Nepal Relief – Dudhauli Health Post

February 2022 – June 2022

As Nepal has been working to recover from the long-run impacts of past earthquakes, it was severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The real impacts of COVID-19 started to be observed in Nepal in March 2020, after the Nepal government implemented the first nationwide lockdown. During the pandemic, the local health facilities were overwhelmed and schools were used as impromptu quarantine centers. The disaster highlighted the need for improved medical facilities and the need to develop local health capacity.

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Our Work

In response to the critical need for improved healthcare facilities, All Hands and Hearts worked with local partner Relief Nepal to identify communities in need, aiming to increase community health resilience to events like COVID-19 and provide much needed additional medical services to local communities.

After a healthcare capacity assessment phase, our team identified significant gaps in the services provided to a growing population through the Dudhauli Health post. After conversations identifying the greatest area of community health need, we built two new buildings dedicated to maternal healthcare services, expanding the capacity of the health post’s service population of 40,000. Additionally, we constructed a visitor’s toilet block, installed water filtration, ran community-led WASH projects, facilitated healthcare training through our partner, NATAN and completed landscaping works.

Disaster Profile

In 2015, two earthquakes hit Nepal causing untold destruction across the country. The earthquakes not only devastated homes and schools but severely damaged or destroyed more than 90% of healthcare facilities in disaster-affected districts.

Affected communities were still working to recover from the devastating impacts of the earthquakes when the world was hit by the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Healthcare facilities were overwhelmed, lacked the infrastructure to expand services and had no ability to provide for additional requirements necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Partnerships Spotlight: NATAN Worldwide Disaster Relief

In addition to improving the physical infrastructure of the Health Post we collaborated with national and international health care specialists to facilitate training and services to build capacity within the health post, with a focus on Maternal Care.

To provide the appropriate analysis of the requirements and to conduct the training, AHAH collaborated with NATAN Worldwide Disaster Relief.
The training package was designed in collaboration with the health post and municipality to focus not just on the staff at this health post, but to conduct health-related training that will enhance the capacity of health professionals working around the Dudhauli Municipality. The training covered a variety of areas: Public and Reproductive Health Promotion by Alternative Communication Methods; Ultrasonography (USG); Standard FIRST AID; Psychosocial Aid; and training for Female Community Health Volunteers.