The First Steps: Pratham paaila haru

Day 1

17th July 2009, Friday

With the initiation of Bhushan Tuladhar and Dr. Roshan Shrestha, an open meeting was called at the Staff College ground, Jawalakhel.

The venue had hosted National Youth Assembly 2009 for 3 days and hence, made an ideal place for the participation of highly motivated young people from all over Nepal. Over 43 youth were present at the meeting.

The proceedings of the first day are as follows:

· Bhushan Tuladhar presented the objectives of the meeting, gave overview of the situation or diarrhoea epidemic in he western Nepal and opened the group discussion for input from each individual.

· Roshan Raj Shrestha of UN-Habitat shared his experience working for a relief program when a similar epidemic affected Rukum district in the '90s.

· Amita Thapa Magar relayed information from a person who had recently been in Jajarkot highlighting that relief materials and medicines were not delivered efficiently and rather stored at the airport.

· Dosalla Adhikary, a first year student of public health, expressed her willingness to be part of the relief team. She also shared that her friends had already started some homework to help the situation in the west.

· ENPHO made a commitment to provide a fund of Rs. 300,000, piyush and some relevant materials for the relief team's work.

· NGO Forum also showed the commitment to provide Rs. 70,000.

· Bhushan Tuladhar committed to share the information on the work of the relief team amongst institutions and individuals working on water, also seeking their support for this campaign.

· It was proposed that the relief program become an entirely youth-led and youth-run campaign comprising of 100 young volunteers. Some relief workers would visit the affected districts to

· Generate awareness

· Distribute medicine and teach proper procedure to the locals to use the medications, Piyush (chlorine), zinc tablets, etc.

· Generate a report of effective cause of the epidemic by surveying water sources and water consumption behavior

· It was decided that a 'Rapid Assessment Team' RAT had to be sent not later than Monday for a pre-assessment before a larger team goes for relief work.

· An orientation program for the campaign was scheduled for on 18th July 2009 at ENPHO's hall.

Meeting attendants:

1. Anita Thapa Magar

2. Suman Aryal

3. Dhiraj Pradhananga

4. Kanchan Shrestha

5. Achyut Dahal

6. Roshan Kuman Shrestha

7. John Gautam

8. Ashish Singh

9. Anil Sthapit

10. Deepesh Raj Sharma

11. Babu Ram Pandey

12. Nabin Thapa

13. Bidhya Joshi

14. Keshab Raj Basnet

15. Rukh Gurung

16. Dhushala Adhikari

17. Abhishek Gurung

18. Shanbhu Raj Baral

19. Giri Raj Khatri

20. Niranjan Khadka

21. Basanta Paudel

22. Ramita Dangol

23. Sajina Rai

24. Saunak Bhatta

25. Rabin Bastola

26. Kanchan Karki

27. Mukesh Dangi

28. Ranjendra Aryal

29. Rajesh Adhikari

30. Prakash Amatya

31. Ujjwal Chapagain

32. Sunil Acharya

33. Research Shrestha

34. Juju Kaji Maharjan

35. Niraj Kumar Pun

36. Kamal Acharya

37. Rajiv Ghimire

38. Bijay Kumar Jha

39. Padam Kumar Shrestha

40. Nirmala Thapa

41. Dipak B.K.

42. Dhana Khatiwada

43. Keshab P. Kafle