September 2020 – nepal leprosy trust ireland

Today we celebrate National Day of Nepal.

National Day of Nepal and Nepal Development Conference took place this morning in online format, Sunday 20th September, 10.30am – 12.30pm (Irish time). His Excellency Dr. Durgar Bahadur Subedi, Nepal’s Ambassador to the UK and Ireland gave the opening address.

A wonderful morning of very interesting speakers, ideas and opportunities. A really exciting and lively discussion took place on trade, investment, business as well as educational opportunities inter-country.

A Nepal Ireland Chamber of Commerce has been established and was launched on 8th August 2020. We wish to congratulate all those involved in the chamber development and offer a big thank you to all for the work that has taken place in the background.

A very special mention and best wishes to Alison Irwin in her role as General Secretary of the Ireland Nepal Chamber of Commerce.

Screen image of Alison Irwin as host of the celebratory event on 20th September 2020. Taken taken during the live conference, photo thanks to Alison.

Thank you to Deepesh Shakya, Alison and all involved in Nepal Ireland Society for this wonderful morning event and for all their consistent work in relationship building.

We are almost ready to launch our newly redesigned website.

It has been a nostalgic journey as we looked through old photographs and revisited stories about the early days of Lalgadh Leprosy Hospital and the subsequent establishment of Nepal Leprosy Trust.

You can read about our founder Eileen Lodge (1925 – 2019) who passed away in late last year. Eileen’s contribution to leprosy work in Nepal is immense. She established leprosy treatment and rehabilitation centres in Pokhara, Kathmandu, Lalgadh, and Dharan. She gave up her British citizenship and became a Nepali citizen, living in Nepal for 66 years. Read more about her life here.

Bir Bahadur (above) as he worked in Lalgadh hospital, circa 1993. One of his tasks at that time was cutting and making different size bandages from large rolls of gauze. He has now retired. Quite a few of the staff from those early years are still working in the hospital today.

Hem, who now manages Ashako Pariwar, was chatting to Bir Bahadur as he returned home one evening last week (end of August 2020) from his rice field. His field is situated just beside the hospital and Ashoka Pariwar. They chatted about those early days when Bir Bahadur worked in the Inpatient Department and out about the field work that both himself and Hem undertook in the community. As you can see from the photo below Bir Bahadur is looking really well and healthy.

Month: September 2020

National Day of Nepal 2020

Reviewing the early days of Lalgadh Leprosy hospital