Rural hospital an affordable model?

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Bayalpata_Hospital_community_health_worker_patient_(c)_Marty_Logan

Bayalpata Hospital Community Health Worker Bhajan Kunwar checks the blood pressure of Namsara Tamrakar at her home in Chandika village, Achham district, Nepal, Feb. 2018.

Below is the article I wrote for Nepali Times after visiting Bayalpata Hospital in Nepal’s Achham district. Achham is often described as “remote” but we drove there easily in 9 hours from a main city, paved roads all the way, and jolted by fewer potholes than you’ll suffer driving in Kathmandu.

Though it appears long for the Times, the article leaves out a lot that I would have liked to say about Bayalpata. Continue reading →

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Achham rising

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Sanfebagar_Airport_construction_SMI travelled to Nepal’s far-western district of Achham last week. Our main aim was to visit Bayalpata Hospital, a community-focused institution run by a US-based NGO called Possible, which is undergoing an impressive expansion.

More on that later. For now, here’s my small article about the revival of the airport in the town of Sanfbagar, near the hospital. From Nepali Times:

Marty Logan in Achham
Achham district, which is connected to the rest of the country through an arduous 8 hour journey from the Tarai, will soon revive its airfield in Sanfebagar.

Work to blacktop the runway, following a Maoist attack in February 2002, is ongoing, and the facility is expected to be ready before the rainy season. However, there are conflicting views about whether the airport will succeed. Continue reading →

Cricket loss lost on Canadians

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Nepal players rejoice after beating Canada in cricket.

Nepal players rejoice after beating Canada in cricket. (c) ICC

Here’s a fun piece I wrote for Nepali Times after Nepal defeated Canada at the last-minute in an important cricket match:

Miracles Happen

A Canadian living in Kathmandu, I woke up Thursday to the headline news in all the dailies that Nepal had defeated Canada in cricket.

My family in Canada woke up to read about another murderous shooting spree in the neighbouring US, a new government initiative for the country’s indigenous people, and a political leader in the province of Ontario claiming to be the target of a conspiracy.

To state the obvious, cricket is not big news in Canada. In fact, it doesn’t even rate its own page on the website of CBC, the national broadcaster. Athletics, tennis, swimming, cycling, rugby and volleyball are all there. No cricket. Ask Canadians what they think of when they hear ‘cricket’ and the vast majority will mention a hopping, chirping insect. Continue reading →

Nepali migrants are building Kathmandu

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Rocking_baby_SMConstruction is happening everywhere in Nepal’s capital Kathmandu. Within a square kilometre of where I live there must be dozens of projects going up, mostly houses but also hotels, and other projects.

The work, such as mixing cement and hammering nails, is almost all done by hand, and the workers are not equipped with special clothing or safety gear. Passing many sites it’s obvious that the workforce lives on-site, sometimes in tents but, as I discovered writing and filming this article, sometimes in the cement shells of the buildings themselves.

Most of the workers are from other parts of Nepal, and neighbouring India. In Hotel Kutumba, where I spent some time, there were groups of 4 or 5 from various districts. Read the full article on the Nepali Times website or watch the video below:

Documenting Nepal’s earthquake survivors

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I passed this damaged building walking in and out of Chisapani a couple of weeks ago. The village is on the northern edge of the Kathmandu Valley, in Shivapuri National Park.

The Asia Foundation in Nepal continues doing a series of post-earthquake surveys of households whose homes were damaged or destroyed by the 2015 earthquakes.

I am impressed that more than two years after the devastation TAF continues to follow-up and I suspect that the information they’re collecting will be useful in future post-disaster situations. More than that, I hope someone at the Nepal government body responsible for earthquake recovery, the Nepal Reconstruction Authority, is reading these reports and seriously considering their recommendations. Continue reading →

Will Nepal’s election to United Nations body benefit global human rights?

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MartyBlogNepalHRC_211017

A cartoon from issue 702 of Nepali Times (11-17 April 2014). It depicts former Prime Minister Girija P Koirala (left) and former Maoist leader Pushpa K Dahal.

Nepal has successfully won a seat on the United Nations Human Rights Council, the senior-most human rights body among the world’s governments.

The Himalayan nation was elected for a two-year term during the recent UN General Assembly, despite a rocky human rights record at home. This includes setting up commissions to probe alleged human rights abuses during the 1996-2006 Maoist uprising that fail to meet global standards, and ignoring orders from Nepal’s Supreme Court to fix them.

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Rights at home first

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MartyLogan_NepalHumanRightsCouncil_101017The consensus among human rights experts who I interviewed recently is that Nepal should fix its own human rights record before bidding for a seat on the United Nations human rights council—or at least do both simultaneously. Continue reading →