What is the Value of Medical Training?

Support Young Medical Student in Nepal:
January 2006

Dear Colleague and Friend,

How much is a medical education worth?

Is 'worth' measured in earning power, personal satisfaction, or the ability to help others? I would like to suggest that for some people the value of a medical education can be measured in very concrete terms: infant mortality rates, growth and development percentages, and even cultural survival.

I recently had the chance to see firsthand what it is like for people to struggle to provide the most basic needs for their families, and to attempt to do so without access to skilled health care. I saw that there are ways to make a difference, a real difference, in the lives of the people I met. I am sharing this story with you in the hope that you can see it, too.

For several months this past year I had the opportunity to travel and work in the Himalayan region of Nepal. We are all familiar with the awe inspiring beauty of these great mountains, but did you know that Nepal is one of the very poorest countries in the world? Per capita income there is less than $300.00/year and continuing political unrest has added enormous strain to an already precarious social structure.

I was fortunate to meet a small group of very committed people who are working in a remote, ethnically isolated area of Nepal to improve the healthcare situation there. Karing for Kids (KFK) is a nonprofit charitable organization founded by a group of mountaineers to honor the memory of Anatoli Boukreev, an elite climber lost in an avalanche. A small clinic was established in the northeastern district of Rasuwa and the primary focus began as supporting maternal/child health.

The people of this border region of Nepal are ethnic Tamang, closely related to Buddhist Tibetans. Nepal is officially Hindu and a de facto caste system that favors Brahmins is in place, complicating matters further for the ethnic minority groups. One of KFK's goals is to provide education opportunities for local people so that effective, committed and compatible health programs can be sustained there by the Tamangs themselves.

Meet Phurbu, an amazing young man from the Tamang village of Chilime with the dream to become a doctor. He has successfully finished college in Kathmandu. He took entrance exams for medical school and achieved a high score, but scholarships in Nepal are scarce and rarely awarded to minority applicants. KFK would like to continue to support Phurbu so he can earn his MD, but the financial burden is significant.

I was lucky to spend time with Phurbu, with the KFK organization and with the wonderful people of this region. I had the opportunity to see first hand what it was like for people to be living on the edge: an infant dying of malnutrition, a young girl with end stage gangrene for lack of proper diagnosis, child after child sick with intestinal parasites. I know the difference that a doctor, a native of the community would make in the health and well being of the 7,000 people served by the clinic.

For the Tamang people who visit the KFK clinic the value of a medical education is immeasurable. Please support the effort to assist Phurbu through his medical education I invite you to consider giving a donation to Karing for Kids. To learn more please visit www.karingforkids.org or contact me at the address below.

Thank you for your consideration,

Laura Tashjian
lauraleetashjian@yahoo.com

Please donate to the "Phurbu Education Fund" via the Mountain Fund's donation page or by clicking on Phurbu's photo above. Please write "Phurbu" in the comments. Thank you.