Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Rome (Fides Service) – In Nepal the health situation is alarming: more than 60% of the people live in areas where malaria is endemic; tuberculosis affects 4-5% of every 1.000 people and 7.2 out of every 1.000 people are affected by Hansen’s disease. Now a new threat consists in thriving illegal trafficking and prostitution, both carriers of AIDS now a major problem in Nepal.
In 1994 to address the situation AIFO, (Associazione Italiana Amici di Raoul Follereau) which works to eliminate leprosy and extreme forms of injustice and exclusion, initiated a community development programme in collaboration with a local NGO WATCH (Women Acting Together for Change). The objective of AIFO, established in 1992 by a group of women doctors, nurses and social workers involved in providing basic medical services, was to promote the condition of women in Nepal, traditionally deprived of any decision-making role. The programme was launched in three areas Chhaimale, Rupandehi e Okhaldhunga, chosen because the people in these areas were considered inferior, poor and without public services and the women lived in particularly difficult situations.
The programme offers basic healthcare to poor people, women, persons with a disability and children. It has helped women form groups to discuss and solve problems regarding their own condition and the community situation in the field of health and food education.
One important aspect of the programme is to form organisations which free women of restrictions deriving from poverty and ignorance. WATCH continues to fight the plague of prostitution in which many women are exploited. It is estimated that no less than 200.000 Nepalese women and girls work as prostitutes in India; the selling of wives, sisters and daughters brings considerable income to village communities. In a bid to change this situation AIFO has launched a campaign of health information with regard to sexually transmitted diseases addressed to women and to their husbands/companions. On another front it strives to provide women with alternative means of survival so the poorest are not forced to sell their bodies in order to live. (AP) (10/12/2003 Fides Service; lines:36 words:433)
