Opening medical facilities halfway around the world

Randy Baker's mother, Darlene Warren, grew up in Thermopolis and her parents lived in East Thermopolis, across from what was known as the buffalo patch. Baker noted he had two aunts who also lived here nearly their whole lives - Marie Enis and Sally Stanton, known by many as "Aunt Sally" - so he was quite familiar with Thermopolis.

Recently, his mother passed away, and Baker came to town to settle some business, which led to his living in his aunt's old house in East Thermopolis and later deciding to stay for a while.

Almost 11 years ago, Baker and his two friends chose to journey from Longmont, Colo. to the base camp of Mt. Everest. As they prepared to make the trip, they knew they would need a guide. After sending out emails to several potential candidates, Baker received a call from a man who welcomed him to spread his footprint "over the holy Everest region." Before the call was over, Baker would hire the man, Jagat Lama, as their guide.

The journey through Nepal began the following year, in 2006, and along the way Lama shared with them a story of how is father had fallen ill and a trip to the nearest hospital would take a day. After five days, Lama went to see his father, who at that time had nearly passed away; though he tried to take him to the hospital, it was already too late.

Lama felt if he could build a hospital he could provide treatment to others. The guide further noted his father told him to be a good man and try to help those in remote regions with educational and medical needs. He said his dream was to do something for his village and fulfill his father's dying wish.

It was a story Lama shared with hundreds of other trekkers, Baker said, "then he told my friends and I, and things began to happen. I wish I could say it was my life's dream to be a philanthropist. It wasn't, but when things began to happen I said 'I can do that.'"

Baker and his friends kept in touch with Lama, and considered the possibility they could help him fulfill his dream to provide medical help for his community.

Though it was a huge undertaking to consider, Baker learned the head of the company he worked for was tired of hearing how things couldn't be done and was looking for those with big dreams who believed they could do great things. As building a hospital in Nepal certainly fit the bill, Baker submitted the idea. It was selected for a program through which the company provides funding and time off for people to reach their goals, and with the help of people he worked with Baker took the first step in turning Lama's dream into reality.

Location is everything

In a return trip to Nepal, Baker and others scouted a location for the hospital but were shocked by what they found. They knew Nepal was a third-world country, but the Kumari region is backward even by the country's standards. They learned the people of the Kumari are from the Tamang tribe, considered the lowest social status in Nepal, and suffered from prejudice, neglect and extreme poverty.

The group found the Kumari people were not only without a medical facility, but they also had no electricity, no water, no road and no toilets. The children didn't have enough to eat, their clothes were ragged, few wore shoes and many were sick. They saw a schoolhouse with no roof and were told about 250 children attend there; still, with no bathroom.

They saw a boy with an infected finger crawling on the ground, and the doctor with them wrote down the medicine the boy needed and they sent a man to the nearest town to get it; he returned the next day with antibiotics that saved the boy's life.

Believing this to be a bit dramatic, they asked what might have happened if they hadn't come along. They were shown a demonstration of the local "doctor's work," more drums and bells than anything else. It was a nine-hour hike to the district hospital, and they heard stories of children who died along the way when their fathers tried to take them. Lama assured them the stories were true with one sentence - "When my father took my sister to the hospital, he came back alone."

First steps

While they found there were many obstacles to building a health facility in the Kumari, they also knew they were the only hope for the people.

The first steps were to address the infrastructure. Electricity, water, and a road were essential to the running of any medical facility, and the group offered to purchase the materials if the people would supply the labor. They agreed enthusiastically.

Staffing was the next big problem. Like any remote rural location, it is very difficult to attract qualified professional people, so the group set to looking in the community for the answer. The plan is to support young people in the education in medical fields. Support was offered with an agreement that the students return to the Kumari for three years to serve the community.

A trip to America

In order to launch the programs in America, Lama was invited to come to Longmont to speak with supporters and make a presentation to the Board of Directors for Health & Ed 4 Nepal, to reach a larger audience. They had a great response, and there was even time for Lama to have some fun, jet skiing among other activities.

After Lama spoke, over 70 people volunteered to help with the project. The volunteers organized into groups to support education, fundraising, website development and many other committees.

First medical camp

On March 26, 2009, they were able to sponsor the first medical camp in the Kumari. They saw over 1,100 patients, sponsored surgery for 26 women and one man, saved lives of a young girl with meningitis and a heart attack victim. Baker stated they "touched the lives of everyone in Kumari."

Between the team of 19 from the U.S., the Nepali medical team and Lama's Kumari team, over 100 people supported the camp. The doctor from Nepal, who had been to many camps, said theirs was the best he had ever attended.

After the close of the camp, they broke ground for the clinic. Several high-ranking government leaders attended the ceremony, praising the work and agreeing to provide more pipes for the water project and to fund road extensions to the road built to the medical clinic site.

During the week they group met with the 25 children they sponsored for school that year. In a presentation at the school, they delivered 250 kits of school supplies.

They also conducted a formal dedication of the women's education center.

The work continues

Baker stated 2009 was a tough year. The economy was down, as were donations. They lost corporate support and though private donations were also down, the work continued. They did a significant amount of construction on the clinic, purchased poles to bring electricity to the Kumari and continued to support medical students.

Things began looking up in 2011. The week before July 4, they set up a fireworks stand in Longmont. In addition to fireworks, there were prayer flags, posters of Nepal, and a Himalayan mountain guide, Lama, ready to talk about trekking to Mt. Everest. They sold so many fireworks that we had to close up midday on Independence Day.

After a week of selling fireworks to Americans, Lama went to Salt Lake City to meet with representatives of the Sorensen Legacy Foundation. They said they were short on time and could only give him a few minutes. Lama began to tell his story and the people from the foundation stayed and listened for almost an hour. In the end they agreed to give Lama a grant to finish the clinic in the Kumari.

The footprint grows

Dr. Jill Pritcher and Camielle Bently led a group of physicians and students from the Rocky Vista University who spent a week in the Kumari seeing patients. Lama went to Portland, Ore. to meet with Les Zollbrecht from the Mountain Leadership Institute, and a group traveled to Nepal and helped build the first lavatory in the Kumari.

Students from the University of Utah chapter of the Engineers Without Boarders won a grant to introduce a vented fireplace construction to the Kumari. Doctors from the 2009 health camp said that the large number of respiratory problems they saw was a result of the open fireplaces in the homes.

The group went to the Kumari to test their stove design. In most cases testing with existing stoves or three-stone fires, they measured carbon monoxide concentrations in the home above 100 ppm, and in some cases as high as 500-600 ppm - OSHA permissible exposure limit is 50 ppm for an eight-hour period. The Kumari 1.1 stove could achieve about 20 ppm room carbon monoxide if operated properly.

To help improve the plight of the Tamang girls, Health & Ed 4 Nepal (H&E4N) supported two young women in a bridge program to prepare students to become nurses and midwives. One woman moved to Kathmandu with her husband to attend this school.

A sewing cooperative was opened to provide income for the women of the community.

The cooperative donates part of their profit to support the hospital. In addition, the women of the Kumari are training groups of women from neighboring communities. Over 350 local women were trained in the women's center.

Opening the Sukman

Memorial Polyclinic

On March 21, 2013 they opened the polyclinic. Their arrival was accompanied by the traditional flowers, girls in traditional costume, the local band and a crowd of about 500 people. As soon as they arrived, Baker stated, it was his great honor to throw the switch and bring electricity to the Kumari.

A road built had the most impact. They could see a higher standard of living, which Lama confirmed, letting them know the people of Kumari could now grow cash crops and take them to market.

Hours before the grand opening celebration was about to begin, there was a wind storm. It blew down the cook tents, and the stage. But it didn't stop Lama. A makeshift cover was put on the stage and they went ahead with the celebration.

The best moment for Baker came the day after the ceremony. They went to Lama's old house where found Sailo Tamang, the boy that had the infected finger back in 2008. Baker stated he is alive and well and appears to be quite a rascal. "I liked him a lot," he stated. "I expect great things from that boy."

The world comes together

In the years following the opening of the clinic, several have donated to project, including those in Longmont and those who have sent their proceeds from company sales. Baker said he wouldn't have believed how everyone began coming together if he hadn't experienced it.

His favorite story is when he and a friend were visiting with student in a leadership program in Longmont. In the program, students create and execute service projects. In 2015, a young man in the program named Mohammad Aziz approached them and said he wanted to help by creating first aid kits and sending them to Nepal.

A few weeks later Baker got a call from a midshipman at the US Naval academy. His name was Rahul Singh and his parents were from India. He said he spoke Hindi and thought that would help. Though not versed in construction, Singh had first aid knowledge, and Baker put him in touch with Mohammad and staff at the Kumari clinic. A few months later Singh was in the Himalayas teaching first aid using the first aid kits made by Aziz. Singh would go on to teach advanced CPR to clinic staff.

Groundbreaking of

a deadlier sort

On April 25th, 2015, a massive 7.9 earthquake struck Nepal. The main shock was followed by quakes of local magnitude greater than 4.0 within the first 45 days.

Rural areas like the Kumari suffered nearly 100 percent damage but received little to no assistance. Mapping of the quake zones showed both major earthquakes occurred outside of Kathmandu in more rural areas, which have continued to receive large aftershocks even months after the original quake.

In the Kumari, thousands of homes were destroyed. The schools were completely gone. The clinic was severely damaged and the women's center crumbled.

Lama's home in Kathmandu was damaged severely in the earthquake. So much that he and his family were living under a tarp in the street. Baker stated it was heart breaking to text or chat with him and Lama being forced to stop because his hands were too cold to continue, as it was raining and cold under the tarp.

Again people came together, flying halfway around the world to set up medical camps, writing stories and setting up donation sites. Among those helping, Baker noted, were a rock band from Milano, a church group in England, a group of Asian Americans, the Berkeley Chinese Community Church and a medical group from Mexico.

The women's center was too badly damaged to be saved and was completely torn down, and children had to attend school in temporary buildings. As soon as the monsoons ended the road repairs began. When the work was completed, materials needed to rebuild the clinic were delivered to the Kumari.

Continuing the journey

"Since the earthquake," Baker said, "we have rebuilt the clinic, and the clinic is open and operating." The women's center and school have been rebuilt as well. Baker noted the school has some updated construction and is now virtually earthquake-proof. Lama was very proud of the gate to the compound that was salvaged from a building destroyed by the earthquake.

On Feb. 19, there will be an official re-opening ceremony for the clinic, which Baker will attend. Following the ceremony, Baker plans to spend the next couple of months in Nepal. Among the work he will be doing is getting people to be comfortable with taking ownership of the clinic, school and women's center. That has always been the plan, he noted, but things got a bit interrupted by the quake.

"From that surprise phone call in 2007 to the grand opening of the hospital in 2013, and through the terrible 2015 earthquake and its aftermath, it has been an amazing journey," Baker stated.

"I have had the great honor to have been able to work with an incredible man, who had a dream, and he let us share the dream." He expressed great appreciation to Lama.

"But, my greatest joy has come from the people who have journeyed with me," Baker noted. "I cannot express enough gratitude to those that have made this wonderful experience, the greatest of my life."

Those who would like more information, or to make a donation, can visit http://www.healthanded4nepal.org.