NEPAL GLOBAL HEALTH MISSION

Between 2010 and 2014, Dr. Janet Galipo made several trips on a circuit between Mongolia, Nepal and Tibet. Following up from an earlier visit to the Himalayas, Dr. Janet, along with a group of medical volunteers from the U.S. and Europe, travelled to Nepal and Bhutan in October 2017 with the goal of providing free healthcare to the Nepalese and Tibetan refuge communities.

The volunteer medical initiative has now become a yearly commitment. Working with monks, nuns, families and children in Nepal and Bhutan made clear that being able to enjoy good health is a fundamental right of all human beings. This speaks to the value of integrative healthcare, giving the patient access to any resources they may need including allopathic medicine, holistic medicine and also emotional support, and any other resources needed to address factors affecting a person’s health.

In 2017, our group of volunteers medical practitioners had the good fortune to travel from the U.S. and Europe to Nepal, joined by Lama Glenn Mullin. The goal of our 2017 Mission to Nepal was to provide free health care to the Nepalese and Tibetan communities. The arrangements were made by Dr. Sherab and his wife Pema, who have long provided medical services to the local community in Boudhanath Stupa as well as throughout Nepal.

The practitioners were a combined group of doctors and therapists with a variety of skills including western medical skills as well as expertise in herbal medicine, nutrition, acupuncture, BodyTalk energy balancing, massage therapy and cranial fascial therapy. All therapists addressed a wide range of health concerns, including complaints of gastritis and other digestive problems, lung issues, knee and back pain, fatigue and low energy as the most common. We were happy to hear that after the first clinic at the Tibetan Community Center in Boudha Stupa, word spread of the positive experience of most patients and we were very busy throughout the 2 weeks spent in Nepal.

The Clinics were arranged as follows:

Clinic at Boudhanath Stupa
This clinic was open to all area residents. We had a wide range of patients including families, children, the elderly, and monks and nuns. All patients received multiple services including evaluation, BodyTalk, Acupuncture, manual therapy, if needed and herbal medicine. We estimate we saw approximately 500 people in 2 days.

Clinic days at Pharping
Since there are numerous monasteries and nunneries in the area, the group of 15 was further divided into smaller groups. This enabled us to provide services to over 500 monks and nuns, most of them quite young. We were even able to teach them some energy balancing techniques they are able to do for themselves. Many of them requested that we teach a formal class on the self-care techniques and we promised to return to do this. There was also a public health nurse who taught the nuns the basics of personal hygiene.

Clinics at Pokara
Here, we visited a number of Tibetan Refugee centers including centers for the elderly. The team treated several hundred people at about 4 different Tibetan refugee centers.

We loved our time in Nepal including meeting and treating everyone who came for sessions. We are now planning our next mission to Nepal, which will happen in April of 2019, in hope to be able to provide these services again and want to thank those who volunteered and sponsored this initiative in 2017.