When Andrea see’s a room that looks like a tip, yet has a heap load of equipment/medication that can be used, and she knows she has a few days here and some fabulous friends to work with bibbidi-bobbidi-boo: salagadoola menchicka boola bibbidi-bobbidi-boo put ’em together and what does she suggest… yep you got it, cleaning this room, getting the stock in order and whipping it into shape 🙂 and as soon as the words flowed out of my mouth Djazz said Yep, thats exactly what I was thinking as well 🙂
The only thing I had not banked on was the fact that the room contained Cinderella’s rats :o, and when we started to move school jumpers, that had been donated from overseas, we must have disturbed the little fella, actually quite fat fella, from his slumber. Upon seeing him dart toward me I screamed, ran from the room, then jumped on a chair, still screaming OMG, there’s a rat! Despite me screaming and running, from the room the local children ran into the room at high speed; when I question why they chose to do the opposite, all I can think is that they thought they were missing something!
Referring to my previous post, where I was so angry I hopping like a frog, seeing aid from overseas not being utilised made me feel that what we were offering was not being appreciated. Medication was untouched/unboxed, left to go out of date, and school provisions were either rotting in the damp storage conditions, or being ruined by rodents. This made me really mad. So I piped up, asked what was going on, and said how this discovery made me feel & thats when I found out why the school shoes, jumpers, and equipment had not been given to those in need. Sanjay, explained that they did not have enough enough for all the children, so were waiting for more donations before they shared them out. They also thought that it was unfair to share them out at this point as they knew how excited the children would be and some children would be devastated if they were sent away empty handed. While I could see the rationale behind this, it it didn’t deter me from suggesting that these gifts should be distributed now. The weather was cold, the temperature was dropping fast, fuel was scarce, there had been an increase in chest infections and pneumonia, and children’s health was at risk. Whats more if they left it any longer the clothing would be ruined, as rodents were nesting in them, and they before long they would have nothing to hand out. A point of view that Djazz agreed with, so together we decided to reiterated our opinion to Sanjay and hope that he relayed this to the head teacher. Guess what, to our surprise, it worked! The next day, while at the health post, we found the children all lined up waiting patiently for shoes 🙂
okay some children were given a pair of shoes that I doubt they will ever grow into, but nevertheless, there was a very excited bunch of kiddies waiting for a pair of, very plain, black shiny school shoes. 
I think the saddest comment I heard about not handing out the school wears was – westerners would come to the village, see that the children had shoes, and jumpers, and might stop sending aid as they thought everything was okay. How heartbreaking is this 😦 It’s like they have developed a coping strategy to prevent knock-backs, they are too scared to openly enjoy basic provisions in case they don’t get given anything else. As much as I felt for them, I did present them with another angle – if donating countries found out that their gifts were not being used they might not send anymore, they might adopt the approach well if they can’t be bothered to help themselves and appreciate what we send whats the point of sending more. While the latter angle might have sounded harsh, I hoped that they took it as it was intended and I hope I spoke words that others in UK would have felt- we would rather see you you using donations & that its been greatly appreciated, but now needs replacing, than hearing you have left it left to rot.
Similar words, to the clothing, was also said when we discussed the fact the medications had not been unpacked, medications had not been properly rotated, and that so much medication was now unusable as it was well past it’s expiry date.
Don’t get me wrong, I know that some of the medication did not arrive within date, but we did discover boxes and boxes of medication that in unmarked, sealed cardboard packaging, so it was evident that these provisions had not even been looked at. Had Djazz not gone hunting, and we had not embarked on our Cinderella expedition, these medications would still be lying untouched. Grrrrrrr, that makes me hop! However, by the end of our bibbidy-bobbiding, everything was in an organised fashion, on the shelves. All stock was in correct date order, and staff had been informed what medications went with different conditions, so they had no reason to turn patients away or say that they had limited drugs. In fact when we looked at the list of medication that was hanging in the consultation room, after sorting through the store room, the only medication that the healthcare post did not have was oxytocin, ringers lactate and gentamycin.
Even though the discovery of so many drugs cheered us up it did make us question if donated medication was sometimes sold on the black market, and if it was it, it was easy to see why someone would be tempted to do it. Many people in the region of Sindupalchok are living in poverty, it was one of the worst-affected districts as a result of the earthquake, and because of the fuel crisis, and border being blocked into India, medication is scarce so a quick way to make money. Especially if you know that you have multiple medical and nursing students coming into your village with an endless supply of medication. I know this doesn’t paint a pretty picture, but thats how life is when you a country is unstable & you are destitute, systems become corrupt, as you fight for survival. Corruption and bribery is not limited to Nepal it takes place around the world and no country is immune, you just have to look at Forbes website to see the top ten the list corrupt countries in the world. Actually, when you do look at it Nepal isn’t even listed. However, I did discover an article about Nepal’s medical education system. This is what it said –
Allegedly Nepal manufacture fake doctors, and is infested by corrupt investors with political protection. The registration of medical colleges is a convoluted process in Nepal, but it can be made much simpler by bribing a thoroughly corrupt system. The reporter, Ramu Sapkota, for the Nepali Times also claims that his investigation also revealed a chilling truth: almost everything is for sale in Nepal’s medical education. Nearly everyone is on the take: government ministries, the Nepal Medical Council (NMC), even the anti-corruption watchdog, the CIAA, and Supreme Court. Anyone can be a doctor if you pay someone enough. Bribery is standard operating procedure in acquiring college licenses, student seats, manipulating monitoring teams, influencing the judiciary. The medical mafia will even guarantee that students with cash will pass not just their entrance exams but their final exams too.
My take on corrupt Nepalese doctors – while I was at the Teaching hospital I saw no corruption at all. In fact all I saw was caring, hardworking doctors who paid a fortune for their education and when qualified got paid a lot less that we do in the UK. Whats more they exposed themselves to a multitude of life-threatening illness (on a daily basis) and hadn’t had a day off in months. Shame Ramu Sapkota hasn’t written an article about that 😉
Andrea - Nursing in Nepal 