Category Archives: health

Noncommunicable diseases in rural Nepal

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Bayalpata_Hospital_screenshot_NCD_Alliance_videoFor a year now I’ve been working for the Noncommunicable Disease Alliance, known as NCD Alliance. One of the more creative things I’ve done in that time is produce a series of short videos on NCDs in rural Nepal, specifically in the district of Achham, in Nepal’s Far-West region.

NCDs refer to various non-contagious diseases, including cancers, diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and lung diseases, as well as mental health issues. Not surprisingly when you look at that list, NCDs are responsible for more deaths each year than any other cause. Continue reading →

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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 →

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 →

Fired up over tobacco in Nepal

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A No Smoking activist approaches a man smoking during a campaign in Kathmandu in 2011. (c) RECPHEC

My latest article for Nepali Times hearkens back to my days as Communications Manager for the global NGO, Framework Convention Alliance:

Earlier this month, Health Minister Gagan Thapa told a workshop of South Asian activists fighting tobacco use that Nepal would adopt plain packaging of cigarettes in 2018 and make the country tobacco-free by 2030. Revealed just weeks before World No Tobacco Day on 31 May, the minister’s timing was great, but what about the content of his message?

Read the full article.

Nepal’s villagers; Canada’s Indigenous People

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A Nepali woman gets a pre-birth checkup. (c) UNICEF.

On the surface they are poles apart: Canada, one of the world’s most ‘developed’ nations and Nepal, still classified as a least developed country. But still, I keep finding parallels between villagers in Nepal and Canada’s poorest — Indigenous People. (See a previous post). Continue reading →

Interview with Nepal’s health minister

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Gagan ThapaMy interview with Nepal’s health minister, Gagan Thapa, is in this week’s Nepali Times. Video is also available on that page.

Thapa was a rising star when I last lived here and has become Nepal’s youngest cabinet minister. Continue reading →