The daily battle is intense! COVID-19 rates are still increasing daily across Nepal especially here in Province-2 with its 6 million people along the Indian border with much of Nepal in lockdown, curfew or restriction. The stigma along with the fear and rumours about Covid-infection are eroding the normal everyday harmony of local communities.  But life goes on…. Life and work at Lalgadh leprosy Hospital are demanding and at times, exhausting in the monsoonal heat and soaking humidity. ...

Rising numbers of people are suffering with the increase of deprivation, hunger and illness due to the lock down. LLHSC has recently received official permission to visit outlying villages to bring food relief packages to those in need who tend to be the very poor. This was a small start which definitely needed to get bigger!   The Sasakwa Health Foundation stepped in to make this happen on a much larger scale.  They provided just over £11,000 for a 3 month period (June to August 2020). This ...

Locusts arrived in Nepal last weekend! Locusts are related to grasshoppers and measure 0.5 to 3 inches in length and weigh about 2 grammes Although they favour dry land with sandy soil to lay and hatch their eggs, monsoon weather brings rain and lots of greenery which they will eat voraciously. In one phase of their lives they are fairly solitary, but if they become crowded, it causes them to swarm. As one group joins another, the swarm grows and can reach several billion locusts in num...

June sees the start of the monsoon period, bringing rain, heat and humidity and unfortunately diarrhoea and mosquitos!!The monsoon sweeps up from the Bay of Bengal across Bangladesh and north-eastern India, and up through Nepal.The monsoon is a blessing and a curse at the same time.   The rains are essential for rice planting. It would be catastrophic if it didn’t come as this would lead to no rice planting therefor starvation follows along with disease and death. BUT If the monsoon is sev...

In Nepal the number of Covid cases is climbing and has nearly reached 16,000 today (4th July). As has been said many times, this is a very conservative estimate because testing is limited, although it has increased recently, with 740 tested positive in the 24 hours leading up to yesterday afternoon. The death toll stands at around 34 people. There are still many thousands of Nepali people on the Indian/Nepal border desperately trying to get back into Nepal because they have had no work in Ind...