Mountain Fund News

Spring Update

Medical Camp times 3By - Mountain Fund

We owe a huge debt of gratitude this month to Rocky Vista Medical College from Parker, Colorado. A group of nine, third and fourth year medical students and their professors conducted three medical camps in Nepal in three entirely different locations.

First our group visited Orchid Garden Nepal where complete physical examinations were give to all 140 children who attend Orchid Garden. It took two full days, working long, hard hours to check every single child but our fantastic volunteers worked without rest until everyone was seen. Most of the children were in good health, thanks in no small part to the good care and nutrition they receive at Orchid Garden. A few however will need follow up at a local hospital. If’d you like to help us with medical expenses please make a general fund donation here.

Following our two days at Orchid Garden we moved our medical team immediately over to Koseli, a school for slum and street kids. Again, all 104 children received complete physicals. The Rocky Vista team was joined at Koseli by two members of the American Alpine club who happened to be staying at our volunteer house, which serves as the Kathmandu headquarters for the AAC. It was great to see these mountaineers pitch in and help check the children’s vision during the medical camp. As was the case at Orchid Garden, nearly all of the children were in good health. Considering these children all live in one

InsideInside

Medical Camp times 3Join the Rocky Vista Medical College volunteers as they give healthcare to schools, day-care centers and villages.

Update on Women’s Farm We announced in our goals for 2012 edition of the news our plan to start a cooperative farm for women. In this update, we’ll tell you what the status is.

PhotosSome additional photos from the Rocky Vista Medical School’s health camps.

Donate a cow? Support is still needed for the women’s farm. Learn what you can do.

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of Kathmandu’s worst slums, located on the bank of the heavily polluted Bagmati river, we were a little surprised that their health was so good. Of course, for the past two years all of these children have been attending Koseli and that surely accounts for their good health.

Every morning they walk from the slum to Koseli where they bathe, brush teeth and change into clean school uniforms. They are given meals at the school, hot, fresh dal bhat and seasonal vegetables and taught to wash their hands frequently. Those aren’t small things, in fact they are critical for good health and certainly the results of our physical exams demonstrate they are working.

A few children did have some health issues that caused us concern and we will need a follow up exam and some tests at a local hospital. If’d you like to help us with medical expenses please make a general fund donation here.

Kumari village is located in the Nuwokot District of Nepal and we next traveled by four-wheel drive vehicles, over some very rough roads, for five hours to reach the village. We are the second ever medical team to visit Kumari and seemingly the entire town and all of the children from the local school turned out to greet us. There was even a band playing typical Nepali music who greeted us on arrival at Kumari. (see photo)

The first day at Kumari was bright, sunny skies, mountain views and and t-shirt wearing weather. We set up our medical team and got right to work in a clinic that is under construction in the village. We managed to see over 150 patients that day before the sun went down and we had to close up shop due to a lack of lighting. Since the clinic building is not yet finished, only a few lights were installed at this time, none of the windows or doors are yet in and much finish work is needed still.

Day two came in with a roar! Sometime during the night a storm system had moved in complete with some really good thunder-boomers, rain and fog; all of which we could do without as we were staying in tents in the front yard of the future clinic. At one point the fog was so thick we couldn’t see the tents from the clinic. It continued to rain all day. Despite the rain and now chilly temperatures we had a respectable turn out of patients and again saw well over 150 the second day as well. It was remarkable that these villagers would turn out in such weather. Few had shoes, none had clothing for rain and most were cold, just as we were, but we had Goretex jackets and they didn’t. Really tough people.

The Rocky Vista Medical College group rounded out their trip to Nepal by visiting temples and religious sites in Kathmandu then spending a day in Bhaktapur. Bhaktapur is a UNESCO world heritage site and one of my personal favorite places in the Kathmandu valley. With temples, statutes, royal baths and a vibrant artist colony engaged in intricate wood carving and pottery, it is a fascinating place. We hope that more schools like Rocky Vista will join us in Nepal, they work they did and help they gave to so many is much appreciated.

Medical Camp times 3, continued

What a warm welcome at Kumari

All of us from The Mountain Fund, The Mountain Volunteer and Rocky Vista Medical College were blown away by the welcome we received at Kumari.

Our camp was set up and maintained by Jagat Lama of Nepal Independent Trekking Guide Cooperative and I can’t say enough good things about how well we were fed and cared for by their staff.

Kumari is the Jagat’s home village and the health clinic now under construction there is he’s project. Inspired by words of his father, just before he died, Jagat made a pledge to see this clinic built to pay homage to his father and give something to his home village.

Mountain Fund News, Spring Update

As we reported in our last publication - 2012 Goals - we have been planning for a very long time to do a project like this. It’s been a dream of Sunita’s to have a property in a rural area where women who are victims of abuse, neglect, the sex trade, widows and other socially shunned groups, could live in peace with their children and sustain themselves on the land.

We’ve examined this problem for years now and visited many programs that are working with women in these situations. While we’ve seen programs that are committed to the welfare of women and met some inspirational leaders of this programs, they aren’t sustainable. Teaching women to sew, weave or make handicrafts doesn’t create the potential for income that’s needed for them to support their children. These programs require a constant stream of donations to survive. Our farming cooperative does not. The women of Nepal are farmers, with 90% of them already engaged in agricultural work what they need is a plot of land where they can work and they will feed themselves and their children. It’s

sustainable and can be taken to scale, meaning there is no reason to create just one such farm and every reason to replicate this project over and over again.

Thanks to a tireless effort by Sunita, combined with generous donations from Stelly’s School and Mountain Fund board members, we have a farm ! The women’s cooperative farm will be located only 35km’s from Kathmandu in Madavbesi, a village in the Dhading district. Sunita found some nice, flat farm land with a small house and some outbuildings. The land has ample water and has been used for agriculture in the past. In March, a group of 30 students from Stelly’s School will join us in Nepal for three weeks and we’ll get the house, cow shed and fields ready for use. We’ve identified a few women and their children who will be our first occupants. We will soon share photos of the land, as well as the volunteers from Stelly’s who are coming to help make this dream a reality. Stay tuned.

Mountain Fund News, Spring Update

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The Women’s Farming Cooperative - an update by Scott and Sunita

Photo by Scott MacLennan

Medical Camp Photos

Translators our own staff member Shwoita Lama, a nurse-midwife, helping with translations.

Complete Check the Rocky Vista College team gave really comprehensive health check-ups to the kids at Orchid Garden and Koseli

Say AHHHH a Rocky Vista student giving an Orchid Garden child a check-up

American Alpine Club pitches in. Two climbers from AAC were in Kathmandu and came to Koseli school where they pitched in with vision screening.

Kumari Village a woman from the village who attended our health camp.

The view from our camp in Kumari

PhotosWe have many good photos from this volunteer experience. We’ll try to get an online gallery up soon. We have to reduce the photo quality to email this update to you. Look for an update from us soon on that.

At-risk youthWe support the education of at-risk youth in Nepal. Working with Koseli School, Orchid Garden and the Early Childhood Development Center our v o l u n t e e r s h a v e c o n t r i b u t e d hundreds of hours teaching and helping these young people from the poorest families in Nepal.

The Mountain Fund provides money to help with school uniforms, meal programs and health needs of the children in these programs. If you’d l i k e t o j o i n u s p l e a s e v i s i t www.mountainfund.org to learn more or www.mountainvolunteer.org to volunteer.

The Mountain Fund2716 San Pedro Drive NESuite DAlbuquerque NM 87110

Donate a cow, goat or chickenBy Scott

Actually, donated to a fund that will enable the women of our farm project to buy a cow, goat, buffalo or some chickens. It’s our intention that the women’s farm cooperative be a totally self-sustaining operation. We will furnish seeds and plants to get this started, enough for basic food needs. Women who wish to raise livestock for sale in order to bring in some cash money are going to be provided with micro-credit loans that will allow them to purchase a cow, goat, buffalo or some chickens and repay the loans as they are sold.

In Nepal, it costs between $400 and $800 US to purchase a buffalo. The cost is dependent on the milk production. Cows range from $300-400 again depending on the milk production. Goats, popular for meat in Nepal will cost approximately $150 US each. To get started raising chickens can cost $1000 US.

We are seeking donations that we can use to establish a lending program for the women at the farming cooperative. If you can help please make a donation to the Women’s Farming Cooperative HERE.