This is a sobering piece I wrote after spending some time in a village called Panauti in Nepal.
Her shawl was ragged, her cheeks were tear stained and her face was lined and haggard. As she approached us, we were sitting on tiny red plastic stools on the rough cobblestoned street catching a few rays of watery sunshine. I looked up from my reading of an article in the Kathmandu Post about the latest eruption of violence in Nepal.
She lifted up her shawl with a shaky hand to reveal her left breast, which was encrusted with an appalling scabby growth.
She was sobbing uncontrollably, and in her traumatised state all vestiges of modesty and rules of etiquette were forgotten.
A line of noisy quacking ducks paraded by. Dirty faced children played in the streets. It was late afternoon in Panauti, a town one hour south of Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal.
The sun was making a brief appearance for a few hours, warming the landscape, before peeking back again behind the clouds.
The woman sat down wearily on steps adjoining a building clutching her breast, which was now covered. She was wailing like a defeated, terrified animal. She appealed to my Nepali companions, who work for a local charity, for help. She needed money for an operation to deal with her breast cancer, which was at an advanced stage.
Chiniya Duwal, a young Nepalese man, and head of local humanitarian organisation SCI Nepal, spoke with the woman. He told me later there were hundreds of people in the village suffering from health problems who had no money to treat their illnesses with.
“This is life here, this is the way it is,” he stated simply.
Chinya had only just returned that morning from the funeral of his young cousin, who had died of kidney failure. His head was shiny and freshly shaved, as is the custom for Nepalese funerals.
A kidney transplant would have saved his cousin’s life, but such an operation is rare in Nepal, one of the poorest countries in the world.
According to the Wo
rld Health Organisation there is a one in ten chance of a child under five in Nepal dying before its fifth birthday. And there is an average of one doctor for every 5,000 people in the country.
It is ten months now since Nepal entered a new era of its history-when the Maoists entered a transitional government and the monarchy was stripped of its powers in January. This brought a decade long bloody conflict to an end, which claimed 12,000 lives.
Preparations are now in full swing for the holding of elections in November.
Although in theory that should signal a new time of hope for the country’s 26 million citizens, Chiniya remained cynical. “This conflict is going to run and run,” he said.
There are still frequent reports of violent incidents, attacks and vandalism.
The top United Nations envoy to Nepal has attempted to contain the situation by appealing to people to resist resorting to violence in the run up to the elections.
“It is sickening for those of us who wish to see a peaceful, democratic and inclusive Nepal to read daily of killings, assaults, threats of violence and destruction of public and private property,” Ian Martin said in Kathmandu last week.
The elections, which were supposed to take place in June, are a critical step forward in the peace process. They were postponed because regulations governing the process were not ready at the time. November was the next earliest available date because of the monsoon season and several major national holidays.
Regardless of political events, elections or changes in administration the reality is that the people of Panauti must continue their daily struggle. Walking down alleyways I heard many small children coughing and spluttering from inside their homes. I saw a high number of children wi
th special needs and adults with eye problems or with visible limps.
Yet in spite of their poor health and dire poverty so many of the townspeople were so friendly and welcoming.
And paradoxically the town itself was charming in many other ways, with friendly tea shops, beautiful mountains sheltering it on all sides and fabulous architecture.
It is home to the Indresvar Mahadev temple, which is recognised by UNESCO and was built in 1294. Other points of interest include a 17th century Brahmayani temple and various traditional houses, which have been unchanged, probably for hundreds of years.
The people of Nepal, who can boast they live in the country with the noblest and highest peak of them all-Mount Everest, and who are in general a kind and gentle race of people, must hang in for another while yet before they can truly shine and take their place in the world, and get what they deserve- a decent standard of living.
Her shawl was ragged, her cheeks were tear stained and her face was lined and haggard. As she approached us, we were sitting on tiny red plastic stools on the rough cobblestoned street catching a few rays of watery sunshine. I looked up from my reading of an article in the Kathmandu Post about the latest eruption of violence in Nepal.
She lifted up her shawl with a shaky hand to reveal her left breast, which was encrusted with an appalling scabby growth.
She was sobbing uncontrollably, and in her traumatised state all vestiges of modesty and rules of etiquette were forgotten.
A line of noisy quacking ducks paraded by. Dirty faced children played in the streets. It was late afternoon in Panauti, a town one hour south of Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal.
The sun was making a brief appearance for a few hours, warming the landscape, before peeking back again behind the clouds.
The woman sat down wearily on steps adjoining a building clutching her breast, which was now covered. She was wailing like a defeated, terrified animal. She appealed to my Nepali companions, who work for a local charity, for help. She needed money for an operation to deal with her breast cancer, which was at an advanced stage.
Chiniya Duwal, a young Nepalese man, and head of local humanitarian organisation SCI Nepal, spoke with the woman. He told me later there were hundreds of people in the village suffering from health problems who had no money to treat their illnesses with.
“This is life here, this is the way it is,” he stated simply.
Chinya had only just returned that morning from the funeral of his young cousin, who had died of kidney failure. His head was shiny and freshly shaved, as is the custom for Nepalese funerals.
A kidney transplant would have saved his cousin’s life, but such an operation is rare in Nepal, one of the poorest countries in the world.
According to the Wo
rld Health Organisation there is a one in ten chance of a child under five in Nepal dying before its fifth birthday. And there is an average of one doctor for every 5,000 people in the country.It is ten months now since Nepal entered a new era of its history-when the Maoists entered a transitional government and the monarchy was stripped of its powers in January. This brought a decade long bloody conflict to an end, which claimed 12,000 lives.
Preparations are now in full swing for the holding of elections in November.
Although in theory that should signal a new time of hope for the country’s 26 million citizens, Chiniya remained cynical. “This conflict is going to run and run,” he said.
There are still frequent reports of violent incidents, attacks and vandalism.
The top United Nations envoy to Nepal has attempted to contain the situation by appealing to people to resist resorting to violence in the run up to the elections.
“It is sickening for those of us who wish to see a peaceful, democratic and inclusive Nepal to read daily of killings, assaults, threats of violence and destruction of public and private property,” Ian Martin said in Kathmandu last week.
The elections, which were supposed to take place in June, are a critical step forward in the peace process. They were postponed because regulations governing the process were not ready at the time. November was the next earliest available date because of the monsoon season and several major national holidays.
Regardless of political events, elections or changes in administration the reality is that the people of Panauti must continue their daily struggle. Walking down alleyways I heard many small children coughing and spluttering from inside their homes. I saw a high number of children wi
th special needs and adults with eye problems or with visible limps.Yet in spite of their poor health and dire poverty so many of the townspeople were so friendly and welcoming.
And paradoxically the town itself was charming in many other ways, with friendly tea shops, beautiful mountains sheltering it on all sides and fabulous architecture.
It is home to the Indresvar Mahadev temple, which is recognised by UNESCO and was built in 1294. Other points of interest include a 17th century Brahmayani temple and various traditional houses, which have been unchanged, probably for hundreds of years.
The people of Nepal, who can boast they live in the country with the noblest and highest peak of them all-Mount Everest, and who are in general a kind and gentle race of people, must hang in for another while yet before they can truly shine and take their place in the world, and get what they deserve- a decent standard of living.
