Today was clinic day! After yesterday’s impromptu journey I found myself waking up in Butwal, which is in the southern part of Nepal. The team and I ventured into the centre and eat breakfast in a small restaurant that was to be found on this slight mishmash of a street! Breakfast was the Nepalese favourite, Daal (rice with curried vegetables and sauce), they eat this at breakfast and tea, they would probably eat it at lunch if they had lunch!
After breakfast we headed to Butwal General Hospital, where the clinic was set up in this tiny hallway next to the toilets, they normally have a larger room to work in, but that was being used for training today. It’s frustrating to see how the hospital don’t see the leprosy clinic as a priority and see it ok to put them in a corner for the one morning they’re there in the month.
About 200 people turned up for the clinic between 10:30am - 2:30pm, patients who are currently being treated for leprosy and also people who were concerned about having leprosy. The team worked like a well oiled machine; testing, consulting, dispensing medicine…. and continued non-stop for the whole clinic as the patients continued to pour in.
The main reason why I came to the clinic was to meet a 16 year old boy named Dipak, he developed leprosy when he was younger and his hands became clawed, meaning that he couldn’t write or use everyday objects. Since then his leprosy has been treated and he has had surgery that has straightened his hands meaning he has regained full strength and can now do everything he couldn’t before. When Dipak came to the clinic we found out the rest of his story (as we only knew what had happened up until November last year), and then after the clinic we took him home and met his very lovely and welcoming family as I was asked to film him telling his story in his home environment with his family around him. When we arrived it seemed like the whole street had turned up to watch us as we filmed him!!
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