Shechen
Clinic, Nepal
Latest Shechen Clinic Newsletter (PDF)
Nepal has a poorly developed infrastructure that makes health care for its people virtually unavailable. When When Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche founded Shechen Tennyi
Dargyeling Monastery founded Shechen Tennyi Dargyeling Monastery [monasteries/Nepal]in Baudhanath, Nepal in the early 1980's, he had wanted to eventually include a medical clinic to benefit the local community.
 The
Shechen Medical Clinic was inaugurated by Shechen
Rabjam Rinpoche, the abbot of Shechen Monastery, in
October, 2000. It is located adjacent to the Monastery in
Baudhanath, an overcrowded refugee community in a suburb
of Kathmandu, the capitol of Nepal. The Clinic provides
quality medical care, regardless of religious, ethnic or
political background, to the large community that includes
refugees from Tibet and people from the mountain regions.
Services are provided on a sliding scale cost bases and,
in the case of very poor patients, all medical care and
medicines are provided at no cost. The Clinic sees over
3,500 patients a month.
The Clinic offers various healing modalities. In addition
to allopathic medicine and dental care, it provides traditional
Tibetan medicine and alternative therapies such as homeopathy
and acupuncture. The medical staff includes four Nepali
family doctors, a physician specializing in Tibetan Medicine,
a woman gynecologist, a homeopathic Nepali doctor, trained
nurses, a laboratory technician, and visiting foreign doctors
and therapists. There is a laboratory for blood, urine and
stool analysis and free HIV testing, as well as a pharmacy
and tuberculosis services.
The general political situation in Nepal remains uncertain
and a large part of the country is in the hands of the Maoist
insurgents. Consequently about 60,000 people have fled the
conflicts in the countryside and come to the relative peace
of the Kathmandu Valley. Most of these displaced people
are in a dire situation and a large number of them are single
mothers with children.
To meet this pressing need, Shechen Clinic has expanded.
Our new wing includes a hospice, a conference room, additional
rooms for volunteer doctors, and an improved laboratory.
We now estimate that over 60% of our patients are treated
and provided medications free of charge.
Shechen Clinic is largely supported by private and foundation
donations. This holistic charitable clinic is among the
first of its kind in Nepal and is one of the few outreach
programs initiated by a Tibetan monastic community to serve
the local lay and monastic communities.
 
Family Planning Center
There is an urgent need for in-depth family planning in
Nepal. The mortality rate at birth for mother and child,
and during a child’s first years is one of the highest
in the world. Therefore, family health education is one
of Shechen Clinic’s major concerns. The Family Planning
Center for Reproductive Health occupies a wing in the Shechen
Clinic and treats about 300 - 350 people per month with
a seventy-five percent return rate. This number is expected
to increase to 800 patients a month once the facilities
are expanded. The Center serves the poorest of women and
offers them authorized and specialized consultations, which
are practically non-existent for poor families in Nepal.
The Family Planning Center offers social services to abused
and abandoned women and their children. The Clinic provides
follow-up care and referrals for all our patients.
Dental Clinic
The Dental Clinic uses the most modern equipment and skilled
dentists to provide dental care for those who would otherwise
not be able to afford it. There are two fully qualified
dentists and assistants and a prosthesis specialist on staff.
Visiting foreign dentists work at the Clinic on a volunteer
basis. We have recently added another dentist office with
two additional chairs to meet the increasing needs of the
community.
India
Shechen Monastery has a small branch monastery a few
hundred yards from the Bodhi Tree and Enlightenment Stupa
in Bodhgaya, Bihar, India, the poorest state in India. Medical
help is not available in the outer regions of the state
where most of the people are impoverished or destitute.
A mobile clinic in this area seemed to be the best way to
reach this diverse community of Hindus, Buddhists and “untouchables.”
There is also a Tibetan Medical clinic and dispensary on
the grounds of the Monastery.
The Mobile Clinic operates from its headquarters in Bodhgaya
and is equipped with a simple laboratory for immediate analysis.
It makes regular stops at locations throughout the surrounding
area of Bihar providing free health services. Many infant
and childhood diseases can be treated through the clinic
and the infirm and poor with no means of transportation
are able to consult a physician. The staff gives instruction
on sanitation and preventative care. Plans are underway
to also construct a permanent allopathic clinic. This is
one of the rare programs created and run by a Tibetan monastery
specifically to help a local community.
The Indian Clinic has the following wish list for donations both small and large. Click here for instructions on making a contribution.
US $ |
SHECHEN MEDICAL CENTRE/ MOBILE CLINIC WISH LIST
(BODHGAYA, INDIA) |
$100
|
One wheelchair
OR Three months of treatment for one TB patient |
$200
|
Six months of treatment for one adult TB patient |
$500
|
Fifteen days of expenses for fuel and maintenace for the Mobile Clinic
OR Eighteen months of treatment for one TB patient |
$1,000
|
Purchase of laboratory material for three months
OR Construction of one simple deep tube well in low-lying areas
(to provide clean safe drinking water)
|
$1,800
|
Provision for two months for poor people's fund for very poor patients: supplementary food, blankets, specialised reference to hospitals for X-Ray, MRI, CT scan et al. |
$2,000
|
One month's salary for medical centre & mobile clinic staff or, one deep tube well in rocky and hard soiled areas with difficult terrain (for Clean & safe drinking water) |
$2,500
|
One month's salary for the staff of the Medical Centre & Mobile Clinic
OR Consruction of one deep tube well in rocky terrains (for clean and safe water)
|
$5,000
|
One month of operating expenses for the Mobile Clinic Twenty-five days of medicines for the Mobile Clinic and Medical Centre |
$7,500
|
Two months of operating expenses for the TB program |
$10,000
|
One month of operating expenses for the Medical Centre & Mobile Clinic: includes salaries, medicines, fuel, and miscellaneous expenses |
Tibet
 Shechen
Clinic adjacent to the Shechen
Monastery in eastern Tibet has treated over 6,000 patients
and has been invaluable to the local nomadic community in
this remote region. The Clinic has a permanent resident
physician, a dispensary for medicines and a recently added
in-patient facility.
Shechen Tibet Projects
Program has built and maintained over twelve other medical
clinics and dispensaries throughout eastern Tibet. The program
also sponsors the training of young Tibetan doctors and
is initiating the import of medicines into the region. This
year, a volunteer physician came for a month to assist in
patient treatment and plan improvements in medical care.
In the future, the program hopes to extend such initiatives
to other doctors.
We welcome the participation of
medically qualified volunteers – physicians, nurses
or others - who want to work in the clinics, even for a
brief period of time. Contributions in the form of funds,
medicines and supplies are urgently needed for all the Clinics.
If you can help, please contact clinic@shechencinic.org.np
or shechen@sprynet.com or donate to the clinics online with a credit card or PayPal account by clicking this donate button and filling out the secure PayPal form:
updated 01/10/07 |
