By Shanika Bennett, Assistant Manager in Nepal and Tiana Van Ooosten, Physiotherapy volunteer

Due to the current lack of physiotherapy jobs available in the UK at the moment, it has resulted in a dramatic increase of physiotherapy volunteers coming out to Nepal.

Many volunteers from all over the world have come here and found that having this valuable experience has actually helped them later on when applying for jobs.

Over the past few years that I have worked for Projects Abroad in Nepal, I have seen so many people passing through. Most of who I am actually still in regular contact with and it has really touched me the way these volunteers have been captivated by this country and its friendly warm hearted people.

We have a number of physiotherapy placements here in Nepal. Most are in hospitals. HRDC and Scheer Memorial hospitals are in Banepa which is 28km outside of Kathmandu in the countryside. These hospitals see many interesting cases. The injuries are mainly from working manually in the fields and falling from trees! They also see a lot of club foot and physical deformities that need extensive treatment to help improve their form. HRDC is a children’s orthopedic hospital and Scheer memorial, a general hospital.

In Kathmandu we have another orthopedic hospital and a Spinal injury hospital as well. Most of our other Physiotherapy placements are in care centers. There is a centre for children with cerebral palsy and also a centre for boys aged below the age of 11 living with muscular dystrophy.

What the volunteers find very interesting as well is the different methods used here. At first you might be shocked to see the ways in which they treat their patients due to the lack of resources here. However you will be amazed at how well they manage with what they do have and it really does work for them!

All of the staff in Nepal feel very proud of the variety of physiotherapy placements we have out here. One volunteer, Tiana Van Oosten talks to us about her physiotherapy experience at the Muscular dystrophy centre:

“From 5th of January till the 8th April 2008 I worked as a volunteer in Nepal at the Duchenne Musculair Dystrofie Centre. This is a small placement in Bhaktapur with 7 children who have Duchene dystrophy disease. Six days a week they come to the centre during the day. Here they get physiotherapy, education and enjoy themselves with playing games. Some of the children’s family are also living in the centre - they take care of the children and are very involved.

I worked there as a physiotherapist. Together with the Nepali physiotherapy assistant we treated all the children. Preventing contractures, giving tips how to do the daily activities the best way, maintaining the muscle strength and body balance were just some of the therapy goals. But the most important one was having fun with the kids during their exercises and during the day. My goal was to do something new every week with the children. This could be something small like a new game or eating together orange but also doing handicraft and Yoga.

Spending time with these children was very special for me. Goofing around, playing games, laughing and talking, I could see that the contact improved day by day. In the beginning two of the children were very quiet. I really thought they were not able to talk until their family said they could. Seeing them changing and feeling more happy was great. The day I first heard them talk was one of the most special moments in Nepal. I really enjoyed working in the centre. It was a good experience as a physiotherapist but most of all as a person. I learned a lot and had a lot of fun. I miss the centre, but I have a lot of memories that I will treasure.”

Shanika visiting a placement

Part of my job here at Projects Abroad is knowing as much background and information as is humanly possible about all the countries we work in, which is basically the perfect job for a self-professed geography geek like myself. I thought I knew a lot about Nepal but I guess I didn’t realize how beautiful it is. Here is a great video of the country by one of our volunteers there. I hope you enjoy it!

Here is a bizarre story involving two countries where we work, Nepal and Peru. According to a Reuters article, Royal Nepal Airlines was forced to apologize to the nation of Peru after it used an image of Machu Picchu to promote tourism in Nepal. Peru’s foreign ministry said that the airline put a picture of the country’s icon, Machu Picchu, which is just up the Sacred Valley from our placements in Peru, on a poster under the slogan “Have you seen Nepal?” A Peruvian citizen who was visiting India saw the poster on a wall in Royal Nepal Airlines’ New Delhi office and informed his country’s embassy. I am sure that many volunteers in Peru who have hiked the Inca Trail to see Machu Picchu would be just as surprised to find out that they had wandered into Nepal as our volunteers in Nepal would be to discover the quintessential site of Incan civilization in the Himalayas according to this poster! Talk about a case of mistaken mountain ranges! This advertising flap aside, what is your favorite mountain range? Why would you choose the Andes or the Himalayas? Tell us what you think.