Joy is in the mattress

This post is by Coralie Batchelor, Project Coordinator – Nepal.

Here we are again – for the 20th year! We flew into Kathamandu yesterday via Singapore. The Himalayas put on a show for us which is always a nice way to start the trip. Eight of us have come a week ahead of the majority of the team for a smaller project in the far west of the country – we travel there by air & road this afternoon. The place we are working is the HDCS-Team Hospital in Dadeldhura.The project was first suggested by Marilyn Lewis from ADRA Nepal and we are partnering with them, and have received financial support from ADRA Australia. It is great to finally get here after a lot of work by many people for which I am very grateful. After we finish the week in Dadeldhura we will be meeting the rest of the team and doing our regular program at Scheer Memorial Hospital.

A few months before we left Australia, we found out that some of the beds at the hospital did not have mattresses, or had mattresses that were so thin they might as well not have been there. I organised for 20 mattresses to be made in Kathmandu (you can’t buy hospital mattresses in Nepal) and started some fundraising with family & friends. I didn’t think there was any way they would be there in time for our patients – but I underestimated Marilyn! The mattresses arrived in Dadeldhura on Thurdsay and were greeted with tears of joy by the doctor! So that is a really nice way to start the program at that hospital.