Posted by Chintan Maru
In the past month, two of our most dedicated team members left Achham. We are fortunate that Shefali Oza and Jhapat Thapa will continue to serve as active members of Nyaya Health’s Board of Directors.
Jhapat Thapa, MBBS served as Nyaya’s first Medical Director for two years. The staff revered him as a compassionate and just leader. He has contributed to every aspect of Nyaya’s development to date, including the establishment of our current hospital with the Nepali Ministry of Health, the recruitment and development of our staff, and the definition of our long-term vision. Dr. Thapa was born in Achham and is the first doctor in his family. His hometown is a four-hour walk from Bayalpata Hospital. He has left Achham to prepare for the US Medical Licensing Examinations. He seeks residency training in the United States to improve his clinical skills and expand his capacity to contribute to the fields of rural and public health.
- Dr. Jhapat Thapa
Shefali Oza, MSc served for one year as Nyaya’s second volunteer Executive Director. She oversaw the transition from our clinic in Sanfe Bagar to our hospital in Bayalpata. Her accomplishments and responsibilities were so numerous that her management position will be split among three staff members in the coming year. The staff will remember her perseverance, creativity, and consistent generosity. Her ability to speak several languages (Gujarati, Nepali, Hindi, English) is matched by a gift for communicating across cultures and between fields of knowledge. She leaves Achham to matriculate into an engineering PhD program in the United States and hopes to develop technologies to support rural health around the world.
Shefali Oza, MSc (sitting, center-right)
Adorned with marigold garlands and marked with red powder, each left Bayalpata Hospital in tears.
Nyaya Health would like to honor their efforts here on the blog. We invite our team members and friends to share well wishes (in the comments section below) to Shefali and Jhapat as they make the transition from hospital-based managers to valued advisors living overseas.
Its more than a month I last visited the Bayelpata Hospital in Achham but I feel like a few days back when the staff and the volunteers of the hospital (I still remember your face that day Chintan) bid farewell to their medical director Dr Jhapat and the volunteer public health expert Asha with garland and abir and hugs and more than that the tear for gratitude and separation.
It was my first time in the hospital, meeting them for the first and until now the only chance of meeting them. Staying overnight sharing ur quarters and the next day of drive back to Dhangadhi with Dr Jhapat and Asha (thanks to Dr Subhash) was the wonderful opportunity to know a bit about nyaya health initiatives serving many of the most undervrevileged people of Nepal there in Achham. Going through the website and the blog, I learnt so much about the modality of health care to the people and about hospital management that I find Nyaya health as a best fitting model in the context of remote nepalese villages.
Actually the main purpose of my travelling in the far western districts of Nepal with Subhash dai, the doctor who had seen the real health of the region, was to figure out problems and probable solution in that remote part of the country. And I was so happy when I found an excellent example of coping with the health problems of the people there through public private partnership.
I actually couldnot spent sufficient time to observe the health service delivery in the hospital, but talking with Dr Jhapat, Dr Subhash and Asha and through review of well selected articles here, I am convinced that it is possible to apply the principles of pimary health care in Nepalese villages and that is the only way for a long time to come. I have also read about the comprehensive rural health project in Jamkhed, India and i came to know from Dr Jhapat that Nyaya Health considers their experiences as a philosophical guiding principle.
Thats great you noble guys! We have alot to do for the health of poor Nepalese and for the humanity in general and for me the works of Nyaya health will remain as a motivational factor to work further towards this end.
And lastly, I apprecialte the way you are funding for your works. There are sufficient people in this planet who consider the suffering of their fellow human beings as their own and are always eager to help them. Our responsibility, as local managers is to make use of the resources optimally and honestly.
Keep going……..
i want also join your nyaya health organigation in india zone if it is possible to pls. mail me