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CDO is working to improve the health situation in a number of villages that otherwise won’t have access to health care. The selected villages are situated in the mountain regions to the West of Kathmandu. They are difficult to reach by vehicle, and at monsoon time it might become impossible to do so, since the heavy rains often turn the roads into channels of rapid streams. During these months, the people in these villages are left to their own devices, making it particularly important to educate and train local village health workers such that the population can rely on them during the time of isolation.
Poverty has motivated many villagers to leave their home and seek employment in Nepal’s capital city Kathmandu or abroad. Others have even sold one of their kidneys to organ traffickers for food and sustenance! And many young women have ended up working in bars and dance parlors. In this way, they get exposed to the dangers of HIV/AIDS, a disease which consequently has become a health issue even in their native villages.
The main focus of CDO’s work in the remote villages lies in health education. Here, the program includes education in the topics of sanitation and proper nutrition, as well as first aid training and awareness campaigns directed at particular diseases like tuberculosis and sexually-transmitted diseases. CDO is also bringing a mobile health clinic to the people for health examinations targeting eye-sight and infectious diseases.
Special emphasis of CDO is being put on reproductive health. Early marriage, closely-spaced, repeated pregnancies, hard work during pregnancy, and home delivery by an unskilled midwife are the main causes of the high mortality rate of young mothers and their infants. CDO’s program Safe Motherhood and Child Care aims at reducing complications during pregnancy and delivery, as well as at improving infant care. This is accomplished through health education, health examinations and vaccinations. The project also addresses unhealthy superstitious beliefs in the villages such as that breast feeding mothers will have more breast milk for their baby if they drink a lot of the local beer. Similarly, the fear exists that eating yellow pumpkin might cause the baby to develop jaundice, or that potatoes bring about body swelling, and green vegetables lead to diarrhea.
Contact Us
Care And Development Organization
Taukhel, Godawari
P.O. Box 11978, Kathmandu, Nepal
Tel: +977-1-5560403
Email: cdo@caredevelopment.org
Web: www.caredevelopment.org
Registered with: Government of Nepal 0146/61/62
The Social Welfare Council 17471