BABU - Bringing About Better Understanding

And so we begin an exciting new project! In the previous few months, we have been working closely with Health and Development Society Nepal (HDSN) - check them out in a search on Facebook - to expand our rural relief programs. HDSN does amazing work, and has been working hard since the earthquake to deliver shelter to various health posts across Nepal using temporary structures that can be insulated and used where health posts were damaged.

Over the past several weeks, HDSN has started some data collection for project evaluation, and will be in the field this week to start our comprehensive health camps. We will be working in the community of Bhardev, a couple hours outside of Lalitpur.

A list of a few of the things the health camps with involved include:
- teacher training in schools that run from primary school to 10+2
- training the health workers in the local health post in dental practices, and improving the hand hygiene facilities in the health post, as well as some 'reminder' hand hygiene sessions for all the health care workers.
- general health camp with children in the, finding out the major diseases are present in the school children, and referral of any cases that require additional information to the local clinic or hospitals in Kathmandu
-an oral health camp with the HDSN dentists
-measurment of all the children's height/ weight to monitor nutritional status
- a comprenhesive school tooth brushing and hand washing program all the year round, including supplying hand hygiene materials to the school.
- supply of the IEC materials in the school
- collecting data about the vaccination, and other medicines.
- acupuncture for stress relief through Acupunturists Without Borders-Nepal.
-a youth motivation program

We are excited to see where this collaboration will take us, and will be posting updates over the coming weeks as the project fully unfolds! A big shout out to Dr. Bijay Tamang and all the HDSN staff for their hard work.

Cheers,
-The BABU team

From the BABU team to you, we wish you all very happy New Year. May your 2016 be filled with joys and successes.

After a challenging 2015 for Nepal, we look forward to the year ahead and exciting new projects in 2016. Thank you for your ongoing support of our work, and for all your love and support for Nepal!

Happy Tihar from all of us at BABU. I have now been here for 6 weeks, and have lots to share. A few hand hygiene highlights:

-new hand sani program at Patan Hospital ER supported by Canadian docs seems to be running smoothly!

-ongoing successful hand sanitizer project that is totally self-sustained by Anandaban Leprosy Hospital

-IFCH is self-sustaining 50 hand sanitizer stations throughout the hospital, in particular in critical care areas.

-Manmohan Memorial Teaching Hospital creating and using hand sanitizer in the ER And in key areas.

It's super exciting to see these programs being sustained by our partners with little to no external support from BABU at this time. It seems like this is a priority for our partners - kudos to all of our volunteers who worked hard to get these programs up and running! It worked!

Hey Team - BABU is heading to Nepal again next week! It's our first trip back since the earthquake, and we are going to be connecting with our partners and friends to see what role we can fill as Nepal continues to build back! We'll be posting lots of updates on here and Twitter - stay tuned!

Another earthquake has hit Nepal today. We are waiting on updates from our partners - we have confirmed that the Special Education Rehabilitation Centre (SERC) is fine - they had just reopened classes yesterday. We have yet to hear from IFCH and have put out word right now. We have confirmed that Phil, the volunteer physiotherapist is okay - he is now working for Handicap International - you can follow him on Twitter for more updates. We will post updates regarding IFCH and others when we hear from them.

Stay strong, Nepal. We are behind you.

Please see this call for assistance from Social Action Volunteers at Kanti Children's Hospital. Lana Vanderlee, vice-president of BABU has worked closely with SAV over the last years, and volunteered with them directly in 2008. SAV helps the poorest of the poor families who are patients at Kanti Children's Hospital in Kathmandu. As families from outside the valley are brought in from rural areas that were hardest hit by the SAV will undoubtedly be supporting many of the families with accommodation, food and supplies as their children receive care in the government hospitals.

BABU is working with local groups in the Greater Toronto Area and our partners in Kathmandu to see how we can best support the relief efforts. There are much more support in the days and weeks, as the extent of the is not yet known in many of the rural areas, and relief has not yet reached all those affected.