Over two dozen rehabilitation centers and dozens of care and support centers running across the country will stop delivering services in the next 45 days if donors do not rethink the matter, according to Rajiv Kaphle, chief of Nava Kiran Plus. [break]
"Without support we cannot provide free services. Nor do our clients have the capacity to pay for the services," he said.
Nava Kiran Plus provides palliative care, drug treatment and Anti Retro-Viral (ARV) treatment services to the people living with HIV\AIDS. It runs seven centers across the country, one in each development region. According to Kaphle, each center provides service to thirty to fifty patients.
700 beneficiaries to be affected
With the rehab and care and support centers shutting down, around 700 clients will be deprived of the free services, while more than 300 employees working at those centers will lose their jobs after December.
Most of the employees working at the centers are ex-drug users.
Kaphle added that the discontinuation of funding could have disastrous consequences. Not only could those going through the rehab process relapse, even the ex-drug users employed by the centers could resume drug use as the society continues to look down upon them, Kaphle said.
Bishnu Sharma, program manager of the Richmond Fellowship Nepal (RFN), another rehab center, said that if his organization does not get assistance most of its centers running across the country will close.
The RFN runs seven centers across the country. "Firstly, our center at Jawalakhel will be closed," he said. The Jawalakhel center provides rehab services to female drug users.
The RFN´s Dhangadi center will close after December.
"It is the only center in the far-west region, and the clients cannot pay any money as they are poor," Sharma said. According to him, they are planning to submit a memorandum to the government over the issue.
Similarly, the coordinator of Youth Vision Services, Bijaya Pandey, said that after January 21, the care and support centers across the country will stop operations if the government and the donors don´t continue financial support. The centers provide services like counseling, care and support, apart from reintegrating the ex-drug users into the society.
The DFID was assisting the rehab and support centers since 2005.
Though support to these programs will not be available from December, other programs like the comprehensive package for migrant workers, for female sex workers, and for safe blood and harm reduction package for drug users, will continue, according to Laxmi Raj Pathak, the spokesperson of the Health Ministry.
Donors like DFID, GTZ, AusAID and World Bank have committed to support these programs through a pool fund that will be handled by the government.
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