The story of Kesh Bahadur Chhetri.................

After nearly five months in the office because of an injury to my ankle, I finally made it up to the village area. It was so beautiful to be in the mountains again, I had almost forgotten how peaceful it was to walk in the hills and stroll through the jungle. For the last few months I have been working on the set-up of the ASHA CLINIC a project the CWS (N) propose to set up in Pokhara in September 2000. The ASHA CLINIC will be a for poor children of the CWSN working area and disadvantaged youths of Pokhara and it will give them free medical attention and assistance in referrals and treatment in hospital or other organisation.

Since December 1998 the CWSN have helped around 12 people from the CWSN working area receive treatment, operations or rehabilitation in Pokhara or Kathmandu.

And again after only five hours into my first trek for a long time, I saw the need for such a facility as the ASHA CLINIC in Pokhara.

Had just entered into the village of Damaigaon (populated mainly with disadvantaged ethnic groups) of Bhachock VDC, when a young mother brought her one year old daughter to me and asked if I could help? The little girl has a large swelling/ rupture of the navel and as the family are very poor and uneducated, a trip to Pokhara to see a doctor and receive treatment is out of the question. I advised them to visit the CWSN DCC in Bhachock and get the opinion of the CWSN CMA (Community Medical Assistant) working there. I expect to see the child in Pokhara soon and an appointment to see the doctor at the Western Regional Hospital will be made. On reaching Bhachock village one hour later the first person I called to visit was my old friend Kesh Bahadur Chhetri. Kesh Bdr is a 49 year old man who suffer from Burges disease (a vascular disease) and it was after I helped him receive a operation in December 1998 that the idea to set up the ASHA CLINIC came to me.

Kesh Bdr lost both his legs to the disease over 20 years ago and in December 98 the four fingers of his left hand were amputated at the Green Pastures Hospital (GPH) in Pokhara. Kesh stayed in GPH for five months, and after rehabilitation returned to his village.

Kesh Bdr became a good friend of mine, when I see Kesh Bdr working on the fields, letting out the buffaloes, weaving bamboo baskets, looking after the young ones or shuffling around the village and carrying on with his life, despite his disability, it gives me strength and inspiration to do the work I do.

Burges disease is slowly eating away Kesh Bdrs limbs and again the disease that took his legs all them years ago and the fingers of his left hand one year ago has again come back and is threatening the index finger of his right hand. Kesh Bdr showed me his finger with the same look in his eyes that he had in December 98. Kesh Bdrs body is slowly disappearing and he knows it, he as had 20years to get used to the fact, but when you see your body rotting away it is difficult to keep a smile on your face and a gleam in your eyes, but he does his best.

I arranged for Kesh Bdr to be brought to Pokhara, a journey of five hours on the back of a porter in a bamboo basket. In the five months that I have been away from the village area a road has been cut into the mountain down to the village of Taar, making it possible to pick kesh Bdr up in a taxi and save him two uncomfortable hours in a basket.

Kesh Bdr was taken to GPH and the doctor who treated Kesh Bdr in December 98 saw kesh Bdr again. Kesh bdr was put on medication and must return for a check up in one weeks time. The doctor hopes that the medication will slow down the process and that the dead finger end will drop of on its own, saving Kesh Bdr another operation.

Kesh bdr is now staying in one of the rooms at the ASHA CLINIC, which we have put aside for sick village people who are been treated as outpatients.

Kesh Bdr is still his happy self and is enjoying his stay in Pokhara, he likes been pushed around in his wheelchair and seeing old friends he met while he was in Pokhara for five months in 1999.

Since I helped Kesh Bdr recive his operation and rehabilitation at GPH in 1999, CWSN has decided to put a age limit of under 24 on people we help, we are after all a childrens charity. But since Kesh Bdr Chhetrie was the first patient to be helped and his treatment is ongoing, we feel that we must help him to receive any treatment in the future.

So after such a long time away from the CWSN working area, the need for the ASHA CLINIC was again put infront of me by the appearance of the little girl from Damaigaon and Kesh Bdr Chhetrie ASHA CLINICs patient no: 01

Gary Barnet

-- Gary Barnet (barnet@mos.com.np), April 02, 2000