Tougher tasks in Nepal

Australian healthcare workers have been travelling to Nepal to educate rural and remote communities about health and sanitation, and the country's recent earthquake has made the need for help much greater.

Emily Young, an RN at a women's and children's hospital in Adelaide, started a health program that sends healthcare professionals to remote Nepalese communities such as Gandharba.

“I saw situations that could have certainly been preventable [if people had] the right education and the right equipment at the hospital,” Young said.

Gandharba was affected by the recent earthquake that devastated many communities in Nepal. Young said housing, warmth and food are the most important requirements of the Gandharba people at the moment.

“We're just trying to address those immediate needs at this point in time," she said. "And then in the long term, looking to rebuild their houses so they're earthquake-proof if this does ever happen again. Nepal is a very mountainous country, as people probably are aware. And the communities that I worked with live right up in the mountains … and it's difficult, even when there hasn't been an earthquake, to get vehicles up there.”

Young and her teams have to hire special vehicles to travel part of the distance to the homes, then carry their luggage for about two hours.

One of the biggest accomplishments Young said the team has made is sponsoring a nurse to go to university in Nepal.

“When I was there the very first time doing some research to try to find out what the needs of the community were, we met a very driven young woman who had a great desire to go and get some further education,” Young said. “But … she never thought this would ever be possible.”

The team offered some funding for the woman to study. She is now a year through her degree.

Click below to hear the full interview with Emily Young.

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