Host Organization Details
SIDDHI MEMORIAL FOUNDATION
The Siddhi Memorial Foundation is a non-profit organization that is dedicated to providing quality healthcare services to members in and around the Bhaktapur community. Their mandate is to try and increase medical accessibility and services to marginalized women, children and the elderly due to the lack of medical care available for these demographics.
All programs that are organized and implemented through the Siddhi Memorial Foundation are designed to provide sustainable health care initiatives that include educational programs that focus on prevention and provide free essential services.
In Nepal, many individuals do not have access to basic medical services and as a result do not receive the medical attention that they require. The Siddhi Memorial Foundation was created in 1993, after a four year-old boy named Siddhi Sundar Dhaubhadel was hit by a car on his way home from school. Siddhi required immediate medical attention, however, due to the inadequate medical facility located in his community he had to be rushed to a hospital in Kathmandu, 20 kilometres away. On the way to the hospital in Kathmandu, Siddhi`s condition worsened and due to heavy traffic, the distance and no immediate medical attention he died on his way to the hospital. His parents were devastated at the loss of their son and decided to create the Siddhi Memorial Foundation in loving memory of Siddhi. Since the creation of the Siddhi Memorial Foundation both Mr. and Mrs Dhaubhadel have dedicate their lives to improving accessibility and healthcare services to the members of the Bhaktapur community.
In October 1993, the Siddhi Memorial Foundation was created as a non-governmental, non-profit, charitable organization. The registration of this organization caused a wave of support from not only the Bhaktapur community but throughout Nepal. The overwhelming support and outcry for improved medical services confirmed to Mr. and Mrs. Dhaubhadel the need for a larger medical establishment in their area. Mr. and Mrs. Dhaubhadel decided that the first project that the Siddhi Memorial Foundation would conduct was the construction of a large hospital that helped to provide assistance to marginalized women and children, as well as members in the surrounding areas. In 1994 they received a donation of 4000 square meters of land and by 1997 they had completed the first section of the hospital and thus the Siddhi Memorial Hospital was opened.
In 2003, the Siddhi Memorial Foundation started to integrate support programs for the elderly as part of their core services. The reason the members of the Siddhi Memorial Foundation decided to add programs for the elderly was because many people in this demographic are not able to receive adequate health care services, adequate housing or personal support. The centre provides 24 hour residential care, medical attention, counselling, and activities promoting socialization.
Establishing a new hospital and an old age facility in the Bhaktapur community allows the members of the Siddhi Memorial Foundation to start addressing some of the health challenges that currently exist in Nepal. Most hospitals in Nepal are located in urban centres and are the hospitals that provide the most services and usually employ the doctors and nurses with the most skill and diverse backgrounds. Communities like Bhaktapur usually have a medical centre that is often under-staffed, is short on essential resources such as equipment, medicine and vaccination serums and often unable to treat severe cases or perform complex surgeries. As a result, many people are not able to be examined on a regular basis or at all, due to the shortage of qualified staff and resources. By creating the Siddhi Memorial Foundation the members are uniting to try and increase the accessibility to health care.
Another social challenge that the Siddhi Memorial Foundation is trying to address is the preventable deaths of both mother and child during pregnancy. One of the reasons that the Siddhi Memorial Foundation has included this objective into their mandate is because it is a global issue that effects millions of women and children around the world each year. According to UNICEF, almost 50 million mothers each year, in the developing world give birth without medical assistance and almost 8.8 million children die from preventable diseases before the age of 5. In Nepal, 41 children die at birth out of a 1000 and 51 out of a 1000 die under the age of 5. Many of these deaths could be prevented if health care was more affordable, accessible and reliable.
In 2009, according to the United Nations Human Development Index, Nepal was ranked the lowest among the South Asian countries for life expectancy at birth. Women throughout Nepal, especially in remote villages do not have access to pre-natal or post-natal care. Not only are they located in areas where medical hospitals do not exist, many women can not afford the transportation fees to get to a hospital let alone the service fees. In remote regions like, Achham district of western Nepal, more than 95% of women give birth at home. Many women in these communities are scared of the complications that may occur during both the pregnancy and the delivery, however, most of the women in this area are unable to make the 14 day walk to the nearest hospital.
This challenge is seen as a national health issue and is trying to be tackled by a number of government agencies such as, the Ministry of Health. One way that the Ministry of Health has tried to address the high percentage of women who give birth at home instead of at the hospital was by launching an incentive program where the government would pay Nepali women who live in remote communities to have their babies delivered in a hospital. The development of incentive programs like this increased the demand on organizations like Siddhi Memorial Foundation to continue to provide quality services to the growing number of patients.
In Nepal, mortality among children is not only high at birth but also for children under the age of 5. According to UNICEF over 50,000 children die each year in Nepal from malnutrition and diarrhoea, both of which are preventable. Organizations like the Siddhi Memorial Foundation are important to help address the above issues by making it possible for more Nepali women and children to receive health care and provide educational seminars on topics like the importance of nutrition and how to stop diarrhoea.
The Siddhi Memorial Foundation is not only helping to address health issues related to maternity but also global issues in health care such as: sanitation, increased accessibility to health services, increased preventative campaigns and increased awareness about nutrition. With growing support from donors and volunteers Siddhi Memorial Foundation, is able to diversify the issues in health care that they are working to improve.
Siddhi Memorial Foundation offers the following programs through the Siddhi Memorial Hospital: out-patient services in gynaecology, diagnostic services, immunization, 24 hour emergency support, paediatric services, obstetrics, clinical pathology and ambulance retrieval with referrals to larger hospitals when necessary. In addition, the Siddhi Memorial Hospital also conducts outreach programs or health camps in surrounding communities where they provide medical services and public health seminars. The programs that are offered in the outreach programs include: HIV/AIDS awareness and testing, family planning workshops, education about the importance of nutrition, diet and hygiene and a harm reduction program for intravenous drug users.
The Siddhi Memorial Foundation has accomplished a number of goals since its conception in 1993. They have done the following: built the Siddhi Memorial Hospital, built the Siddhi Shaligram Briddhashram elderly home, built Bhaktapur's first children's playground and have created and implemented a community health outreach program. They have conducted a number of research projects that include: an acute Diarrhoea and Pneumonia Research Project and a Women's Micro Nutrition Research Project. They have organized HIV/AIDS educational campaigns and have started a scholarship program that has already sponsored nine doctors, fifteen registered nurses, two community medical assistants, one community health worker, one dental assistant and one laboratory assistant.
In addition, the members of the Siddhi Memorial Foundation have been very successful in improving the quality of water in and around the Bhakapur community. In 2001, they implemented the clean water project which consisted of a water treatment plant that provides clean water to the hospital and its surrounding communities. This project's goal was to reduce the health problems stemming directly from the poor quality of available water in the vicinity of the hospital.
The Siddhi Memorial Foundation was founded in 1993 by Mr. Shyam Sundar Dhaubhadel and Mrs. Ranjana Dhaubhadel, in loving memory of their late son Siddhi Sundar Dhaubhadel, who died at four and half years of age, in a road traffic accident, in October 1993. Mr.& Mrs. Dhaubhadel, established Siddhi Memorial Foundation,(SMF), initially to provide healthcare services to marginalized women and children through the establishment of the Siddhi Memorial Health Service Center in Barahi Peeth, Bhaktapur. Having felt the dire need and overwhelming popularity of the clinic, they were inspired to set up a hospital for women and children. Consequently in 1997, with help from their family and many private donors and institutions in Nepal and abroad, they established the Siddhi Memorial Hospital, ( SMF ), at Bhimsensthan Bhaktapur, to provide sustainable healthcare to underprivileged women and children.
Siddhi Memorial Foundation was created to serve the community members in and around the community of Bhaktapur. Bhaktapur is an ancient Newar town located in the east side of the Kathmandu Valley in a region known as the Bagmati zone. Bhaktapur is the third largest city in Nepal with approximately 61,000 people residing within the city. The reason why this community is in need of the services that the Siddhi Memorial Foundation provides is because of the large population in and around the city of Bhaktapur and the limited resources available to them.
The Siddhi Memorial Foundation is dedicated to providing health support to women, children and the elderly who are economically disadvantaged. Women, children and the elderly were deeply affected by the political turmoil that the plagued the country in the late 1990s. Through this conflict many women, children and the elderly were unable to access education, health care, adequate shelter or food. As a result, members of these groups are often marginalized and are at socio-economic disadvantage. As a result they often are not able to seek the medical attention they need to led a healthy lifestyle. The Siddhi Memorial Foundation is dedicated to improving access to health care for all women, children and the elderly in and around Bhakapur.
The Siddhi Memorial Foundation is entirely funded by individual donations from both Nepali and international sponsors. The Siddhi Memorial Foundation is constantly trying to secure more funds by writing funding proposals, creating fundraisers and approaching private donors.
Ideally, the members of the Siddhi Memorial Foundation would like to be self-sustainable. In order to achieve this goal the Siddhi Memorial Foundation has created an endowment fund. Money that is donated into this fund will be saved and the interest that is made each day will be used to pay for the day-to-day operations of the organization.
The Siddhi Memorial Foundation is in need of a number of different items and would be grateful for any of the following: diapers (children and adult sizes), band-aids, disinfectant creams, anatomy books, thermometers, stethoscopes, gauze, large band-aids, crutches, wheelchairs, adhesive tape, antiseptic creams, soap, gloves, hydrogen peroxide, acetaminophen, ibuprofen, tweezers, calamine lotion, alcohol wipes, surgical masks, scrubs, blankets, pillows and vitamins.