Projects Officer Smriti (also a trained nurse) and her clinic assistant adminster to a patient at the Ashraya clinic.
Dr Roshan, one of our volunteer doctors holding consultations at the Ashraya Clinic. most doctors treat HIV patients in Nepal with barely disguised disgust, the clients are often overwelmed by Dr Roshan's kind and gentle manner.
Many rescued girls are HIV positive or have Aids, hepatitis, TB and/or other physical and mental ailments. Asha Nepal helped in the conception of Shakti Milan Shamaj (SMS), a self-help group for HIV-infected girls.
In 2007 AN and SMS received funding from the Elton John Aids Foundation to set up the Shakti Halfway House for girls infected and affected by HIV who wanted to find employment. When this funding stream ceased in 2009, the project capacity was combined with Shakti Milan’s Crisis Centre on a reduced scale. This project is currently funded by a Japanese organisation but, in the wake of the tsunami, they will be unable to support beyond 2011. We urgently need a new donor to provide the £14,000 p.a. to run this project.
We are currently in the early stages of transforming the former Ashraya Clinic into the new Ashraya Women's Centre, with the aim of reaching all women and children affected by trafficking, to support their physical and mental health needs, counselling, therapeutic care, non-formal education, rights and HIV/Aids training, job creation, advocacy and a place to drop in when life and the fallout from being trafficked become too difficult to face. We are urgently looking for a donor to fund the first 3 years to establish this major project, at a total cost of £138,000.
Asha Nepal also runs a health fund for women at Shakti Kendra and members of Shakti Samuha and Shakti Milan Shamaj who need hospitalisation, covering hospital fees, medication, food, and expenses for daily care and support from SMS during hospitalisation.