Upaya Zen Center

Dolpo, one of the most remote high-altitude regions of Nepal, is in the midst of the second pandemic lockdown and a wave of severe respiratory illness. As there is no COVID19 testing there at the moment, we have no way of knowing how many are suffering from COVID19, however, many (up to 75% per ward chief of Saldang village) are suffering from high fevers, cough, shortness of breath and diarrhea and other typical symptoms of COVID19.



Why is this needed

We have previously supported COVID19 health education, mask distribution and 2 oxygen concentrators to some regions of Dolpo in 2020 but would like to send 2 more concentrators to areas that has access to electricity and more masks to the remote villages. We would also like to provide 100 rapid antigen test kits to various villages to help with disease control and encourage COVID19-specific governmental aide


* Three-ply cloth masks x 1000 x 145 NPR (Nepali Rupee) = 145000 NPR = $1300
* COVID19 Antigen Rapid Tests x 100 x 835 NPR = 83500 NPR = $720
* Oxygen Concentrator 7 Liter x 2 x 237300 NPR = 474600 NPR = $4100

TOTAL FOR MEDICAL SUPPLIES = $6120
TRANSPORTATION BY HELICOPTER TO SALDANG = $4000 (This cost will also cover transportation of some essential food supplies as well)

NOTE: Any money we can raise over $12000 will be used for food and other medical supplies

Urgent message from Pemma Wangchen, Ward Chief of Saldang:


Background

Started by Roshi Joan Halifax, Upaya’s Nomads Clinic has been providing medical care by bringing together Nepali and Western clinicians to serve in extremely remote, high-altitude communities in Himalayan Nepal for 40 years.

We have served the people of Upper Dolpo in 4 clinics between 2015-18, seeing over 1000 patients each year. In our medical treks up to Dolpo, we were also able to bring valuable donations of thousands of Little Sun solar lamps, women’s reusable menstrual kits and warm clothing. We also support Dolpo Tulku Foundation's winter clinic in Kathmandu that provides health services for those from Dolpo who winter in the city. We have provided emergency evacuation services and supported emergency treatments and surgeries throughout the year through our Nepali team. 

Just this past year, even though the western team was unable to serve in Nepal in-person due to the pandemic, we supported our Nepali team, headed by one of our medical directors, Tsering Wangmo, to run a summer health program in Upper Dolpo in collaboration with local government, other NGOs and local schools. The team was able to help guide the pandemic response, help set quarantine protocols, educate local people about the pandemic and brought donations of masks. We also tackled the problem of endemic Hepatitis B in these high mountain villages by testing 1568 people and gave 2-doses of the Hepatitis B vaccine to the 1209 non-reactive individuals. In this month-long project, the team also provided family planning services, dental service and other health services. 

Over the years of serving there, we have made deep connections with the people of Upper Dolpo and will be partnering with local health professionals, youth leaders, teachers, local government and community leaders on this project.

photo by Dan Lin

As seen in the 2019 Oscar wining Netflix documentary "Period" menstrual hygiene and awareness is a huge issue across many areas of the world. We are reaching out to you for your support for our ongoing project to bring reusable menstrual hygiene kits to girls and women in very remote areas of western Nepal.

Since 2017,  the Upaya Nomads Clinic  has been distributing reusable menstrual kits to the women of Nepal provided by a Nepali based non-profit called Days for Girls, which employs local women from remote areas of the country to produce their kits.

Over the past two years, the response from the women and girls who have received a kit has been overwhelmingly positive and this year we hope to bring another 1000 kits .

Each kit costs $8 and lasts for several years.  

When asked about the kits, one women remarked: 
 “I have never seen or heard of commercial sanitary pad neither I use pieces of clothes. I just wear two-three trousers and more meti (is a small blanket they wear) so that the blood doesn’t saint out. In summer I wash more often but in winter with the freezing weather I sometime had to wear the same cloth which changes from really wet to dry later. And have often had lacerations that doesn’t heal till the next cycle again…Ummm life of a woman is hard in any way”


Another young girl said: 
“This kit is so beautiful and easy to use I have never thought there is something like this for periods. At the beginning it was strange to wear the undergarments and later I feel it so comfortable. Now I can just change it two three times and wash the soiled one. It dries easily. Thank you so much. It would be great help for the women if you can give all of them”.


During her 2018 trip, Nomads team member Tsering Wangmo interviewed over 140 women and gathered some helpful information to direct this continuing initiative. 

There is a common belief that women in these remote regions simply have no awareness of menstrual hygiene but after speaking to many of these women, Wangmo found that 81.8% women think that maintenance of hygiene is the very important during menstruation yet they simply do not have the resources to practice good hygiene. She found that  48.5% of women think it is appropriate to use unwashed cloth till the menstrual flow stops . This is likely due to some very practical reasons such as not having the ability to change in clean clothes so often and the time to wash every day. Most of these women only have few pairs of trousers for the year and washing is complicated by the freezing temperatures and no access to running water most of the time. These reusable mensural pads make washing much more practical and easy and dry quickly in the sun. 
 


We encourage you to donate to help us bring every woman in need one of these life changing kits.

Many blessings and great thanks to all who are able to contribute in any way. 

You can read more about the Nomads Clinics here:

https://www.facebook.com/NomadsClinic/

www.nomadsclinic.org 

https://www.upaya.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Nomads-Clinic-Report-2018.pdf

In September 2018, the annual Nomads Clinic will again make its way into the high altitude remote regions of Dolpo Nepal; one of the poorest, most rural areas in the Himalayas. Led by Roshi Joan Halifax, founder of Upaya Zen Center in Santa Fe NM, who first began bringing clinicians to Nepal in the early 1980s. The efforts to serve have grown into a synergistic partnership between Eastern and Western clinicians. The Nomads will provide healthcare to the kind, and incomparably resilient people living in these isolated mountain communities; treating a variety of conditions ranging from minor injuries, illnesses, and infections to major burns, traumas,  and chronic or widespread disease; as well as providing basic medical and preventative care and education. We will also travel with a dentist and a midwife! 

When Dr. Charlie McDonald, a pulmonologist, joined the Upaya Nomads Clinic in 2012, he discovered a host of chronic respiratory problems resulting from the burning of wood or dung indoors for heat, light, and cooking fuel. Now one of the Nomads medical directors, Charlie returned in 2013 with hundreds of Little Sun solar lights—known for their unique sun/sunflower shape and packing a powerful charge of bright light. The Nomads team distributed Little Suns to the people of these high remote villages and were able to observe profoundly positive effects, the most significant being:

-light for children to study in the evening
-longer work hours for greater income
-improved safety in work environments
-increased socializing in communities after dark
-enhanced safety for medical care needed during the night, such as giving birth
-light for cooking, reducing or replacing unsafe and toxic sources for indoor lighting

…and much more

Please consider a donation so that we may bring a Little Sun solar light to every family in every village we serve. We are hoping to bring 600 Little Suns to Nepal with this year's Nomads Clinic.  Our deepest gratitude for your generosity in joining our efforts!  


Stories of light shared through Nomad experiences:

“Little Suns were used for throat, eye, and ear inspections, for dentistry, for preparing tuberculosis slides, for changing dressings, and for looking closely at infections inside dim rooms. In one of the links, a doctor treated a newborn baby with pneumonia, Charlie reports: ‘We were able to give him antibiotics and would’ve air-evacuated him by helicopter, but the helicopters were all grounded at the time because of a late season typhoon. When we left he appeared to have stabilized. In this family four sons had died in infancy, and this was the fifth.’” 


“Another time we had come into camp near a hotel and it was just at dark. I went by the hotel kitchen and they had a little solar powered lamp that was barely enough to show itself let alone cost light on anything, and there was a man preparing food for the guests. I couldn’t even distinguish his fingers from the vegetables on the cutting board, so I turned on a Sun and put it around his neck. It totally lit up his work area, and he exclaimed, ‘I am safe.’”

“They illumined our clinics, were given to young monks in gompas where there is no electricity, given to women who sew and weave to support their families, and given to village children who used them to study by. They are a beautiful way that technology, light, and love can be transmitted.”



For more information on Upaya Zen Center and the Nomads Clinic, please click the links below:
http://nomadsclinic.org
https://www.upaya.org


For more information on the Little Suns Organization, please click the link below:
http://littlesun.com

Photography courtesy of:
Cira Crowell
https://ciracrowell.com
Dan Lin
http://www.danlinphotography.com