Saipu Ahead: Action for Healthcare Development
Facing poor sanitary conditions and urged by the local people, Kam For Sud has launched in 2001 a program to promote public health and prevention of bacterial and infectious diseases in the village of Saipu, which later resulted in a medical clinic.
Objectives, strategie and results of the phase 1 (2001-2008)
The first phase of the project had for central theme the improvement of hygiene and of public health in Saipu, using simple methods of prevention. In particular the project has pursued the following objectives :
- General improvement of the hygienic conditions of the village through a greater awareness and the consequent modification regarding the hygienic and sanitary habits;
- Construction of hygienic services;
- Development of a program of micro-economy that permits an easier access to necessary medications and cares;
- reduction of the widely spread gender and caste discrimination through greater involvement and valuing of women, especially those of lover castes, at the community level.
Sangeeta Shrestha, a social worker specializing in rural development, trained six young women of Saipu so that they could work as social workers in the village. With the help of an extensive didactic material (poster and games), they carried on a group work, addressing issues related to hygiene, prevention and treatment of common diseases, daily nutrition, gender and caste discrimination, etc… The original idea of this program is that it is not limited to the introduction of new concepts, external to the community, but seeks those people that appear as “positive deviations” within the village itself: identifying those families in which, for equal conditions, better results are observed. They than become internal models and therefore are easier to understand and to adopt.
The serious political crisis that Nepal has undergone from 2002 to 2006 (civil war and the fall of the monarchy) has partly been an obstacle the work of social workers. For long periods of time, they have not been able to work because of the government ban on gatherings of people, they could not attend the refresher courses nor be supervised by the people in charge because the movements along the paths of the district were made extremely dangerous by the armed fights between army and rebel guerrillas. Nevertheless, taking advantage of the periods of truce, a fair amount of work was however carried out by the social operators, without however achieving all the objectives.
Objectives, strategy and results of phase 2 (2009-2018)
Faced with significantly improving sociopolitical conditions, in 2009 Kam For Sud has thus decided to relaunch the health project, dedicating to the memory of the Alpinist Gianni Goltz the realization of a medical clinic with a maternity department. The project has been developed with the agreement of the Nepalese health department, intending to take over afterwards the maintenance costs of the structure.
The initial dialogue phase with the counterpart has however requested a high investment of time and energy, because of the presence of different groups with conflicting political interests, which made necessary a negotiation time much longer than expected. The project was finally launched with the following objectives :
- construction of a medical clinic using running water and hygienically functional, adapted to the local needs and integrated into the district and national sanitary network;
- training of local nursing staff;
- creation of a pharmacy for the community.
Attachements
Reports from volunteers or civilians who worked with Saipu’s health post
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