 January is Cervical Cancer Awareness Month around the globe. Our HIO Nepal team is actively meeting this challenge. Dear Friends, Did you know that cervical cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths for women in Nepal? According to the World Health Organization, it’s the fourth most common type of cancer worldwide. Sadly, more than 90% of cervical cancer cases occur in marginalized developing countries. A lack of awareness and screening programs, as well as the high cost of the vaccine for poor people, lead to this alarming global inequity. HIO was first inspired two years ago to become part of a global movement to eliminate cervical cancer. At the time, we were helping an HIO girl’s mother living in a remote mountain village manage follow-up care after precancerous cells were detected in a cervical screening. Dr. Josh Jaffe, our trusted OB-GYN consultant in the Berkshires, provided us with excellent advice for her case. He told us that almost all cervical cancers are caused by the common human papillomavirus (HPV). Unlike other forms of cancer, it is completely preventable through vaccination. The HPV vaccine, approved for U.S. distribution in 2006, has shown an almost 90% reduction in cervical cancer in girls and young women who have received it. Cervical cancer is easily treatable when detected early.  Raising awareness about the causes and risks of cervical cancer helps our HIO community be part of the solution. Working toward the successful outcome of this woman’s case prompted us to want to do more. We knew that applying HIO’s unique, grass-roots approach to social work could help alleviate this global health problem, starting with our own community. Dr. Jaffe generously serves as the lead advisor for HIO’s cervical cancer prevention initiative. We aim to raise awareness about the disease, administer the HPV vaccine to 200 HIO girls and young women up to age 24, and conduct HPV DNA screenings for their mothers and our HIO staff members, ages 25-60. With many thanks to the Comeau Family for funding the project, our Nepal social service team is moving forward with these big plans. Last week, they brilliantly coordinated the first round of HPV DNA screenings with our new healthcare partner, the Nepal Fertility Care Center (NFCC). Offering the screening at our Chandra Kala Learning Center’s family-like environment helped each participant feel more at ease with this sensitive process. After an orientation and awareness session conducted by NFCC’s healthcare professionals, 81 women were given personalized instructions for collecting a sample for analysis. Our Nepal team is coordinating with another new healthcare partner, EkEk Paila, for follow-up care for women who are determined to be HPV positive. In addition to offering low-cost medical and dental services to our entire HIO community, EkEk Paila is organizing our HPV vaccine clinic. A simple 2-dose HPV vaccine regimen, the key to preventing cervical cancer, will be given to girls age 9-14. Those who are age 14-26 will receive the recommended three doses. We are grateful to now have EkEk Paila and NFCC as valued resources and as inspiration for our young HIO women interested in healthcare. Access to education is the most effective way to encourage marginalized girls and their mothers to find a realistic path from abject poverty to a life with a measure of financial well-being and stability. Each success for one of our girls or mothers is a hard won struggle and a team effort. With a chorus of wellness interventions structured by HIO, our girls and their mothers are far more able to cope with an array of illnesses that commonly befall the poor. When a poor mother gets sick or dies, her family sinks deeper into hardship, perpetuating a cycle of poverty our educational interventions aim to break. Promoting the overall health and well-being of our HIO community is a number one priority of our social service program. Through our Nepal team’s initiative and your caring support, we’re making wonderful gains. Your kindness is encouraging improved health and self-reliance for our girls and their mothers. Together, we’re saving lives. We couldn't do this great work without you. With deep gratitude — Ricky, Laura and the HIO Nepal team Conditions of poverty severely limit HIO families’ access to preventive healthcare, causing them to suffer in silence. Our Program Manager, Sushila Chaurel, is a superb social worker whose networking skills encourage our mothers to receive health services that are their basic human right. 
0 Comments
 Mamata Rai, an HIO graduate and our Director of Social Services in Nepal, is an inspiration for the next generation of HIO girls. Dear Friends, We’ve been told by so many that the HIO community is a bright light in a world that’s increasingly filled with darkness. We couldn’t agree more. Our girls and their mothers have no choice but to rise to the challenges of living in profound poverty in a culture dominated by men. The joyful glimmers of hope for a better future they hold onto are ignited by the kindness of people like you. We have so much to celebrate together. Our trip to Kathmandu with a group of dedicated sponsors was a perfect capstone to a year filled with success stories. Our Nepal team, led by Mamata and Ram, is doing a remarkable job implementing HIO’s vision and mission. They’ve created a wonderfully collaborative work environment, managing programs and social services on the ground beautifully and inspiring our girls to reach for the stars. It was so heartwarming to share this great work with our sponsors and to see HIO’s loving global community continue to grow.  Bob and Leslie Bernert were delighted to congratulate Ishani in person for all that she’s accomplishing through their HIO sponsorship. We‘re so pleased to have achieved our goal of maintaining a 98% retention rate for our sponsored girls in 2023, keeping them in school and unmarried at least through grade 12. Not one of our girls dropped out. This, in itself, is such a major achievement. How exciting when girls like Ishani go even further to exceed our expectations. Now in sixth grade, she’s consistently earned marks of distinction each year since kindergarten. Her HIO sister, Jyoti Kapali, is settled in at the Asian University for Women in Bangladesh on full scholarship and scored all A’s last term. Binita Gurung will join Jyoti at AUW this month, excited to begin a major in biology and medical technology. Heena Praween continues her college business course while working part-time in a travel agency to help support her family. And as Meenuka Magar comes close to graduating 12th grade, we can encourage her to attend one of Kathmandu’s fashion design programs, rather than going on to a traditional college program. We’re so grateful for our new program managers, Sushila and Chanda, who are using excellent networking skills to open our girls’ minds to a broad range of college and career opportunities. Presenting options that suit the interests and needs of each one of our high school grads is a major goal for 2024.  Ikshya Kafle, in the black vest, began a five-year medical course in September. Her sister, Dikshya, is preparing for nursing school entrance exams. These two hard-working young women will surely help brighten Nepal’s future. We’re eager to get started in 2024 on all the good work we have yet to accomplish. Supporting the efforts of our Be Part of Her Dream teachers as they guide 65 of our girls’ mothers now enrolled in this vital women’s empowerment program. Bolstering our Storytime initiative, where a group of dedicated U.S. volunteers and Nepali teachers help younger girls develop English language skills during early morning Zoom sessions. Helping our middle and high school girls increase their critical thinking skills and boost their confidence in science and math. And most importantly, instilling in our girls and their mothers a profound sense of self-esteem and independence while fostering their sense of connectedness to a loving HIO community. We've made great gains over the past few years establishing and growing a reserve fund, greatly increasing the sustainability of our programs. Because of you, we remain a financially healthy, vibrant and effective non-profit with the capacity to offer many more years of service to Kathmandu’s urban poor. Please know that your trust and kind support are of utmost value. You’re transforming lives and encouraging a wave of change as our HIO girls and their mothers build a better life for themselves, their families and their communities. We couldn’t do this great work without you. Deep gratitude and warm wishes for the New Year, Ricky, Laura, and the HIO Board of Directors  Rama Devkot, an HIO Be Part of Her Dream graduate, now serves as a teaching assistant and mentor for the program, helping women like herself lift themselves from deep-rooted poverty.
|
|
|