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New Community Hospital

New Community Hospital in Nepal - 001
Picture of CHANCE FOR NEPAL

CHANCE FOR NEPAL

Exciting and fantastic news – for many months we have been talking about Dr Aban Gatham’s vision for a new Community Hospital in Hetauda.  The planning stage took a little longer than first expected, and time to get all the necessary permissions, have the land released and get the funding.  Then to find an architect to draw up the plans, a site manager to manage the project and now, after many hurdles, the first brick for the foundations was laid on the 6th March!  The hospital will be up and running by the end of the year.  It will have an outpatients’ department, pharmacy, operating theatre, paediatric, orthopaedic and general wards.  The first phase is for 15 beds. The three photos below show the land where the hospital will be built.

New Community Hospital in Nepal - 002

The hospital land area is approximately 218700 sq. ft and is located in Makawanpur – a hill district located 76 kms south of Kathmandu.  This takes between 4 and 5 hours to reach from Kathmandu at the present time, but a new and better road is planned in the next two years including a tunnel which will cut the journey time in half.

The name of the hospital can be extracted from the Sanskrit word “Siddha” meaning enlightenment and “thali” meaning a place in Sanskrit. Hence the hospital name “Siddhasthali” means the place of enlightenment. The idea behind the word Siddhasthali is that whoever/ professionals want to become great among you and have a meaningful life “enlighten” may wish to come and spend time and skill in this hospital

Chance for Nepal is supporting Mountain Heart Nepal (MHN) in two ways. Firstly, by fundraising for 15 hospital beds, at the present time, we have 12 pledged.

Secondly, funding a beautiful garden in memory of Jenny,  who aged 22 died tragically from an asthmatic attack. Two years previously she had visited Nepal and undertaken some volunteering work. Jenny had loved both the people and the country of Nepal.   The funding for the garden comes from Dave and Jackie Bradshaw, Jenny’s parents and CHANCE has matched their donation.  This will be a garden in progress, a living tribute to a beautiful soul who no doubt will be watching down as it evolves over time.   We want to make this a very special garden, with quiet places, time for reflection and contemplation and wellbeing for patients and visitors alike.

New Community Hospital Nepal 2020

The garden will need upkeep and what better way than for two local women, with an interest in growing vegetables and earning a living! These two women will attend a four-day training with the Women’s Cooperative Society (WCS) in their vegetable farming programme. CHANCE already funds up to 5 such trainings per year. The training will enable these women to return to the hospital site with the knowledge (and support for each other), to grow vegetables which in turn they will sell to the hospital to feed staff and patients as well as sell at market, thus enabling them to educate their children with the money they make. The land on the hospital site will be given rent-free to these women and in return, they will tend and look after the garden.
The garden will be called Jenny’s memorable garden, in memory of Jenny.
We would love to hear from anyone who would like to buy a tree. We will need many trees as we wish to plant around the boundary fence. Or fund one of the seats which flow through the garden, or maybe a small water feature. There will be a plaque in the garden with names of those who donate a tree or seating. Maybe on the actual seat, or collectively.
Please email info@chancefornepal.org if you would like to be a part of this fantastic project.
The garden is designed by Andy Sturgeon Designs. Andy, an 8 times gold medallist at the Chelsea Flower Show and overall winner in 2019 has chosen CHANCE as one of their charities to support in 2020. Thank you Andrew Ritchie for the introduction.

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