Nestled in the depths of rural Nepal is the Hope Centre, offering community-based projects and programmes that improve lives for the disabled so they live with dignity, self-worth, independence and rights in the community.
Run by a double amputee and mainly disabled employees, the Hope Centre is an inspiration to disabled people who are rejected, marginalised and discriminated against by traditional Nepali culture.
The Hope Centre
- Treats many kinds of conditions including Cerebral Palsy, polio, leprosy, hearing, speech, blindness, burns, birth deformities , surgical and medical errors and mental health issues
- Performs outreach work to the hardest to reach places
- Provides medical care including prosthetic and physiotherapy
- Funds basic education and skills training to help disabled people look after themselves and live independently.
Watch a video here which explains more about the charity.
In 2015 the Centre took in Amrit. He is a 20 year old Nepali living in the rural area of Nepal. In 2012 he was in India with his dad, uncle and cousin. They were in India because his dad and uncle went there to find work. He liked to do what all 15 year old boys love to do; riding on the back of his cousin’s motorbike.
Tragedy struck when one day they had a terrible crash with a bus. His cousin died in the accident. Amrit was in a week long coma and he’d severely damaged his right leg; the flesh was torn from the bone. The doctors tried to save his leg by taking skin grafts from his mum, but after much surgery, his leg eventually turned gangrene and they had to amputate.
After the accident and the initial medical treatment in India, Amrit and his mum returned to Nepal. His dad is stuck in India paying off the medical loan debt for Amrit's treatment, which saved his life but not his leg.
Amrit is a bright and passionate guy. With the help of the Hope Centre, he has got good school grades. He has also been exposed to the wonderful work the Centre does.
He now wants to follow in other’s footsteps and become a Community Medical Assistant (like a Health Care Assistant in the UK). This will allow him to get a well-paid job working in healthcare outreach for people like (or even worse off) than him.
Although the Hope Centre have looked after Amrit medically, they cannot afford the substantial (in Nepali terms) £1800 to pay for Amrit's Community Medical Assistant training. They are asking for help because, as a bright guy, they know the value Amrit would bring to the Centre, nursing, and the community, if he had the education.
Your donation will go directly to his education, which in turn will help the Hope Centre and others living with disability
Providing Armit with education will mean he can get a well-paid job. The Hope Centre will employ him (along with their seven other disabled employees) until he is able to find a Government job in outreach medical support.
Giving Amrit the means to find work will not only allow him to start providing for his family, it will also work towards helping break down the stigma and social exclusion amputees encounter in Nepal, it will help others like (and in even worse conditions) than him. From the bottom up, it will support the social shift to inclusion and acceptance.