Effective, Efficient Rural Primary Care
Nepal remains one of the poorest countries in the world and has been plagued with political unrest and military conflict for the past decade. In 2015, a pair of major earthquakes devastated this small and fragile country.
Since 2008, the Acupuncture Relief Project has provided over 300,000 treatments to patients living in rural villages outside of Kathmandu Nepal. Our efforts include the treatment of patients living without access to modern medical care as well as people suffering from extreme poverty, substance abuse and social disfranchisement.
Common conditions include musculoskeletal pain, digestive pain, hypertension, diabetes, stroke rehabilitation, uterine prolapse, asthma, and recovery from tuberculosis treatment, typhoid fever, and surgery.
35-year-old female presents with multiple bilateral joint pain beginning 18 months previously and had received a diagnosis of…
20-year-old male patient presents with decreased mental capacity, which his mother states has been present since birth. He…
60-year-old female presents with spinal trauma sequela consisting of constant mid- to high grade pain and restricted flexion…
80-year-old male presents with vomiting 20 minutes after each meal for 2 years. At the time of initial…
In the aftermath of the 2015 Gorkha Earthquake, this episode explores the challenges of providing basic medical access for people living in rural areas.
Acupuncture Relief Project tackles complicated medical cases through accurate assessment and the cooperation of both governmental and non-governmental agencies.
Cooperation with the local government yields a unique opportunities to establish a new integrated medicine outpost in Bajra Barahi, Makawanpur, Nepal.
Complicated medical cases require extraordinary effort. This episode follows 4-year-old Sushmita in her battle with tuberculosis.
Drug and alcohol abuse is a constant issue in both rural and urban areas of Nepal. Local customs and few treatment facilities prove difficult obstacles.
Interpreters help make a critical connection between patients and practitioners. This episode explores the people that make our medicine possible and what it takes to do the job.
This episode looks at the people and the process of creating a new generation of Nepali rural health providers.
In this 2011, documentary, Film-maker Tristan Stoch successfully illustrates many of the complexities of providing primary medical care in a third world environment.
Community acupuncture is a very powerful tool and healing modality in treating a variety of individual and community conditions in rural and under-served areas. However, we do not consider ourselves an "Alternative" or "Acupuncture" clinic. We serve as Primary Care Providers in the remote areas in which we operate. Providing a very effective, cost-efficient new model for this type of clinic.
We work very hard at documentation, research and other measures of efficacy to show how we are able to serve in this capacity. Most importantly our practitioners are the primary source of medical advice, assessment and diagnostics for our communities. We treat with acupuncture, naturopathic and allopathic modalities as we deem effective and we refer to hospitals and other specialists as necessary (when they are available). The access we provide to basic care has an immeasurable impact on influencing both overall individual and a community health.
Acupuncture is very easy to teach to other healthcare workers giving them additional low-cost methods of treating chronic pain and other pathologies.
Clients are treated in a group, sitting up in chairs, fully clothed. Acupuncture does not rely on the availability of expensive medications and can be extremely effective in treating pain, neurological conditions, digestive disorders and anxiety.
• Acupuncture addresses physical and mental health conditions simultaneously.
• Effects are immediate, but can also be long lasting, well beyond the time the treatment is being given.
• While the treatment alleviates symptoms, it is also a general balancing treatment, which treats not only symptoms, but also the root cause of the symptoms. It addresses the whole person and has a comprehensive effect.
• There are almost no side effects or contraindications. It is non-addictive.
• Equally effective when there are language or cultural barriers.
• Healing in a community environment is especially beneficial when a disaster, trauma, or conflict has affected the whole community.
• Acupuncture in a group setting allows the community as well as the individuals to experience healing.
In addition to providing aid to this besieged community abroad our practitioners will gain valuable experience that will aid in their personal development and compassionate treatment of their patients back home.
Please consider supporting our project by making a tax deductible donation. Every dollar we collect goes directly to the purchase of medical supplies and operating expenses of our field clinic.
Every dollar allows us to provide one patient treatment.
$20 pays for an interpreter for 10 days!
$50 pays for one practitioner's clinic supplies for one week!
$100 pays all of our clinic expenses for one day!
Think for a moment about how much impact we can have when we can treat 120 people for as little as $100.
Make a tax deductible contribution now
contact us for more information.
We sincerely thank you for your support.
Home to eight of the highest mountains in the world including Mt. Everest, Nepal is a landlocked country in South Asia known for its natural beauty and its many temples and places of worship. Though a small territory, the landscape of Nepal is unusually diverse, ranging from humid jungles in the south to the lofty Himalayas in the north. Nepal’s largest and capital city is Kathmandu with over one million people crowding its narrow streets.
After a long and rich history, Nepal became a constitutional monarchy in 1990. This arrangement was marked by increasing instability and in 1996, large swaths of the country were embroiled in a guerilla conflict with Maoist insurgents seeking to overthrow both the monarchy and Nepalese mainstream political parties to establish a Maoist state.
In 2006, after a decade of chaos in which more than 11,000 people died and nearly 200,000 were displaced the King agreed to relinquish sovereign power back to the people and reinstated the dissolved House of Representatives — which promptly declared Nepal a secular state. In 2008 the king was deposed and a democratic republic was established.
Nepal remains one of the world’s poorest countries, with a per capita income of just US $244/year. Rural people — who make up more than 85 percent of Nepal’s population — continue to struggle with extreme poverty, the disenfranchisement of vulnerable minority groups, political corruption, and a lack of government and social services. Many young people have migrated from their remote villages to urban areas and even to India or the Gulf States to avoid recruitment into the current conflict and to seek better economic opportunities.
Acupuncture Relief Project, Inc. is a volunteer-based, 501(c)3 non-profit organization (Tax ID: 26-3335265). Our mission is to provide free medical support to those affected by poverty, conflict or disaster while offering an educationally meaningful experience to influence the professional development and personal growth of compassionate medical practitioners.