Medical Service to The Poor

I enjoy getting away to Nepal’s villages, but until last December I’d not had a chance to visit western Nepal.  A visit from mobile clinic supporter Chris Fussner fulfilled this dream.

Chris as supported these clinics for over two decades.  When I arrived here in 1977 I stayed at the Godavari Alumni Association with Fr. Joe Kolb.  We were caring for the residence while the alumni director, Fr. Gene Watrin, was in the U.S.  With Chris’ support, Gene and students brought medical help to the poor along the northern edge of the Kathmandu Valley.  Every Friday they took Gene’s van to villages where professionals would diagnose cases, and the students would help with crowd control and medicine distribution.Bill and Chris with Sisters and project staff.

These clinics multiplied with various congregations of religious duplicating the service with support from Chris.  Gene passed away in 2004, but the clinics continue.  The Nepal Jesuits handle the coordination and dedicated medical teams serve the people.  

Chris visits  at least yearly.  I joined him for the December visit to Birendra Nagar, the headquarters of Surkhet District, where the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth (SCN) run a school, a women’s development project, and mobile clinics at several out of the way locations.  Our plan  was to visit a medical camp in Jajarkot, the next district to the east.   

An hour’s flight got us to Nepalganj, on the border with India, where the sisters’ driver met us.  Our first stop was Kohalpur, were Diocesan Fathers Jomon and James Britto served lunch.  They are developing a school and parish there.  We then continued north-west over two ranges of hills, to the SCN convent at Birendranagar.  An early sleep was in order.

Dr. Chandani and Sisters Lisa and Jyoti with Chris and Bill.After Mass and breakfast we drove east, following the Bheri River.  By mid-afternoon we reached Kalanga, the Jajarkot District Headquarters.  There the hospital director, Dr. Chandani Jaiswal, arranged to have two doctors join the team the following day.  We then backtracked to Chhuda, where we turned north up the Chhuda River to Tala Gaon, the clinic site.  The drive along a rocky road left us worn out.   No need to bathe in this dusty bazaar at the road-head.  All we wanted was a hot meal (and a nip of single malt scotch for Chris and me) before getting to sleep.

 Dawn brought an impatient crowd to the clinic door, While Doctors Shiva Jha and Bhupendra Malla, traveled the same dusty road to the camp.  Police officers brought some order so that the two doctors and two Community Medical Assistants could get busy with examinations.  They worked until sunset!  They would give good advice and prescriptions as needed, and then the patients would receive medicine from clinic staff in the ajoining room.  The only cost to the patients was a Rs.10 registration fee.

The second clinic day was much the same, but a little more organized thanks to our police friends.  I spent time wandering the the bazaar.  Pack mules were busy moving sacks of sichuan pepper and soya beans, and tins of pine resin from the hills.  Tractors then move the loads south to a road a truck can handle.  We drove the doctors back to Kalanga in the afternoon, and then continued west to Birendra Nagar for a very late supper.  The team examined 980 patients over the two days, bringing people relief through medicine and good advice.Chris and Bill, humbled visitors at the Chhuda Clinic.

After morning Mass and a good pancake breakfast, Sister Rosita took us to visit a couple of the pre-primary schools which give youngsters an academic head start, so that they can better fit in with the richer, higher caste students in the government schools.  We visited the woman trainees busy with sewing and knitting, and mushroom growing, all in school rooms, while the high school students rehearsed a Christmas concert.  After lunch we drove the three hours to the airport and home, thrilled to have learned how the sisters and their team members are providing excellent service to the poor. 

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Source for all photos: Sr. Jyoti, SCN

Bill Robins, SJ, is a Canadian Jesuit who lived at Godavari, our original school at the south-east edge of the Kathmandu Valley. He lived in a community of six Jesuits and taught 11 and 12 English until his return to Canada in 2021.

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