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Jeroen and Ellen writes...

...about their experiences while volunteering in Nepal.

Namaste,

We are Jeroen and Ellen from Holland. We were volunteers for 3 months in Nepal. Our placement was in Arungkhola, Nawalparasi, terai region. We were the first two volunteers in Arungkhola. So in the beginning it was searching for both parties.
For them (Organization FPAN and village members): What are those two white people doing here? What can we expect from them?
For us: What do they expect from us? How are the organization/community organized?

In the beginning not everything went as we expected due to the language problem and different cultural system. So we had to improvise several times instead of using our plans.

Best plan: -> make no plan, but start every day with open eyes and mind. Patience and lots of humor come in handy and will be very helpful during the placement.

Jeroen worked as a teacher at the governmental school (Shree Janta primary school). His job was to teach environmental awareness. It turns out to be teaching English environmental words. This because the children didn’t understand English that well. I (Ellen) worked as a nurse in the clinic from FPAN.

In our first week we went with FPAN to Tamaspur (nearby Arungkhola). There we gave free medical help to people who lost their home due to high water from the river during the last monsoon period. With 3 people we had to diagnose about 250 people. Because of the language problem it was not an easy job for me. Also I am not used to this kind of job. In Holland medical diagnosis are done by doctors.

People in rural areas have no awareness of family planning and safe motherhood. That’s why they have a lot of children born close after each other. Most women deliver their first baby at very young age. They deliver at home without help of experienced people is unhygienic circumstances. In Nepal the average of maternal death is very high. That is why I think giving education to all village members has to have high priority.

In the clinic of FPAN they only give education inside the clinic and just went a few times outside to the villages. There was a lack of educational materials and above all the present educational materials were not used. We made a plan to improve the educational system so that the awareness about safe motherhood by village members will also be improved.

I also made education materials, which I used in the villages and give to the women afterwards. Both clinic staff and village members where enthusiastic about my creations.

In direct patient care you cannot do much work as a western nurse. This because of the language problem and a different kind of cultural and nursing system. You are mainly focused on management subjects. At the end I can say it was a very pleasant and valuable experience.

Ellen & Jeroen