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By Andrew Schlabach

Created: 25 December 2024

It’s difficult not to look at the mountains. Those majestic, jagged peaks piercing the clear blue horizon tug at my peripheral vision. “Focus!” I say in my head as our group of four small motorbikes meander along the narrow road. The edge drops away and it's not hard to imagine what would happen if you were to drive off. In Nepal, these are considered “the hills” but they would certainly be called mountains in most other countries. The steep hillsides are covered in terraced fields, many of which are chartreuse with the winter crop of mustard in bloom. It is a frosty December morning and my fingers are tingling with the cold as we make our way to our new outreach clinic in Mahankal. 

Read more: Mahankal

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By Bex Groebner

Created: 14 December 2024

Acupuncturists As Transformative Providers In Rural Healthcare

When Andrew Schlabach and I co-taught a five-day seminar in Kathmandu this November, our purpose went far beyond skills training. Yes, we covered practical techniques in structural diagnosis, primary health assessment, and scalp acupuncture, but at its heart, this seminar aimed at something much larger: bridging medical paradigms to work toward a new vision for healthcare in rural areas.

Acupuncture is unique in that it sits at the crossroads of modern and ancient medical approaches. It’s a form of medicine with extensive modern research to support its efficacy, yet it originates from a holistic paradigm that views the human body as a microcosmic reflection of the larger planetary system. While acupuncture is not traditionally part of Nepali medicine, it offers the ability to address modern challenges like pain management and NCD screening while honoring the spiritual connections and more eco-friendly tools inherent in many Indigenous healing traditions.

Read more: Bridging Worlds

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By Andrew Schlabach

Created: 05 October 2023

Preus reaches down to pick up a piece of candy that he dropped with his left hand. Remarkable. 

I’ve never met Preus (pray-oos) before but I feel like I have. The COVID crisis taught us a lot about working remotely and through the miracle of Zoom, I had consulted with my team in Nepal about this boy many times. Preus, now 9 years old, was brought to our clinic by his mother in late 2020. The story she told us lacked critical details though we were able to deduce that Preus had suffered a brain injury. On further questioning we learned that Preus had been a normal little boy until about age five when he suddenly became ill with a very high fever which lasted several days. This fever could have been caused by COVID but it was more likely to have been caused by Typhoid (which is endemic in Nepal).

This morning Satyamohan (our senior clinician and clinic manager) and I decided to check in on Preus as he had not been back to the clinic for several months despite several calls to his mother asking for a follow-up. I never pass up a chance to visit patients at home if that is an option. It’s only about a 20 minute motorbike ride up the slippery, steep and rocky road just above our clinic but in some ways, it is a world away. Preus’ family are Tamang, a sub ethnic group found in the hill and mountain regions of Nepal. They maintain their own language, customs and rarely marry outside of their ethnic group. We arrive in the small Tamang settlement made up of about a dozen small, mud and stone, houses with corrugated metal roofs. Several children in dirty clothes gape open mouthed at me (a tall, white haired foreigner on a motorbike) bumping up the road to Preus’ house where we were greeted by his mother. She was just returning from the market, walking down the steep hill above their house wearing flip-flops and carrying a recycled 2-liter bottle of a milky liquid. Chaang is a home-made beer made from rice and other grains. A staple food of hill farmers, its low alcohol content keeps it from growing bacteria while being calorie rich to provide energy throughout the day. 

Read more: Like a Miracle