Sotang Womens Group

We really enjoyed our time in the remote, yet very lively village of Sotang. We spent time meeting with different people and groups including the local health council discussing future plans for a maternity waiting home, and the possibility of having cesarean section at the health centre in the future. By chance we also had the opportunity to interview the new ANM from another very remote village called Gudel. She started working at the Gudel Health Post 8 months ago and has assisted in 18 deliveries. She shared with us her challenges, her successes, and reasons she refers women to higher centres like Sotang, Phaplu or Kathmandu. The main complication she has dealt with is women arriving with retained placentas after giving birth at home. Using her oxytocin, experience, and clinical skills she is usually able to save these women's lives.

Jenny, Cathy, Pema, Hari (ANM from Gudel), and Emma 

One evening we hosted the local women's group for snacks, conversation and to watch global health initiative videos. We learned that the women's group began when a local woman needed to be helicoptered out for an emergency cesarean section and had no money to pay for the up front cost. The government will reimburse people for these expenses, but it is more money than most people have available ,and the government delays, sometimes never paying the money back. This group of women came together and started a community based lending program for women in their community in similar situations. The group meets each month and is also fundraising to build their own women's centre.

The 15 women who joined us were shopkeepers, teachers, university students, farmers, and hair stylists. We asked them what their community of women need, and they all agreed that they want a female doctor and for women to own land. Among the different groups in their community, it is most common for land to be only owned by men and inherited by men. Their own land and centre would allow for them to create a safe place to continue supporting the women in their community.