Anchorage Artists’ Paintings Save Nepali Lives
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Lack of access to life-saving emergency medical care as well as finances to pay for it. As well as, need to improve/update medical education at Nepal’s Teaching Hospital through knowledge transfer by Anchorage doctors and skilled professionals.
A different Anchorage artist completes a painting-a-day for a month at Blaine’s Art Supply. Locals get to meet their favorite artist and learn some techniques first hand. Helping Hand for Nepal provides educational in-store information. Now an annual event, paintings are displayed for a silent auction which culminates in a First Friday event with food, door prizes, and entertainment. 100% of sales and money raised goes into the HHN Medical Emergency Endowment. When funded at the minimum level of $1m, earned income will provide emergency life-saving surgeries/procedures for indigent Nepalis who would otherwise die. Nepal is one of the world’s poorest countries.
Feb. 2012 an Anchorage neonatologist accompanied HHN’s Executive Director (Jay Jackson) to Nepal for the first week of her visit, which they spent in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital. They brought medical supplies, books for the library, and a piece of requested equipment. Dr. Jacob demonstrated techniques, gave lectures, and did rounds with the doctors and Residents. Jay photographed the experience.
The first problem tackled was their infection rate. Dr. Jacob suggested adding two protocols—one at a time—to determine what would work to reduce this. Both were eventually added to their routine, and several months later Nepali doctors reported they saw a significant reduction in the neonates’ infection rates. The NICU has approximately 10 beds for a population of 28m people. Nepal is 90% rural; most women give birth at home with no medical assistance. Improving training of medical personnel at TUTH will lower infant mortality rates and improve maternal health care as these newly trained medical professionals take their places in Nepal.
Money from the HHN Medical Emergency Endowment can eventually provide care for neonates who would not otherwise receive it. A day in the TUTH NICU costs about $20; it is about $3000/day in Anchorage. Jay and Dr. Jacob are now working on getting compressed air for the NICU so they can regulate the amount of oxygen received (100%, which is now used, can cause blindness). Also ways to cool a neonate.
Dr. Jacob introduced the idea of practicing team medicine; plans are being made to return in 2013 with a team to demonstrate this method. This will be an on-going long-term knowledge transfer relationship.
HHN is an all-volunteer nonprofit; 100% of all donations go directly to the Nepal project. Volunteers pay their own expenses as well as volunteer their time and expertise. No salaries or overhead are paid. A student in Jay’s photography class told her he would become a doctor, donate his time in developing countries, and take her with him as his documentary photographer. He became an ophthalmologist. Twenty years later he called Jay to say, “order your film, send me the bill, we’re going to Nepal.” Returning home determined to help in some way, she founded HHN.
More About This Charity
Region
West
Category
Health and Well Being
Name
Helping Hand for Nepal, Inc.
Mission
Helping Hand for Nepal (HHN) alleviates poverty and suffering through Nepali requested projects in medicine, education, sanitation, and water supply. HHN accepts special one-time-need projects. Recognizing the need for sustainable development, HHN works directly with Nepalis
Impact
- This Achievement raised $7,000.
- This Charity raised $15,984.33 in the past year.
- The lives of thousands of Nepali babies will be saved with money raised for the Medical Emergency Endowment and the transfer of medical knowledge.
- This Charity has helped 15,066 people in the past year.
Works In
Nepal
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