Nepal Flood Update: Vulnerable Populations

Our volunteer health workers in Nepal have been tirelessly working to alleviate illnesses brought by contaminated flood waters. Children and the elderly are particularly vulnerable to fevers and diarrhea which can be perilous to life and long-term health if left untreated.  HealthEd Connect volunteers attend to the sick with simple but crucial medical tools, medicines, and most importantly, they teach villagers how to avoid illness with education about sanitation and water purification. 

  

Nepal Flood Update: Spreading the Love

​Village children receive emergency aid and a lesson on how to stay safe and healthy
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In the midst of health risks and frequent rains, our Nepalese volunteers journey to small villages that have not yet received aid. While the emergency food, clean water, and health training they provide is absolutely crucial to these children, the simple act of human kindness and love is just as precious! Some of these children have lost family members in the flood, others have lost their homes and belongings, and most have lost food and clean water. Imagine the comfort these children feel knowing that someone cares enough to come from far away to help them! 

For more information, please visit www.healthedconnect.org

Nepal Flood Update

As we receive reports from Biratnagar, Nepal, we continue to be amazed at the way the Nepalese people reach out to one another in times of crisis. The spirit of volunteerism seems to know no socio-economic or religious boundaries as our volunteers work endless hours providing emergency care to their flood-ravaged community.  They hold daily "health camps" to pass out food, educate families regarding ways to avoid illness, and organize clean-up teams. 

​Forty children from the slum area around Biratnagar gathered to receive emergency aid in the form of dry food. 

More than 90 volunteers from around the city gathered yesterday to assist the government in cleaning up dead animals and refuse left behind by the flood. 

​For more information, visit​

 www.healthedconnect.org

Nepal Flood Update

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A mother in Nepal receives emergency food in her home.
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Our devoted HealthEd Connect volunteer, Sangeeta Malla, has been providing constant care for her community since the flood over a week ago in southern Nepal. In addition to providing emergency food and many forms of medical care, she is planning village-wide trainings on water purification techniques and a clean-up day to remove the many dead animals and livestock that create a health hazard. Even though the flood has receded, there is so much left to be done! Sangeeta keeps up her energy, enthusiasm, and optimism by focusing on gratitude, and tells us via email, 

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I am so thankful to Healthedconnect to fulfill my vision among homeless, poor and sick people.

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Even though the situation is very tough for us to handle I got some relief by providing clothes  to women, children and men too and my heart is so much satisfied and it happened just because of prayer and financial support from all of you.

"​

 

 HealthEd Connect (www.healthedconnect.org)

Clean Water for Nepalese Villagers

​A shy village family receives a water purification system

​Contaminated water presents a serious danger after a flood. Inexpensive portable water purification systems have been​ distributed by HealthEd Connect volunteers to the areas most devastated by the flood in Nepal. Outbreaks of disease can be dramatically minimized if solutions are provided for clean drinking water quickly. Kudos to our volunteers in the field who have been working day and night to prevent illness in their communities!

Share more clean water by donating at www.healthedconnect.org!

Medicines Have Arrived!!

  
​Thanks to our generous donors, medicines and medical tools have now reached the flood-ravaged area in Nepal! Villagers crowd around HealthEd Connect volunteer, Sangeeta Malla, as she treats them for the multitude of injuries and illnesses caused by navigating floodwaters.  Innumerable sharp objects and bacterias lie hidden in the murky waters that can lead to infection and dysentery, often causing the death toll to rise even after the initial crisis has passed.  Sangeeta and other volunteers have been working day and night since the flood to alleviate current and potential dangers for her community.

​Triple antibiotic ointment is a simple but indispensable product to prevent dangerous infection.

To donate, simple go to www.healthedconnect.org!

Water, water everywhere....but not a drop to drink!

Informative photos are starting to arrive from our colleagues in Nepal, showing the devastating effects the recent flood has had on homes, belongings, crops, and lives. A think coating of mud fills every crevice where the water has receded and has contaminated drinking water. 

The inside of a typical Nepalese home swathed in bacteria-laden mud.

Paradoxically, water, the very thing that caused this destruction, is now desperately needed.  People are already experiencing dangerous diarrhea cause by ingesting unclean water. HealthEd Connect volunteers will be holding a 'health camp' to teach her community how to sanitize filthy water, as well as how to make a homemade treatment for diarrhea using salt and sugar. 

​Disheartened villagers sit on the roof of their former home, trying to figure out what to do next.

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Michelle Mahlik

BOD, HealthEd Connect

www.HealthEdConnect.org

Devastating Situation in Nepal

Southern Nepal has been struck by record-breaking monsoon rains that have killed many and stranded thousands without food or clean water.  After a few days without communication, we have finally learned that our HealthEd Connect volunteer, Sangeeta Malla, is safe and that she has been tirelessly utilizing her nursing skills to help the sick and wounded. Although it appears that the  floodwater is beginning to recede somewhat, it has left a wave of destroyed homes and gardens, drowned livestock, a lack of basic necessities, and illness.

​Neighbors help one another to safety.

 

Sangeeta took time out of her work to describe the situation around her home:  "Now many dead body of animal like dog, chicken, goat is coming near by our society. So its too much smelling and mud is also smelling so sometimes we can't breath. Very poor families they already lost thier houses…almost everything. We are water from hand pump but its smelling mud inside so can not drink. We are buying from market but its almost cost is double and to go buy some place else we have to cross flood way. We are providing some dry food but its difficult to manage because we can not help all society, but they are expecting from us. Now people are staying in open air so they are suffering from fever, headache,  back pain and diarrhea too but still from government side no response. We have fear of snake biting also."

Even the sturdiest homes have collapsed under the force of the floodwater.

​Germ-laden mud covers everything and has contaminated water sources.

HealthEd Connect is working on solutions to get aid to the affected areas quickly.  We will soon provide information on how you can help. 

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www.HealthEdConnect.org

Practice makes Perfect

7th grade students taking practice examination

Busy week at the Chipulukusu school!!  In addition to the training being held for the teachers to learn to use the new electronic tablets, the students are busy taking practice tests for the all important 7th-grade standardized examination.   The school has had 100% pass rate two of the last three years so the pressure is on to keep high standards.

Let the Training Begin

Twenty teachers and school leaders are in session this week learning high-tech methods of teaching for the Chipulukusu and Kasompe schools.   Imagine being an orphan who couldn't afford to attend any school until HealthEd Connect came along and now they attend the most electronically advanced school in the entire community!

The teachers are EXCITED to say the least!

iSchool preparation

Exciting times at our schools!  The Kafwa at Chipulukusu have been busily preparing for the BIG event: iSchool training for the teachers.  Thanks to an incredibly generous Rotary International grant acquired through a partnership between Kansas City Rotary Club 13 and the Ndola, Zambia Makuba Rotary Club, student tablets, teacher tablets, charging trolleys, and headphones are being provided for two of our schools.

The tablets have the entire Zambian government school curriculum loaded in seven languages!!  Our schools will definitely be the toast of the compound!!!  Such joy!!!!

Earlier this week the Kafwa wrote:

The Kafwa group is working tirelessly to put everything in place for the program tomorrow.This time they have acquired pillow cases for our teachers who have travelled [from Kasompe].

Earlier in the week they sent a picture of the nine new chairs they purchased for the training.  The women manage the Kafwa Center as a business, renting it for birthday parties, meetings, and training events.  They're always on the alert for new ways to add value to their entrepreneurial enterprise.