Nepal is a mostly rural, mountainous poor
country, where road connections are rare, unsafe, and heavily
trafficked. The two major cities of Kathmandu and Pokhara are
connected by the only highway (a two-lane mountainous road) in the
country. With air travel still too expensive for local commuting, and
no other way to let much needed goods in from neighbouring India, this
highway is as scenic as it is life threatening.
Heavy trucks from
India, overcrowded buses, motorbikes and cars all use this single
road, and deadly accidents are an unavoidable daily occurrence. While
there are projects to improve the road conditions and change the
driving habits of the population, the current situation means crash
victims either die on the spot or, most often, on the way to the
nearest hospital.
In normal conditions, covering the 200 km connecting the two
cities takes no shorter than 6 hours.
Most victims are taken to Kathmandu, where the best hospitals are located. However, no ambulance is waiting idling along the highway. The crash almost always paralyses traffic, blocking the way to the very same ambulances coming from the city hospitals. Even when the ambulance arrives at the scene, removing the crashed vehicles takes hours, and the traffic condition back to the hospital inevitably degenerates as time passes. Local ambulances are no other than hospital-taxis, in the sense that they lack virtually all emergency equipment and merely transport the victims.
Almost no-one makes it alive.
There is one hope though. And it has been sitting there in plain
sight for a while now. Roughly about mid-way from both cities lies the
town of Dhading, focal point of a large and populated region, the
homonymic Dhading district. Overwhelmed by the medical emergencies of
its own area, no one so far has thought of expanding its
responsibilities to provide help and try to solve the issue of crash
victims along the highway. But the potential is there. And
we are committed to unleash it.
We have already been providing training, inviting more medical staff to relocate and work and this hospital. We are currently working to provide a further fully equipped ambulance. But the hospital still needs heavier equipment to be able to fully manage all sorts of emergencies. With the combined results of these efforts we are confident we will solve this frustrating issue of crash victims.
This will result in all victims being able to reach the hospital in no more than 1-2 hours from the furthest possible crash site!
And not only this. Ambulances will be equipped with emergency tools and trained medics, greatly increasing the chances to save lives.
WHAT WILL YOU BE FUNDING?
We are looking to raise a further USD 97,000 that will be used for:
- medical equipment (USD 80,000 for water purifying equipment, X-ray machinery, emergency operation room, cardiac emergency equipment, hazardous waste disposal, solar emergency backup);
- medical staff training (USD 11,000);
- installation costs (USD 3,000);
- overhead and monitoring costs (USD 3,000).
At the International Peace and Sustainability Organization IPSO, we do not implement projects without a solid scientific research backing them. And all our operatives are local and international experts in their field. If you have any question at all, from the most general to the most technical, our experts will be easily able to clarify it.
Help us make a participated difference!
