Memorial Building
A number of expatriate Nepalis have formed a new organisation, UK Friends of Bhaktapur Cancer Hospital (UKFOBCH). The object of this organisation is to help future infrastructure development at Bhaktapur Cancer Hospital (BCH). The immediate specific objective is to build an extension at BCH by name of Smriti Bhavan (Memorial Building) with contributions from Nepalese living in UK, US and Nepal in memory of their loved ones.
The target for the building is Rs.2 Crore (approximately $285,000) to be raised from 200 Nepalese as individual donations of Rs.1 Lakh (approximately $1,425) each. The building will provide the rooms for BCH to help the patient care and it will have a Hall of Memory where the names of individual donors and the names of their loved ones will be permanently displayed on individual marble flagstones with appropriate inscriptions in rows in the walls.
This Project will be implemented in stages and during the present stage we are receiving firm pledges from Nepalese to donate Rs.1 Lakh each in memory of their loved ones. Once a significant numbers of pledges nearing 200 are received we will go on to prepare site planning, architectural drawings and get firm estimates. Before the construction begins we UKFOBCH will enter into a firm agreement regarding planning, accountability, budgetary control, monitoring and transparency on the project. The members of the UKFOBCH will do these through the mediums of phone, fax, email and videoconferencing along with hands-on activities during their social visits to Nepal. The trustees of UKFOBCH will regularly report on the budgetary control and monitoring of the Project to the UK Charity Commission as required by it on spending the charitable funds raised in UK.
When Smriti Bhavan is completed we will arrange a Ceremonial Inauguration on a suitable day and suitable season and invite all 200 or more donors to attend. At inauguration we will hold an appropriate programme to show the mark of respect to our loved ones who are dead and the event will be a sombre and dignified occasion in keeping with the culture and custom of the people of Nepal. Once a year we will hold an Annual Remembrance Day (Smriti Deebas) and invite all the contributors including the ones from UK and US and observe the event with similar respectful manner and dignity. We will choose such a day and time of the year when many from UK & US can attend.
The Bhaktapur Cancer Hospital Smriti Bhavan International Project invites any Nepali living abroad to consider participating if one can afford to donate Rs.1 Lakh and have special affinity towards remembering one’s loved one in such a manner. The donations should not be less than Rs.1 Lakh but not more than 1 Lakh too so that all the donors feel equal and share the happiness from Smriti Bhavan Project equally.
Bibek Pradhan
Nepal Cancer Project
Telephone or Fax: ++1623 490789
b.pradhan
ntlworld.com
30 November 2004
I attended the meeting of Bhaktapur Cancer Hospital - Smriti Bhavan Committee on 7 October 2007. The Chairman and all the members of the Committee were delighted that a decision has been made as regards the Memorial Building site. The meeting decided to request the architect to visit the new site and prepare new design to adapt with this site. The Chairman commented that many donors had been waiting for a decision to start construction before they decided to donate Rs.1 Lakh (one hundred thousand) and he and all the members of the Committee are confident that they will raise the original target of Rs.2 Crore (twenty million). The Memorial Building will have new Out Patient Department, Laboratory, Pharmacy, X-ray Room, rooms for diagnostic equipments and the Hall of Memory where the plaques with donors’ names will be displayed. The Committee expects to start construction within three months and finish in eighteen months. So the inauguration of the Memorial Building should take place sometime in spring 2009 and I advise those who would like to attend the inauguration function to take note of this.
Bibek Pradhan
Chairman
UK Friends of Bhaktapur Cancer Hospital
6 November 2007
Smriti Bhawan will be a big building consisting of a New OPD, Laboratory, Pharmacy, X-ray Room with further scope for several diagnostic rooms for CT Scan, Ultrasound, Laparoscopy, Culposcopy, Brachytherapy and so on according to the immediate needs of the Hospital and the budget.
But the prominent feature will be a big Hall of Memory where 200 fair sized individual marble flags with the names of the donors and their loved ones in whose memory the donations were made would be permanently displayed. The Hall of Memory will be a multiple purpose Hall at all times but once a year we will be observing Smriti Diwas when the donors whosoever could attend will do so and we will hold a solemn function befitting the occasion of remembering our loved ones who have departed from this world.
Bibek Pradhan
Chairman
UK Friends of Bhaktapur Cancer Hospital
6 January 2008
For more information, see Memorial Building (Smriti Bhavan) or contact ANMF.
1/16/06 - Donation amount fixed at $1,450 for U.S. currency.
2/8/06 - Architect's conceptual drawings prepared
11/18/06 - $7,450 raised by ANMF to date
11/26/06 - Progress report received from Bibek Pradhan: 88 (of 200 needed) firm pledges received to date
12/2/06 - Printable brochure from Smriti Bhawan Project: Front Page & Back Page
1/5/07 - Arjun Karki, MD, President of ANMF Nepal, delivers a check for $4,250 to Dr. Rajendra Baral, Medical Director of Bhaktapur Cancer Hospital. Professor A. K. Sharma, Specialist and Surgical Oncologist at BCH, is in the background.
7/21/07 - 100 pledges collected to date, 58 of which have already made their donation.
9/23/07 - ANMF Fund Raising Project closed. Donations can still be accepted on behalf of Smriti Bhavan.
11/5/07 -
Construction to begin within three months and
finish in eighteen months.
If you wish to make a contribution to Bhaktapur Cancer Hospital, please go to Donate and specify that your donation is targeted to Bhaktapur Cancer Hospital.
Thank you!