Nepal

Anandaban Leprosy Hospital, Lalitpur, Kathmandu www.tlmnepal.org

Bani Bilas School, Lalitpur, Kathmandu www.actionaid.org.uk 

The Leprosy Mission is active in as many as 34 countries around the world and it has a long association with the people of Guernsey and the Guernsey Overseas Aid Commission. It started its work in Nepal in 1957 with the establishment of a hospital specializing in the care and treatment of leprosy patients at Anandaban a few kilometres south of the capital city Kathmandu. Since then the hospital has gone from strength to strength and has gained an international reputation as a centre of excellence especially in the field of research. It now receives referrals from all over Nepal and also from parts of India with people making long and arduous journeys for the chance to be seen and treated there. In Nepal alone there are as many as 3,429 new cases of leprosy diagnosed each year. If caught early these new cases are amenable to antimicrobial therapy but in the wider community there already exists a huge burden of disability, deformity, social exclusion and chronic ill health resulting from leprosy that to a large extent still needs to be recognised and addressed. 

Over the years the people of Guernsey have helped TLM Nepal by funding several projects at Anandaban Hospital including an earthquake resistant inpatient ward for female patients, an accommodation block for hospital staff and a biogester waste disposal unit. On a visit in November 2019 Dr Nick and Claudine were able to see for themselves the amazing work being done at the hospital and were able to go into the operating theatre to watch a pioneering tendon reconstruction operation being performed on a patient with a claw hand deformity that was affecting his ability to earn a living. At the busy outpatient clinic in Lalitpur they also met a retired soldier who had served in the Gurkha Regiment and had successfully undergone surgery for a dropped foot caused by leprosy.

TLM Nepal also runs a disability inclusive community development programme for people affected by leprosy that concentrates not just on health but also on education, sustainable livelihoods, advocacy and capacity building. In the very south of the country at Chitwan the Madi Eco-Community Agricultural Co-operative is an excellent example of a successful self-help savings, loans and livelihoods project set up by TLM for disadvantaged members of the Tharau community.

Following the devastating earthquake in Nepal in 2015, the people of Guernsey offered both financial and practical assistance to Bani Bilas School on the outskirts of Kathmandu which had been almost completely destroyed. Funds from the Overseas Aid Commission and from the Guernsey branch of Action Aid covered the re-building costs and a working party travelled out to Nepal to help dig the new foundations.

Dr Nick and Claudine visited the school in November 2019 when it had re-opened and they were very impressed with the enthusiastic attitude of the staff and the pupils particularly in relation to gender equality issues and towards study and learning in general. In conjunction with Guernsey Aid the school was adopted by the pupils of Blanchelande College in Guernsey as one of the projects they supported during 2021. The money they raised funded additional library resources and IT equipment and the sixth form at Blanchelande are hoping to establish closer links with their counterparts in Nepal in the years ahead (see photos in the Autumn 2020 newsletter).