| Description |
For more than 20 years, the American Himalayan Foundation has partnered with HRDC to provide life-changing medical care for Nepal’s poorest disabled children. Dr. Ashok Banskota, a US-trained Nepalese surgeon, established HRDC in 1995 in a small shelter in Kathmandu. In 1998, with help from AHF, HRDC moved into a new hospital in Banepa, east of Kathmandu. After 25 years of providing life-changing treatment for more than 38,000 children from all over Nepal, he and his team at HRDC have proven a second chance is possible. HRDC is now recognized worldwide as a center of excellence in orthopedic surgery; in club foot treatment; for the design, manufacture and fitting of prosthetic and orthotic devices; and as a training center for orthopedic surgeons. HRDC’s young patients live in over 40 districts in Nepal, and the hospital monitors their progress after they leave the hospital through home visits, mobile camps, the satellite centers and 300 local partners, with whom they act as a referral organization. Currently, more than 25,000 children, who have been treated at HRDC, are receiving some type of follow-up care.<br/><br/>Each year, AHF, through its donors, supports approximately one-third of HRDC’s operating expenses. In the coming year, HRDC will perform 1,500 orthopedic surgeries, fabricate 3,300 prosthetic limbs and follow up with 8,350 children through home visits and mobile camps. This grant will be used by AHF to directly support HRDC’s surgical and physical therapy services in 2011, bringing life-changing care to the poorest disabled children in Nepal for $175 per surgery.<br/> |
| Benefits |
While a disabled child can have a difficult life anywhere in the world, in Nepal, these difficulties are compounded by the rugged terrain, the remoteness of villages, and extreme poverty. A disabled child cannot go to school or help in the fields or at home, and therefore has no place, and no future. HRDC treats the poorest children in the country and, quite literally, gives them a second chance at life, through surgery, physical therapy, prosthetics, and community-based rehabilitation services. |
