Karing for Kids (KFK Nepal) Update

Update: Dear EverestNews! Namaste and hello once again from Nepal!

This will be my final email from Nepal as I am leaving in a few days to go back home....

Just got back from trekking through the Annapurna Range in central Nepal. WOW! What a beautiful and amazing place. The mountains were spectacular and really close. This is supposed to be one of the most popular and busy treks in Nepal....but there are hardly any tourists here now. It seems like all the news going out of the country is bad news. Here, there are no problems. I have yet to meet any of the feared Maoists. I have met a few trekkers who ran into them, but they were just asked for a little bit of money. I have not heard any stories of anybody being harassed by them. From what I've seen, this is a very safe place...well, at least as safe as anywhere else in the world...and probably less dangerous then crossing the street in the U.S.

On the 3rd day of the trek, we stayed in a village called Ghorepani, that had an amazing view of Annapurna South, Nilgiri, and Machapuchre (fishtail), from my bedroom! We got up at 430am the next morning and hiked, straight up, about 750 meters, to a place called Pun Hill, that must have one of the best views in the entire world. The sky was crystal clear and the beauty of the mountains came into view as the sun rose over the top of Fish Tail, a beautiful and very dramatic peak...and also one of the holy and sacred mountains in Nepal...it is not allowed to be climbed. We spent about 2 hours up on top, just watching the sun rise and light up the mountains and the valleys below.

The next 2 days were spent mostly walking through the forest, with cloudy and rainy weather. But on the final day of the trek, it was once again a beautiful day....except for the now common afternoon monsoon (rain) storms...that usually involve a little, or as in the case in Ghorepani, a lot, of hail. In fact the day after I left Pokhara to go on the trek, I heard a 16 year old boy was killed by a hail stone that weighed in at 400 grams.

Pokhara has been a nice change from the craziness of Kathmandu. I decided to spend a few days here instead of back in the dusty and dirty Kathmandu. My beautiful hotel overlooks the big lake here, Phewa Tal. Yesterday, 2 friends and I rented a little boat and crossed the lake to walk up to a big Stupa up on the hill. It was a great view from the top, you could see all of Pokhara, with the Annapurna range in the background. On the way down, I had a little meeting with some of the wildlife of Nepal. A snake, about 7 feet long rose up about 2 feet in front of me. Fortunately, he seemed a little more scared of me, then the other way around...and slithered away.

So tomorrow I return to Kathmandu and 2 days later I will make the horrendously long trip home. 

This entire trip has truly been wonderful and I hope many of you can experience what I have in the near future. 

Take care, be well, and SMILE!!! 

-ari

Karing for Kids (KFK Nepal) runs a Mother and Child Health Clinic (MCH-Clinic) in the rural mountain communities of Rasuwa, Nepal. KFK Nepal is a non-government charity organization working to save the lives of children in Nepal since 1997.

KFK-Nepal’s MCH Clinic has been providing the medical services to approximately 7,000 people of remote Gatlang, Goljung, and Chilime villages of Rasuwa district since late 2000. Before this clinic was established, there was no medical service available in these communities. Because of the extreme level of poverty in these communities and remoteness from a nearby hospital, which is about a days walking distance, most people could not manage to get medical care when they were sick. Seeking care from local healers who did not have access to modern medical techniques or treatments and  was the only option. Government outreach immunization services were so infrequent and irregular that many children were left without immunization against the major childhood illnesses. Prior to KFK’s Clinic it was difficult to find a mother who had not lost a child and impossible to find a household without a sick person. It is estimated that the Child and Maternal Mortality rates of these communities have been almost two-to-three times higher than the national average. Nepal's average infant mortality rate, 78 deaths per 1000 live births, and average maternal mortality rate, 539 deaths per 100,000 live deliveries, are among the highest in the world.

KFK operates on an extremely low budget. For about the cost of lunch in an American restaurant, $15.00/day, we staff the clinic and provide medical supplies and equipment as well as overhead costs, such as utilities. But even this small sum of money is difficult to obtain in a country as poor as Nepal. We desperately need your help to save lives and improve the health and well being of these poor, indigenous Buddhist-Tamang communities on the Nepal-Tibet border.

How You Can Help Save this Clinic and build more...

a)       Individual Sponsorship:  We welcome and encourage individuals to sponsor our basic clinic operation cost. To meet our yearly budget of US$ 7500, we need just 25 people to contribute the small sum of US$ 25/month. That is less than $1.00 a day to keep this clinic open!

b)       Volunteers supports: We welcome and encourage professionally trained medical personal, preferably nurse practitioners, midwife, and medical doctors to provide volunteer services in our clinic. Interested individual should be able to cover his or her own costs while we will provide free accommodations.

c)       Institutional/Corporate Supports: We request charity organizations and corporate agencies to help us sustain, develop, and expand our medical and other development activities such as sanitation, community health education, community library, child education sponsorship etc. We also accept donations of medical equipments and supplies such as medicine etc.

Please help us to save lives and improve health and well being of the deprived poor indigenous Tamang communities.

To make a donation send your check to:

Karing for Kids PO Box 1170 Sandia Park New Mexico 87047 or make a donation using your credit card or your checking account on-line using Pay-pal here: 

Doctors and Dentists, and others wanted to volunteer. Give a little back! E-MAIL US TODAY!

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