The Dorjhana Foundation is a registered 501c3 organization that works with Nepali doctors and nurses to run health camps in remote regions of Nepal.

The mission of the Dorjhana Foundation is to provide medical care in extremely remote areas of Nepal where specialty medical services—and even basic medical care—are unavailable. For years, these regions have been neglected by the Nepali government, suffering under the instability and violence brought about by the Maoist insurgency. The Dorjhana Foundation focuses on people at high risk for preventable illnesses, but who are too poor to leave their villages and seek treatment, filling a significant void in Nepal’s healthcare infrastructure. The Dorjhana Foundation’s medical team of specialized doctors and staff treks deep into these areas, and once there, implements medical programs to diagnose and assess medical conditions and provide treatment free of cost.

One hundred percent of the funds obtained from grants and private sponsors in the US are used to purchase medicine in Nepal, hire Nepali doctors, and enlist the help of community leaders in target areas. The medical services rendered are provided free of charge, as are medications and procedures when indicated. By working directly with influential medical professionals in Kathmandu, we ensure that all resources and funds are properly allocated. Our model, which employs only local doctors and resources, is a truly revolutionary approach and has been demonstrably successful.

Personal experiences working alongside other NGOs has led founders of the Dorjhana Foundation to view the traditional approach of sending only Western doctors with large concomitant expense accounts as less efficient and potentially harmful: it marginalizes the local health care workers and establishes a system of dependency. Nepal boasts fully capable, well trained local doctors and health care workers who are often more suited to the task than foreigners. Local doctors are arguably more effective in reaching out to their countrymen than people working under competing health care models for developing countries. They simply need our funding, organization, and inspiration to rise to overcome the healthcare crisis in Nepal.

The public health situation in Nepal is alarming, but it does not need to remain so. The Dorjhana Foundation aims, above all, to reduce the incidence and prevalence of disease in Nepal by enabling and encouraging local doctors to take action themselves to improve the health care system, thereby minimizing the impact on Nepal’s indigenous culture while still vastly improving the quality of life for the people in these communities.