Nepalgunj. People love it or hate it, and I think I'm beginning to love it. Well, at least in the cool season.
Situated in the terai of west Nepal this bustling town is the very antithesis of most people's ideas of the country. It's hot and noisy, overcrowded, colourful and there's not a mountain to be seen!
Not a place for tourists, and perhaps not one for missionaries too. Like many others before, as my wife and I filled in the forms to apply for the mission field we had visions of picturesque hillside villages, dramatic mountain trails and stupendous Himalayan scenery. When, back in 1990 and before we came out to Nepal, it was mentioned that the International Nepal Fellowship (INF) may establish a base in Nepalgunj we shuddered at the thought. No God, not that, not Nepalgunj please.
Well, God does have a sense of humour. Of course we have seen the picturesque villages, walked a few paths, and, yes, the mountains are stupendous. But we have also been privileged to work in a Mission and a Project that has progressively developed a vision for work in the terai. This flat, hot and fertile strip in the south of the country is an extension of the Indian gangetic plain.
For the last four years I have been working in a variety of posts connected with endemic disease control, firstly just tuberculosis and latterly leprosy as well. INF has had a long track record of working within and alongside government services to provide accessible diagnosis, treatment and referral level facilities in these diseases. Until relatively recently the programmes have concentrated on the middle hills, with reasonable success. The last few years, however, have seen an extension of tuberculosis field services into the populous terai belt, along with a strengthening of leprosy field work there too.
Extension of field services has brought a whole new set of problems; huge numbers of misdiagnosed patients referred in from the private sector, increasing numbers of patients needing hospitalisation, for complications of one or other disease. Our existing referral centres in the hills were being swamped. We thought and prayed about it and believed it was right to open a new referral centre in Nepalgunj.
That is where I am now. Sitting in a cavernous empty rented building, which is being prepared to open as a clinic in two weeks time. The staff are ready, the drugs and equipments are nearly all here, tomorrow the man comes to paint the signs on the walls. All that remain to be found are the patients. There will be plenty of them!
In this Hindu country, Nepalgunj is a pocket of Islam. Today, as I walked through the bazaar I was met by a tide of people streaming to the mosque to celebrate the Muslim festival of Eid. The men in smart white outfits, the women veiled in black, the girls in elaborate and colourful Punjabis. Ten thousand people, it was said, on the march. What a difference from life in the hills, but what a burden of need as well. We trust that the clinic will be of service to many of those people.
The INF Tuberculosis Leprosy Project (TLP) is currently looking to recruit staff, not just for Nepalgunj, but for other centres as well.
Vacancies are also open in other INF projects, including Hospital Assistance Project (most medical posts joint with TLP), Community Health, and the Western Region Leprosy Project based in Pokhara.
Doctors (generalises, physicians and surgeons), nurses, midwives, managers, administrators and teachers are all urgently needed.
If you feel called to Nepal, whether to the high hills or the terai, details can be obtained from Peter Hitchin, General Secretary at INF. click here for address
Tel. 0121-427 8833
Fax. 0121- 428 3110.
Situated in the terai of west Nepal this bustling town is the very antithesis of most people's ideas of the country. It's hot and noisy, overcrowded, colourful and there's not a mountain to be seen!
Not a place for tourists, and perhaps not one for missionaries too. Like many others before, as my wife and I filled in the forms to apply for the mission field we had visions of picturesque hillside villages, dramatic mountain trails and stupendous Himalayan scenery. When, back in 1990 and before we came out to Nepal, it was mentioned that the International Nepal Fellowship (INF) may establish a base in Nepalgunj we shuddered at the thought. No God, not that, not Nepalgunj please.
Well, God does have a sense of humour. Of course we have seen the picturesque villages, walked a few paths, and, yes, the mountains are stupendous. But we have also been privileged to work in a Mission and a Project that has progressively developed a vision for work in the terai. This flat, hot and fertile strip in the south of the country is an extension of the Indian gangetic plain.
For the last four years I have been working in a variety of posts connected with endemic disease control, firstly just tuberculosis and latterly leprosy as well. INF has had a long track record of working within and alongside government services to provide accessible diagnosis, treatment and referral level facilities in these diseases. Until relatively recently the programmes have concentrated on the middle hills, with reasonable success. The last few years, however, have seen an extension of tuberculosis field services into the populous terai belt, along with a strengthening of leprosy field work there too.
Extension of field services has brought a whole new set of problems; huge numbers of misdiagnosed patients referred in from the private sector, increasing numbers of patients needing hospitalisation, for complications of one or other disease. Our existing referral centres in the hills were being swamped. We thought and prayed about it and believed it was right to open a new referral centre in Nepalgunj.
That is where I am now. Sitting in a cavernous empty rented building, which is being prepared to open as a clinic in two weeks time. The staff are ready, the drugs and equipments are nearly all here, tomorrow the man comes to paint the signs on the walls. All that remain to be found are the patients. There will be plenty of them!
In this Hindu country, Nepalgunj is a pocket of Islam. Today, as I walked through the bazaar I was met by a tide of people streaming to the mosque to celebrate the Muslim festival of Eid. The men in smart white outfits, the women veiled in black, the girls in elaborate and colourful Punjabis. Ten thousand people, it was said, on the march. What a difference from life in the hills, but what a burden of need as well. We trust that the clinic will be of service to many of those people.
The INF Tuberculosis Leprosy Project (TLP) is currently looking to recruit staff, not just for Nepalgunj, but for other centres as well.
Vacancies are also open in other INF projects, including Hospital Assistance Project (most medical posts joint with TLP), Community Health, and the Western Region Leprosy Project based in Pokhara.
Doctors (generalises, physicians and surgeons), nurses, midwives, managers, administrators and teachers are all urgently needed.
If you feel called to Nepal, whether to the high hills or the terai, details can be obtained from Peter Hitchin, General Secretary at INF. click here for address
Tel. 0121-427 8833
Fax. 0121- 428 3110.
