivery room, a sick room, toilet room, doctor's office, storage room and technical room on the ground floor and 2 living areas for 2 nurses on the upper floor.
In mid-November, the construction of a drinking water pipeline was started.
The community is digging more than 1000 meters of water pipes into the ground to bring water from the higher river to the construction site.
From the higher river, a groove is cut into the rocky ground right through the forest. Every week Saturday (Sunday in Nepal) if the weather permits a piece(s). The 1000 meter water pipe was donated by the small church community in Sailung.
In winter when it freezes hard, the pipeline will freeze, but everyone is actually used to that.
As discussed, the VDC has given the order to make the building site ready for construction.
That started with making an access road from the main road (dirt road).
The start with the large bulldozer caused a lot of commotion in the village, which attracted the necessary spectators.
After the road, excavation of the ground has started to level the terrain. Large boulders have been set aside. They will certainly be used later in the building process. The timing was good because the tiles for the schoolyard had just arrived at the school. About 15 truckloads of sand were brought to the school for the raising and construction of a beautifully paved schoolyard.
