RUKUM, Aug 23: Ram Bikram Budha of Jhumlabang in Bhume Rural Municipality-3 of eastern Rukum had lost his wife ten years ago. She died due to lack of treatment during labor pain. Reportedly, she suffered for five days in want of treatment. 

Likewise, Ramesh BK, another local, too had lost his wife 12 years ago. His wife died after developing health complications while giving birth to their fourth child. 

They are just representative cases of people who have lost their beloved due to lack of access to treatment. Many women and children in the rural settlements have lost their lives untimely as they do not have access to basic health care facilities. 

Although the government has promised to make health service accessible to every corner of the country, the settlements in rural Rukum did not catch their eye. Due to such repeated incidents, the locals united to construct a hospital building in their village.

“The pain of losing our loved ones is very deep. In order to avert such deaths in the future, we constructed a hospital ourselves,” informed Kamala Budha, a local school teacher.

The locals had set up an institute named 'Jhumlabang Village Foundation' in 2012. The foundation has been providing primary health services to the villagers since the past three years. At present, a hospital building has been constructed in the village with free labor contribution from 65 households.

Various youths who have gone for foreign employment contributed some money for purchase of medicines and salary to health workers, according to Ram Bahadur Budha, chairman of the foundation. “About 80 individuals of the village who are in foreign employment provided financial aid to construct the hospital building,” he informed. “So far, the expenses for the construction have reached over Rs 50 million. We did not receive any grant from the government for the construction.”

According to him, they requested the district administration many times to construct a health post in their village. “Despite repeated pleas, they did not show interest to help us. So we had to take the initiative ourselves,” said chairman Budha.

The hospital's chief Shiva Kumar Budha informed that around seven people visit the hospital daily to receive treatment. Currently, the hospital employ's three health workers. 

 
• Rukum