This fund has been set up to support the training costs of selected medical students from incredibly poor backgrounds in Nepal.
In return, they pledge to work for five years post qualification as doctors in rural isolated areas of Nepal.
Having worked for Medecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) in the far west of Nepal, Kate Yarrow (founder of
Doctors For Nepal) saw for herself the terrible conditions in which most people live; this not only includes lack of food
and clean water, but almost non-existent health care. This is partly due to the physical isolation and harsh environment
of the communities, but also to political unrest and the impact of long term civil war. Hence it is difficult for the ministry
of health to attract doctors to work for these communities.
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| One of the few patients lucky enought to receive care from a doctor |
With the end of the civil war, international charities are inevitably winding up their projects in the area, leaving remote
war affected communities to fend for themselves. This leaves the government to provide medical doctors and health care for
communities that are too often neglected. Although we cannot right this immediately, in the long term we can empower the
communities by providing them with doctors from their own country, and their own communities. Doctors For Nepal will provide
the finances to train local people as medical doctors who will in return be contracted to work in these difficult areas for
5 years after graduation. Their presence should vastly improve the services available in these poor mountain areas, providing
a brighter future for so many vulnerable patients.
