From: Dr. Duncan Smith-Rohrberg Maru
Sent: Saturday, January 03, 2009 5:59 AM
To: Fred Shepardson; Richard Katzman
Subject: New Nyaya Health Video
Happy New Year!
I just wanted to update ANMF about our current capital campaign and video; this might provide some material for your website if you would like to post any updates there. Our new video is now on our website:
We are about to embark on a large capital campaign that will raise us the finances necessary to rapidly scale-up surgical, blood transfusion, and inpatient services. In a district of 250,000 people in which we employ the only allopathic physician, the level of health services is critical. Presently, the nearest ventilator is 14 hours away and the nearest blood transfusion and surgical facility is over 10 hours. We aim to change that. To achieve this, we need your help.
We are asking you to support us and help spread the word to everyone you know. As someone who has volunteered your time and energy with us, this is an essential task for you to perform to ensure that your hard work is amplified.
Our aim is to have a network of committed, dedicated, reliable people who may live in Achham, may occasionally travel to Achham, or may never see Achham, but who together, brick-by-brick, from donations of $25 to $100,000, play a small but significant role in the international movement to achieve equity in health. To date, we have raised $224,000 of the $580,000 needed for the three-year capital and operating costs of the hospital.
Here is what I am asking you to do. We have constructed a letter pasted below that you may use for emailing your friends, family, teachers, professors, civic leaders, colleagues. Please edit this, and follow-up with phone conversations and in-person discussions. Show your contacts and link to our new documentary video, available here:
In addition to the email and phone calls and meetings, please post the update and other materials on facebook and other networking sites. The key is that you demonstrate your personal connection to the organization and that you specifically ask for money. People in your network want to be inspired, want to help fight for social justice, and want specifically to help you to this innovative work. You have the power to inspire and literally build a new health system in Nepal.
Some other developments of interest to ANMF on our accountability/transparency efforts:
http://blog.nyayahealth.org/2008/12/18/pharmacydata
http://blog.nyayahealth.org/2008/12/17/budget/
I will discuss with Dr. Katzman shortly about further involving ANMF in some of our initiatives, in anticipation of your board meeting Jan 18.
Please contact me with any questions or suggestions. Thank you for your support and solidarity.
Warm regards,
Duncan
Member Email to Contacts
I am writing to you about an exciting project I have been
working on to expand healthcare access in rural Nepal. Over the
last year, our
organization, Nyaya Health, has renovated a grain shed into a
clinic and employ the only allopathic doctor in a region of over
250,000 people. In that time, we have treated over 15,000
patients, established the only safe birthing center in the
district, and deployed the first ultrasound in the entire region.
Please view our new video and support our work:
Now, we need your help to expand our reach.
Just over two decades ago, a hospital was built in the district of Achham in the Far Western region of Nepal. Poor, rural, and without government services, the district was without any major health facilities. But the Hospital did not see its opening day. Through a bureaucratic entanglement, it was decided to move the hospital to a location with a more powerful constituency. Locals in Achham --where maternal mortality, malnutrition, and HIV were among the highest ratesin all of Asia--surrounded the hospital and demanded health services.
For intruding on the government's moving plans, they were shot, and several were killed. Years later, the Bayalpata Hospital complex remains abandoned, standing on a local hill as a symbol of neglect.
Nyaya Health has provided the first comprehensive health services to this area in years. We have employed the only allopathic physician in the district of 250,000 people. Now, we wish to finally open Bayalpata Hospital, with your help:
The situation is critical. The nearest ventilator, essential for providing breathing support to seriously ill patients, is 14 hours away. The nearest blood transfusion center and functioning operating room is over 10 hours away. As a result of this, maternal mortality is 100 times greater in Achham than in the United States. Our clinic has begun to address the lack of health services, but we are already treating 140 patients a day and demand is growing as our community health worker network expands. By renovating the abandoned hospital, we will be able to expand outpatient services; provide inpatient beds; implement a blood transfusion program; and roll out an essential surgical program. The construction and three-year operating financial need for the hospital is $580,000. We have raised $224,000 for this purpose to date. Your tax-deductible donations will go a long way towards our goal: