After six weeks serving the earthquake victims in Nepal, I am taking a much needed break in Republic of Georgia, with my wife and daughter Anastasia (my wife is from Georgia and this was an opportunity for her to spend time with her family while I was in Nepal). Upon my return to the U.S., I will spend time with my family and continue the work of HAND in our home location in Oregon.
Our work in Nepal continues though, with another successful mission to Bungtang in Northern Nuwakot where another birthing center (tent) was built by the HAND/Global Orphan Prevention/MIDSON team.
The team returned from Nuwakot last night. Two new team members were added; Anil and Gaurav, both Nepali boys working hard to serve their people. Continuing team members are Curtis and Komal from HAND, Laxmi and Joaquim from MIDSON, and Eric and Shelby from Global Orphan Prevention. This was our 5th remote birthing center to be built, with hundreds of babies to be born in during the coming months.
Thank you for such an amazing job team!
Curtis provided this report on our latest successful mission. Also, please visit the HAND Facebook page for a video by Curtis on the most recent mission
The HAND/Global Orphan Prevention/MIDSON team has completed another birthing center in Nuwakot District. We had a rough drive in, with monsoon soaked roads and deep mud. We pushed our vehicles many times to get through to Bungtang village.
We departed early so even with the challenging drive we got to the village in the afternoon. Our two tent birthing center design had to be modified to fit the sloping land. Eric and I created a plan to make a dry entrance from the still standing building, into the tents. Just minutes after we put the final heavy duty tarp on a monsoon unleashed. This was a true test of our tent system. The inside of our tents were 100% dry. The monsoon was so strong we had to dig our trenches nearly two feet wide and a foot deep. Even these large trenches filled within minutes but worked perfectly. We are planning to make a shift to even more solid semi permanent structures for the future missions. This plan will increase our costs but last for two to three years.
Posted by Brian Smith