Congratulations! Australia Day Honour given to Dr Graeme Clugston

Dr Graeme Clugston was honoured in the Australia Day Honours List this January 2016, for distinguished service to medicine, and to the international community of Nepal, particularly to people with leprosy, and to global health and nutrition. Graeme has been made an Officer of the Order of Australia. Graeme and his wife Meena have been working at Lalgadh Leprosy Services Centre for nearly 9 years now and have seen the work there grow in diversity and in volume, as the numbers of general pa...
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November and the Blockade Continues….

Since the 20th September when the new Constitution was announced, things have not got any easier in Nepal, as the stranglehold on trade by people near the Indian border has prevented fuel and cooking gas coming into the country. Many other supplies have also been affected and the NLT workshop is at a near standstill as leather and glue have become unavailable, and the building work on the Kathmandu office has also stopped as cement has run out. Cars and taxis wait for days in queues more than a ...
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Nepal has a New Constitution

On Sunday 20th September, the President of Nepal, Ram Baran Yadav, signed the New Constitution of Nepal and finally ended the many years of missed deadlines, and arguments about what should, and should not be included. There was celebration in many parts of Nepal, but there are still those, particularly the people in the Terai, who feel that they are not adequately represented by the new constitution. There have been continuing violent protests in the Terai area and the Indian Government has als...
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A New Constitution? – Another Deadline passes by

August 16th was the deadline for signing the new Constitution, and like many previous deadlines came and went without the signing taking place. There does not appear to be any idea of when it may now happen. In the meantime there continues to be much unrest around some issues in the proposed Constitution which have sparked a lot of protests, especially in the Mid West of Nepal, where people have died in demonstrations. Christians in Nepal remain concerned about Article 31 which specificall...
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The New Constitution of Nepal may be nearly ready…..

The new Constitution began to be developed in 2007 when an interim constitution was put into place. The target time for completion was 2010 and after missing that deadline and a number of further deadlines it seemed as if it may never happen. Five years further on and it would seem that a signing is almost imminent and will be a historic event in a country that has been struggling to find a new identity that represents the people of Nepal. The new Constitution will divide Nepal into 6 federated ...
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Further serious earthquake in Nepal

Yesterday (Tuesday 12th May) afternoon at about 12.50pm Nepal time, another large earthquake measuring 7.3 occurred, centred near the district of Sindhuli, just north of Lalgadh. Thirty minutes later a second earthquake measuring 6.8 took place slightly further north. Firstly to reassure you that our staff are OK, even though two teams were out delivering relief aid in the affected areas at the time of the earthquakes. One team in a village at the southern edge of the Kathmandu Valley had...
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