Call for help from the Gilchinger Namaste Foundation
Created: 2022-08-12, 2:48 p.m
By: Hanna von Prittwitz
Open and friendly faces, despite all the poverty: children in Nepal.
The Gilchinger Foundation is planning another Nepal Day for November.
© Namaste Foundation
After a two-year break, there will be another Nepal Day on November 26th at Gilchinger Gymnasium.
The association, the Namaste Foundation of the Bolde Friends, has remained active even during the pandemic.
And asks for donations.
Gilching
– Poverty, hunger and unemployment: after the severe earthquakes a few years ago, the pandemic was a stab in the back for many families in Nepal.
According to the motto "help for self-help", the Namaste Foundation of the Bolde Friends in Gilching supports, among other things, 100 families as part of the so-called Family Lifehood Support Program.
The Hannelore Children's Relief Fund had previously started with the little ones.
"In addition, we have to support our charity fund more," writes the Gilching pharmacist and foundation founder Horst Schmel in a circular letter these days.
This fund ensures that the poorest of the poor can get medical help at Dhulikhel Hospital and outstations without being paid.
During the pandemic, the foundation's hands were tied in some areas.
Schmel is all the more pleased "that we were able to recruit four doctors for the board and advisory board".
Horst Schmel is still the chairman.
Deputy Chairman is Dr.
Dirk Hagena from Wessling.
Other board members are Prof. Manfred Kallerhof from Tutzing and Ursula Schmel, Dr.
Moritz Schwoerer, Fürstenfeldbruck, and Dr.
Volker Stagge from Pfaffenhofen.
Help in the medical field
A special focus is on the women, reports Schmel.
"Nepal is the only country in the world where the average life expectancy of women is lower than that of men." Hard work in agriculture, but also in road and house construction, frequent births and the non-existence of preventive medical check-ups are responsible for this.
After the pandemic made travel more difficult, the gynecologist Schwoerer and his Nepalese colleague Sunola Shaghya were finally able to take the first steps towards preventive measures, Schmel reports.
Internists Hagena and Stagge accompanied endoscopy workshops in Dhos.
Twelve years ago work began there on setting up an “Endoscopy Training Center” that is unique in Nepal.
The medical team there is able to
early detection of diseases by means of endoscopy.
About 7500 patients could be helped with the removal of gallstones.
“This has saved the lives of thousands of patients of all ages and also many children.
The good reputation of the department is known nationwide, patients are referred from all districts,” reports Schmel.
However, replacement purchases, repairs and further training are essential.
Kallerhoff, who has been with the foundation since 2010, has supported the establishment of a urology department at the hospital in Dhulikhel over the years.
Kallerhoff had meanwhile retired and acted as an advisor, reports Schmel.
"During this time, he devoted himself primarily to the best possible disposal of hospital waste, especially the problem of the highly infectious material, using special incinerators." Now, however, he has returned to the board.
Support for midwifery project
The foundation has supported a midwifery project in recent years.
In this way, midwives could be given basic knowledge of ultrasound diagnostics.
"After the end of the three-year project, they will help with the preliminary examinations of pregnant women, to identify problem pregnancies at an early stage and thus reduce mother-child mortality in the remote areas of the Himalayas," explains Schmel.
He knows how necessary it is to provide the best possible help for the people in Ukraine in these times.
His appeal: "By trusting in the loyalty you have shown over the past two decades, we are sure that you will not forget the people of Nepal." As always, friends, sponsors and doctors from Nepal are expected at the Gymnasium.
