Our Programmes

Print option in slimbox / lytebox? (info)

At Dhulikhel Hospital, we like to prevent rather than cure. On this basis, the Department of Community Programmes was created to educate and enforce the importance of sanitation, hygiene, women’s health, and disease to name just a few subjects we try to tackle. From this department, staff at Dhulikhel Hospital coordinate many teaching programmes designed to uplift communities by improving their standard of living. The Department of Community Programmes runs programmes all year long; these programmes have included plantation programmes around schools and villages; first aid training; hygiene and sanitation teaching for school children; awareness programmes for women on cervical cancer, breast cancer, and uterine prolapse; and mental health awareness programmes for both women and school children. Our hope is that we can raise awareness of such issues so that they will be discussed in the community for generations to come.

Our programmes:

Plantation Programmes
Micro-Finance Programmes
Micro-Insurance Programmes
Women's Awareness Programmes
School Health Programmes
Occupational Health Programmes

Plantation Programmes

Plantation programmes are one of the Department of Community Programme’s newest initiatives. The idea behind it was to raise awareness of deforestation and climate change in rural communities and to incorporate it in school-teaching for children. Nepal loses an alarming average of 91,700 hectares of forest per year, and between 1990 and 2005, Nepal lost 24.5% of its forest cover; statistics which reflect the lack of knowledge people have on the subject of climate change. Deforestation is a rising issue in Nepal due to the many homes which still run on burning wood fire. Some homes simply do not have the facilities for heating and cooking without wood. This programme changes the attitude towards forestry as a replaceable commodity in the community by involving villagers and school children in the planting process. Thus far, we have been involved with two schools in the community, and planted 1,005 trees.

Micro-Finance Programmes

Our micro-finance women’s groups began at Bahunepati Health Centre, when a female patient from the area visited the hospital for treatment. As the sole breadwinner of her family, she told staff that she was eager to receive treatment quickly so that she could get back to working in the fields as a labourer to support her family. Five years later inspired by this woman, the Department oversees 31 micro-finance programmes running at five different Outreach Centres.

Our micro-finance programmes were created to financially assist women in rural communities, in order for them to gain stability and independence for the long run. We feel that women are the backbone of every family, and by supporting them, we are essentially caring for the whole family. Each micro-finance group consists of 10 women with a nominated leader from their own community, who ensures that the loan is paid back in monthly instalments, with an additional four percent interest rate. The interest in turn generates a sum of money for another woman to join the group, and places value on the loans. The women from our micro-finance groups have gone on to purchase animals for livestock farming such as pigs, goats and chickens, or have invested in materials to start their own small businesses, for example, candle-making. To date, we have helped over 300 women gain independence through financial stability.

The DCP have plans to conduct handicraft training, mushroom farming, organic farming, veterinary training and bee-farming with our micro-finance women’s groups in the near future.

Micro-Insurance Programmes

Our micro-insurance programmes were launched as a new incentive at the end of 2010 to reduce poverty and vulnerability to disease in target groups of residents near our Outreaches. Alongside the micro-finance programmes, the hospital has changed the face of rural healthcare through its micro-insurance programmes. Micro-insurance has ensured that all the women involved in the micro-finance programmes and their children are covered for basic medical healthcare – for just 50 Rupees per month. Dhulikhel Hospital’s micro-insurance programme has removed financial constraints from the list of reasons why low-income families do not seek professional healthcare.

Women’s Awareness Programmes

We run various programmes aimed at empowering and educating women in society, particularly in poorer rural areas in Nepal. Our staff from the Department of Community Programmes and the Gynaecology/Obstetrics Department work together within the community to find out the needs of women and how we can help them. In the past, women from our micro-finance groups have participated in initial awareness programmes, and requested further information on topics such as cervical cancer, breast cancer, and uterine prolapse to be taught to their peers in the community.

In March 2010 the Gynaecology Department launched its first cervical cancer screening programme in two phases at Dapcha; Bahunepati; Baluwa; Kattike Deurali; and Solambu. Awareness programmes on cervical cancer and its causes and symptoms were given a few weeks prior to the pap smear tests to ensure that women in the communities understood the significance of the screening. The number of women who came to the awareness programme and the number of women who came back for the cervical cancer screening directly correlates with our belief that educating one woman, is educating a community. A total number of 348 women came back to the Outreaches to receive smear tests after the initial awareness programme.

Outreach	Total number of Participants in Awareness Programme	Total number who came back for Cervical Cancer Screening
Bahunepati	17	31
Baluwa	34	74
Dapcha	22	112
Kattike Deurali	17	69
Solambu	12	62

Uterine prolapse is a major issue in rural communities where women return to work almost immediately after giving birth. Many women are still too ashamed to come forward for medical help due to the social stigma attached to such an intimate condition. Dhulikhel Hospital operates on all prolapse cases without charge, but for many women in rural areas who are unable to speak out about it, cases often progress to stage three; the worst and final stage of uterine prolapse. Since 2008, the department has specifically recruited nurses from the hospital for awareness programmes on uterine prolapse in the community. After initial awareness programmes were given at Kattike Deurali, Solambu, Dapcha and Bolde Outreaches, a total number of 56 women were referred to Dhulikhel Hospital for operations in February 2010.

Date	Number of patients screened	Number of patients requiring uterine prolapse surgery (Stage III-IV)	Age	Outreach
11/02/10	21	9	30-68 years	Solambu
17/02/10	32	7	35-60 years	Dapcha
19/02/10	12	3	40-54 years	Bolde
23/02/10	54	32	35-74 years	Kattike Deurali

The department is also continuing awareness programmes on teenage pregnancies; dysmenorrhoea and menstrual health; family planning and mother and child healthcare; and sexually transmitted infections all year round.

Date	Outreach	Topic(s)	Medical Staff Present	Audience	Total number in audience
28/01/10	Bahunepati	Teenage Pregnancy, Dysmenorrhoea, Menstrual Health	Dr Shakya and Dr Reshma	Class 11 and 12, female, aged 16-18	17
17/02/10	Dapcha	Complications of Pregnancy	Interns	Women’s Group	21
19/02/10	Bolde	Complications of Pregnancy, Risks of every Pregnancy, Contraception	Dr Shakya and Dr Reshma	Women’s Group	22
23/04/10	Bahunepati	STIs	Dr Shakya and Interns	Class 11, mixed, aged 16-18	11
19/04/10	Baluwa	Dysmenorrhoea, Menstrual Health	Dr Reshma and Interns	Class 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12, female, aged 15-19	20
21/04/10	Dapcha	Dysmenorrhoea, Menstrual Health	Dr Reshma	Women’s Group	9
17/08/10	Bahunepati	Contraception	Dr Shakya	Women’s Group	8
08/10/10	Bolde	Anatomy, Physiology, Menstrual Health	Dr Shakya	Class 10, female, aged 16-18	26
26/10/10	Kattike Deurali	Contraception	Samina, Pabita, Dr Shakya	Women’s Group	17
27/10/10	Solambu	Contraception	Samina, Pabita, Dr Shakya	Women’s Group	16

School Health Programmes

The Department has been implementing various preventive and promotive aspects of health throughout rural Nepal by organising School Health Programmes. For over two and a half years now, we have been organising the programmes as a means of promoting positive change in rural settlements through education. Our aim is to become ambassadors of community development through spreading the word on the importance of hygiene and healthcare with school children and teachers. Many people in rural Nepal still have very little contact with professional healthcare and medical staff, which is why our school health programmes are focused on encouraging education on topics such as hygiene, toilet use, First Aid and minor injuries for example.

Between January 2009 to October 2010 we have involved 31 schools in 49 School Health Programmes, and distributed First Aid kits to 36 different schools who also received First Aid training. In order to promote good health and vigilance over child health we have also been organising health screening programmes at various schools.

Besides working directly with children in schools, we know how young adults can be great messengers of health and hygiene, and the power they have to uplift their communities – which is why we have also worked with the District Government Office to coordinate Adolescent Health Programmes and extra-curricular School Health Clubs. Furthermore, we have provided First Aid training for teachers from 11 schools in cooperation with local government health centre staff. Between 2009 and 2010 our department ran 82 various health programmes at 24 different schools in the community near to our Outreaches. This year, we have added an extra 10 schools to our programme.

Occupational Health Programmes

Many farmers in Nepal face severe health risks due to their heavy use of pesticides in crop farming. Many farmers face the dilemma of meeting market demands today, and as a result rely on pesticides more on more to meet turnover and consumption demands. The DCP conduct awareness programmes in the community aimed mainly at farmers, with regards to the judicious and proper use of pesticides in crop farming. We understand the challenges we face in phasing out the use of pesticides completely, but our programmes aim to first raise the issue of pesticides as a health hazard amongst farmers and their families first, and then tackle the increasingly widespread and improper use of pesticides.

Our Programmes

News & Events

Gallery