<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110161148/636d1db19c7e80680e0af3d0jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="767" height="575"/><figcaption>Security personnel and relatives of the deceased attend a mourning at the premise of infectious disease hospital in Pokhara. Photos: BARSHA KAFLE</figcaption></figure>A 79-year-old woman lay on the emergency bed, diagnosed with pneumonia due to Covid-19. Even as she was gasping for breath she had a smile on her face, handing over an invitation card to the attending doctor who was also her relative.Her grandson’s wedding was four days later. Family members from across the world had flown into Pokhara for the ceremony. She died of severe acute respiratory distress syndrome with multiple organ failure a day before the wedding, and it had to be cancelled.As her physician, I had sleepless nights when her condition worsened. We <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-health-workers-battle-covid-19-but-also-stigma/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">health-care workers are also human beings</a>. When we lose near and dear ones it takes a toll on our physical and mental health, we grieve when our patients die. We may hide our emotions but we suffer all the same.The woman was just one of many relatives I have lost during this pandemic. As I grieved with family members gathered at the hospital, we were once again reminded of the Buddhist teachings about impermanence. Yet none of us is ever ready.“But it must be easier for you to face death as a doctor,” one of the mourners said to me. No, it is just as difficult. If not more, because as a physician I had the added responsibility of saving her life.Army men dressed in PPE from head to toe had arrived to take her body for safe disposal. Relatives from across the world who had come to celebrate a wedding ended up attending a funeral.The Gandaki Province government established Nepal’s first provincial infectious disease hospital in July 2020. Since then, it has managed nearly 1,300 Covid-19 cases at a cost of Rs500 million.Tha Gandaki Province government established Nepal's first provincial infectious disease hospital in July 2020. Since then, it has managed nearly 1, 300 Covid-19 cases saving Rs500 million out of pocket expenditure of common people.We have lost 52 people to the coronavirus in the same period. The Covid-19 mortality rate in this provincial hospital is 4.1%, relatively high compared to the total number of people who were hospitalised.The global death rate now stands at 1.97% with a total of 5,318,277 fatalities. This figure is exceptionally high given it has only been two years. Even then, this figure does not include <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/the-real-cost-of-nepals-second-wave/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">the social, mental and economic consequences</a> to family and friends of the deceased.But each Covid death is also a lesson for us to learn from. Most of these deaths could have been prevented if only Nepal had a robust primary health care system, and if preventive measures were more strictly enforced.With the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/omicron-may-not-be-as-risky-but-take-care/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">rise of new variants like Omicron</a>, it is also advisable to up our vaccination drive and we should also start administering boosters to vulnerable populations given our stock of doses and those that are on the pipeline.A man in his late thirties was isolating at home in Pokhara after getting infected. He just had a common cold but I requested him to undergo hospital-based isolation as he was symptomatic. But just a few days after getting admitted, his symptoms worsened and his condition deteriorated. He was then transferred to another hospital, and died soon after.This was not a case that should have been fatal. Even after 12 years of clinical experience, some of the Covid-19 outcomes I have encountered in the past year have been unexpected and shocking. It must have been devastating for the young man’s family and friends.Earier this year, when a 86-year-old mukhiya from Mustang died at our hospital of Covid complications, hundreds of Thakalis travelled to Pokhara to show their respect to the deceased despite the coronavirus surge at the time. Young or old, the virus was indiscriminate.In November 2020, I myself had to self-isolate with an upper respiratory infection due to a coronavirus infection. I thought I would not survive the excruciating body ache, sleepless nights and high anxiety level. During those horrific 10 days at <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/at-the-covid-19-frontlines-in-rural-nepal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Bayalpata Hospital in Achham</a> I was battling an infection that I was treating my patients for.An elderly couple had been admitted to our hospital with Covid, both of them had severe symptoms. The husband died within a few hours of admission, but his wife was not aware of his passing until she became critically ill herself, and the family decided to tell her the truth. She passed away a week after her spouse. Medical staff usually have seen it all, but so moved with sorrow they mourned too.Holistic <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/this-is-how-to-upgrade-nepals-rural-health/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">health care</a> is the central core of modern medicine. But the caregivers can provide only acute biomedical care to alleviate the suffering of Covid patients. Their psycho-social wellbeing and that of their family members are often ignored. And we have not even begun to think about the mental health and trauma of the frontline workers.Over 800,000 Nepalis have been infected with the coronavirus and 12,852 have died of the disease. It is time we study this data, in particular the common causes of Covid-19 deaths in Nepal. Is it heart attack, blockage of vessels in the lungs, multiple organ failure or acute respiratory distress syndrome?We must reshape our health policies based on these facts and evidence. We must ensure adequate preparation with ICU beds, oxygen supply, <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/donated-ventilators-gather-dust-in-nepal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">ventilators</a> and other equipment that were in short supply earlier this year.Only then can we design a robust and customised care system to protect our population from future surges.Bikash Gauchan is the Executive Director of the Infectious and Communicable Disease Hospital in Gandaki Province.

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Diary of a Covid frontline worker in Nepal

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109101136/636b74e99c7e80680e0623bcjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="3600" height="2400"/><figcaption>Nepali students on their way to the quarantine centre in Bhaktapur after landing in Kathmandu Airport on Sunday morning. Photo: RSS</figcaption></figure>The global public health crisis caused by <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/why-nepal-must-watch-about-coronavirus-but-not-panic/">the 2019 novel coronavirus </a>has  hospitalised tens of thousands and killed hundreds of people, wrecked tourism in the Asia-Pacific region, impacted civil aviation and slowed down the world economy.An <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/feb/07/coronavirus-chinese-rage-death-whistleblower-doctor-li-wenliang">attempt by the Chinese authorities to suppress</a> first reports from Wuhan is blamed for the initial rise in case load, and its dissemination across China and the world. But it is also China’s willingness to quarantine a whole province that is stopping its spread.The epidemic has also exposed the challenges to containment in <a href="v">the age of social media</a>. Rumours and conspiracy theories resulting in stigmatisation and xenophobia have become the norm in a global village interconnected instantaneously by internet-based apps.The media’s habit of magnifying the negative is now exacerbated by the split-second reach of individual posts, click-baits, fake news, and the chain-reaction through shares and likes over web platforms.Till Wednesday, 2,012 people had died from <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/a-nepali-in-beijing-during-coronavirus-scare/">the Wuhan virus</a>, and 75,227 are hospitalised. These statistics are constantly updated in the media, with countries where it has spread shaded ominously on a world map – giving the impression that it has spread globally.Yet there are very few mentions anywhere that nearly 15,000 infected people have made full recovery, or that the fatality rate for the virus is a low 2%. Even though no one has yet died in the United States from this virus strain, there is saturation coverage in the media that likens the epidemic to the one in the Hollywood thriller Contagion. Few compare Covid-19 to the common flu that killed nearly 35,000 people in the United States last winter.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109101136/636b74eb9c7e80680e0623bdjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1800" height="1291"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>The psychology of terror, irrationality of panic, and fear of diseases without cure are not new. What is new this time is mobile communication which allows panic about the virus to go viral.In Nepal, too, the media was obsessed with the plight of 182 students trapped in Hubei province. The issue was politicised by those opposed to Prime Minister Oli’s government – both within his NCP and without. Media gave prominence to tearful parents, highlighted a letter to the prime minister about his callousness and disregard. Under pressure already for non-performance, the government found <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepalis-from-hubei-quarantined-in-bhaktapur/">the evacuation of the students to a quarantine camp</a> in Bhaktapur a convenient way to show-case action.If only the government reacted with similar efficiency to other, much more serious, national emergencies like Nepal’s unacceptably high maternal mortality rate. Although there has been a steep drop in the number of women who die in childbirth from 900 per 100,000 in 1990 to 239 today, Nepal has <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/federalism-leaves-nepals-medical-sector-ailing/">missed the target</a> of reducing that number to 125 this year. It does not look like we will hit the SDG goal of 75 by 2030, either.<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/who-will-save-nepals-poor-new-mothers/">More than 1,200 women die</a> in child birth every year in Nepal, that is three every day. Most of these are easily preventable either by ensuring proper nutrition, enforcing the ban on <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/child-marriage-in-nepal-eloped-at-13-mother-by-17/">child marriage</a>, ensuring access to ultrasound machines to detect complications in time, and encouraging institutional delivery.As Buddha Basnyat of the Patan Academy of Health Sciences (PAHS) comments, it is only political will that is stopping Nepal from adopting the game-changer drug Tranexamic acid (TXA) in the treatment of post-partum haemorrhage, (PPH) the most common cause of maternal death. There is a huge 44% <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-far-from-hitting-contraceptive-target/">unmet need for contraceptives</a>, which is leading to unwanted pregnancies and preventing a further drop in Nepal’s total fertility rate.<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/tb/">Tuberculosis</a> kills 6,000 people in Nepal every year, and every other Nepali is a carrier of the bacillus, which means half the population should actually be quarantined. Yet the health system is supremely unconcerned, and the public is not aware of the risk.There were 2,736 fatalities in <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/nepals-deadly-roads-take-their-toll/">road traffic accidents</a> in Nepal last year. Yet, even though the coronavirus has not killed anyone and there has been only one suspected case, Nepalis are hoarding supplies of masks and hand sanitisers. Meanwhile, vehicles continued to be driven recklessly over precarious roads. Where is the outrage?<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/air-pollution-is-more-dangerous-than-smoking/">Air pollution</a> in Kathmandu Valley, Chitwan and the Tarai is so bad that it is making many people die prematurely, reducing our lifespans by 3.5 years. Where is the peoples’ anger at having their lives cut short? It is ironic that residents of Kharipati are more worried about Nepali students from Wuhan being quarantined in their neighbourhood, than about the toxic fumes emitted by dozens of brick kilns nearby.To be sure, we cannot afford to be complacent when it comes to new epidemics like <a href="v">Covid-19</a>. However, it is the neglect of easily preventable diseases that kills more people in Nepal -- most often poor people in rural communities. We need a robust health system that prioritises primary health care, trains medical professionals, and builds a well-equipped infrastructure to handle future epidemics.But that does not make it into the news.Sonia Awale

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When panic goes viral

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQ0-JH097iA&amp;feature=youtu.beDeukali Shahi, 26, looks relieved after delivering a healthy baby girl, but her calmness belies her traumatic childbirth. Her eyes fill with tears as she speaks haltingly of the previous baby she lost and the desperation she felt this time to reach the hospital fast enough so this one would live.Soon, Shahi is overcome with grief and cannot say more. Her sister-in-law Tulaja fills in the rest of the story. The baby was in breech position, but the family did not know this until Deukali was already in labour. They took her to a nearby healthpost, where the nurse said there was nothing they could do. They went on to the district hospital in Mangalsen, which did not have a surgeon to perform a caesarean.“We drove another four hours and arrived here at two in the night, and the doctors operated on her,” Tulaja said. “Now we have a healthy baby girl.”Deukali lost her first child due to the same complication, but the family did not know why the baby would not come out. In these remote mountains of Achham, home delivery is the norm and the district has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in Nepal.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/state-of-the-art-rural-hospital/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">State of the art rural hospital</a>, Marty Logan<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110814114/636a54559c7e80680e0523a4jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2000" height="1333"/><figcaption>Photos: MONIKA DEUPALA</figcaption></figure>All that is changing with Bayalpata Hospital, which serves as the informal referral hospital for <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=17650#.XWY3DeMzbIV" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Achham </a>and six surrounding districts. The government hospital is managed by the non-profit Possible Health (formerly <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=17650#.XWY-WeMzaUk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nyaya Health</a>) as a private-public-partnership, and now serves 100,000 patients per year.Bayalpata’s safe <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/regular-columns/Comment/mothers-in-Nepal-still-dying-at-childbirth,1007" target="_blank" rel="noopener">motherhood</a> program is accessible at any hour of the day. In the severely understaffed Far West region, Possible is practising an experimental model of healthcare that has become a lifeline for thousands of people in nearby districts. Province 7, which includes Achham, has 13 public hospitals, 16 primary health care centres and 376 health posts, but most of these are under-equipped, under-staffed and under-funded. Aside from government neglect, geography is a further <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/environmental-destruction-is-a-medical-emergency/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">challenge in these mountains</a>. Patients like Deukali have to walk or travel for days to reach a proper hospital like Bayalpata.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110814114/636a54589c7e80680e0523a5jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2000" height="855">The World Health Organiaation recommends a doctor-patient ratio of 1:1,000, and while it is 1:850 in Kathmandu Valley, the rate is 1:150,000 in rural areas. A recent report by the Nepal Government shows that 20% of staff positions in the healthcare system are not filled.When Nyaya Health took up an abandoned government hospital in Bayalpata 10 years ago, there were no doctors for the people living in the area. The unmet need was so great that the newly-opened hospital could not cope with demand, and soon expanded its facilities. (See box below)“Nepal’s per capita income is very low, and more than 70% of Nepalis <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/national-health-insurance-not-as-easy,4028" target="_blank" rel="noopener">cannot afford private healthcare</a>. So a model like this, which makes healthcare free and accessible, is very necessary in Nepal today,” says Bikash Gauchan, medical director of Bayalpata Hospital.With grants from the government and donations from philanthropic individuals and organisations, the hospital provides free medical care to up to 500 patients a day, covering a catchment of 230,000 people in Achham’s neighbouring districts.“The perception in Nepal is that a PPP model is meant to bring in investment for large-scale infrastructure projects like <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/climate-risk-to-hydropower-investment/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">hydropower</a>. When we proposed a model where hospitals would utilise the government funding they deserve, it went against the grain and people found it hard to understand,” says SP Kalaunee, executive director of Nyaya Health Nepal. “But we want to get the best of both worlds: use government funding and resources, but enhance them with our knowledge, skills and management expertise.”Among many things that make Bayalpata different from the average government hospital is its Integrated Healthcare System, <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/long-distance-medicine-in-nepal,3521" target="_blank" rel="noopener">digitising patient records</a>. The software is unique in Nepal and allows the facility to track the health of patients including pregnant women, children under two and those with chronic diseases. Community health workers reach out to these patients door-to-door instead of waiting for them to get so sick that they have to travel to hospital.“Each of us meets patients in our village once in 1-3 months, as per the need,” says community health worker Dwarika Rawal. “I meet women of <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/implant-service-providers-take-contraception-to-nepals-poor/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reproductive age and talk to them about family planning</a>, tell them about the different methods available. I also check the weight and health of children below 5, and counsel their parents about child health and hygiene.”<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110814114/636a545c9c7e80680e0523a6jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="3000" height="2000">Rawal also follows up with patients living with chronic diseases such as <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/diabetes-in-south-asia,3018" target="_blank" rel="noopener">diabetes</a>, <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/ending-AIDS-in-Nepal,2707" target="_blank" rel="noopener">HIV</a>, <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/nepal-tb-cases-grossly-underestimated/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">TB</a>, high blood pressure and <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/stigma-and-silence-mental-health-nepal,3486" target="_blank" rel="noopener">mental disorders</a>, including to see if they are taking their medicines.In the past decade, health indicators in this region have shown a marked improvement because of Bayalpata Hospital, even surpassing targets in Nepal’s National Health Strategy (NHSS) for 2020 and the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2030. In the Sanfebagar area, institutional deliveries have gone up to 96%, compared to the NHSS target of 70% and the SDGs’ 90%. Neonatal mortality has fallen to 6 per 1,000 live births, a third of the NHSS target (18), and half of the SDGs target (12).Eventually, Possible hopes to not just improve service to its patients, but push through its Integrated Healthcare System, which would make local governments more responsible for providing overall healthcare rather than just operating a particular medical facility.“What makes our model successful is more accountability, and that is what is needed in our public healthcare system. We do not necessarily need more health facilities, we need to make them functional: make sure that the staff are always available, the medicines are stocked and the equipment functions as it is supposed to,” says Kalaunee. “Public healthcare needs to incorporate the use of technology and outreach to become comprehensive.”<h2>Building a rural hospital from scratch</h2><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110814114/636a545f9c7e80680e0523a7jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="3456" height="2592">When a group of Nepali and American public health students set up Nyaya Health and took over an abandoned district hospital in remote Achham district in 2009, there was not a single doctor for over 250,000 people.Ravaged by government neglect and endemic<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/nepal-tests-and-treats-tb-with-a-flying-pharmacy/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> TB</a> and <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/stigma-ostracisation-for-HIV-patients-remain-in-western-nepal,1724" target="_blank" rel="noopener">HIV/AIDS</a>, the region had some of the worst child and maternal mortality rates in Nepal, and the shortest lifespan. Subsistence farmers moved to India to work most of the year so they could support families back home.Soon, <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/regular-columns/GUEST-COLUMN/upgrading-health-care-through-public-private-partnership-model,582" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bayalpata</a> was treating 12,000 people a year out of two rooms, and today it sees 100,000 patients from Achham and six surrounding districts. Renamed Possible, the organisation needed to expand to cater to the huge unmet healthcare demand of Far West Nepal.Paid for mostly by crowd-funding the $4 million three-phase expansion of Bayalpata Hospital is now complete. Coming round the bend on the highway from Surkhet, the modern facility with its <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/starting-nepals-green-school-movement/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">state-of-the-art architecture</a> seems like a mirage in the middle of nowhere.Today, Bayalpata Regional Hospital is not just unique for its successful model of a private-public-partnership for rural medical care, but also for its distinctive design using rammed earth technology.An obsolete government facility is now one of the most modern and eco-friendly hospitals in Nepal, providing accessible and affordable health care to the most underserved part of the country.“Our specs were to use local materials as much as possible, keep energy costs low, and respect the local context,” explains Arun Rimal, a Nepali architect with the US-based Office of Structural Design (OSD). “The rammed earth uses local clay and sand from the river. The thick walls give thermal mass for insulation, and the skylights optimise sunlight and ventilation.”<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110814114/636a54639c7e80680e0523a8jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2550" height="3300">The reliance on local material turned out to be a huge advantage because the project faced unforeseen logistical problems due to the 2015 earthquake and Blockade. However, the four-year construction was delayed by just six months because it did not rely too much on bricks, steel and other imported material.The facility has a <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=5877#.XWZGkOMzaUk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">rainwater harvesting system</a>, treats its wastewater and has a network of greywater-irrigated terraces and bioswales to control erosion and recharge the acquifer. A 100kw solar array on the roof meets most of the hospital’s electricity needs, even powering the facility’s only air conditioning unit in the surgical ward.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110814114/636a54679c7e80680e0523a9jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="4416" height="3312">“It was a deliberate design decision to work with the natural environment as much as possible and also to address the cultural context,” says Tyler Survant from Sharon Davis Design in New York, which also conceptualised the unique Women's Opportunity Centre in Rwanda. “We had to plan for a different kind of hospital from the West: here you have patients and relatives who have travelled for days on foot to get here.”Bayalpata has public outdoor spaces and canopied courtyards to serve as comfortable waiting areas, while the operating theatres and wards are recessed. Unlike in the US, staff housing also had to be integrated into the facility since it has fulltime resident doctors, who live with their families.Bayalpata has been shortlisted for the World Architecture Festival 2019, and besides providing vital medical care for much of the Far West, it is sure to become a landmark for sustainability in Nepal’s architectural landscape.

This is how to upgrade Nepal's rural health

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221107171136/636934889c7e80680e03dfffjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1400" height="700"/><figcaption>Photo: UNICEF</figcaption></figure>Polio eradication is one of the most ambitious public health initiatives undertaken in human history. Launched in 1988 by the World Health Organization (WHO) the campaign aimed to rid the world of the virus by 2000. But 30 years on and $15 billion later, even though polio cases worldwide have been reduced by 99%, there are still isolated pockets of the disease. And unless every last case is removed, there will always a chance that the infection will come back.Encouraged by the eradication of small pox, WHO launched the campaign in 1988. The organisation debated the wisdom of spending so much time and money to exterminate a disease when there were many other more pressing health concerns like <a href="http://malaria https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/the-mosquito-that-changed-nepals-history/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">malaria</a>, <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/tb/ or diarrhoea" target="_blank" rel="noopener">TB</a> or diarrhoea that kill many more people.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQd_-6W_9Gg&amp;feature=youtu.beThomas Abraham, a journalist who taught health reporting at the University of Hong Kong, has tried to answer this and other questions in his new book <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Polio-Odyssey-Eradication-Thomas-Abraham/dp/1849049564" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Polio: The Odyssey of Eradication</a>. He says polio was held hostage by geopolitics, and traces the reason why countries opted for a weak vaccine against a strong virus. The author concludes that future global campaigns that zero in on just one disease must be weighed against the necessity of upgrading public health, especially in poorer countries.In Nepal, indigenous <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/Bouncing-back-higher-wheelchair-basketball,3802" target="_blank" rel="noopener">polio</a> was eliminated in 2000 after the country responded to WHO’s eradication goal by adding polio to its successful campaign of vaccination against other diseases. However, there were still polio cases in Nepal brought over the border from India. The last case of polio was detected in Rautahat district in 2010, and <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/blogs/thebrief/2014/03/28/polio-free-nepal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nepal was finally declared polio free</a> four years later.In response to a query from Nepali Times this week, however, Abraham said Nepal is not out of the woods yet. “If polio re-emerges in India, particularly UP and Bihar, this would be a major challenge to Nepal,” he said. “Also, if levels of routine childhood immunisation fall in Nepal there is a danger of outbreaks of vaccine derived polio, as we are seeing in a number of countries.”Even though polio has been largely removed, there are still cases in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria where vaccination campaigns have been thwarted by religious extremists. Ironically, enmity between India and Pakistan and the heavily guarded border between the two countries has minimised the risk of polio spreading via India to Nepal.Polio derived from oral vaccines has emerged as a new threat to the eradication campaign. By 2016, WHO deployed a combination of Inactivated Polio Virus (Salk vaccine) and bivalent oral vaccine to prevent further outbreaks.“Routine immunisation levels need to remain high in order to maintain Nepal’s polio-free status. Luckily, we have a strong disease surveillance system to detect any new polio cases,” said Jhalak Sharma Gautam of the Department of Health Services.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221107171136/6369348b9c7e80680e03e000jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="869"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure><a style="background-color: #ffffff; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=16116#.W_aWJTgzaUk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Polio</a> is one of the oldest diseases to afflict humans, but it wasn’t until the beginning of 20thcentury that there were outbreaks in Europe, North America and Australia. US President Franklin D Roosevelt was paralysed by poliomyelitis, and because of this the US threw considerable political influence and funds to back polio vaccine research.The first was the Salk vaccine that used inactivated poliovirus, and protected individuals injected with right dose, but it did not stop the transfer of the disease. The Sabin vaccine in 1961 employed a weakened poliovirus to be administered orally. It was cheaper and easier to use and protected individuals from paralysis as well as stopped polio transmission, which eventually led to it being chosen as a tool of eradication.Despite its success, the Global Polio Eradication campaign has been criticised for its huge cost and for widening the gap between local health needs and global health programs. In his book, Abraham puts his experience as a foreign correspondent to good use by visiting the frontlines of the battle against polio in Pakistan, India and Nigeria. He writes about the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/22/health/polio-pakistan-killing.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">assassinations of polio vaccinators in Pakistan</a> and Afghanistan by the Taliban.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221107171136/6369348e9c7e80680e03e001jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1250" height="441">A considerable portion of the book deals with a long-standing debate about whether targeting a single disease for eradication should take precedence over strengthening national health systems. This resonates with WHO’s own reluctance to endorse polio eradication for a long time in favour of a strong primary health care system.This book is a recommended read for public health professionals, but it has lessons for anyone who wants to better understand the inner workings of health systems, donor agency priorities, and what goes on behind the scenes in Geneva.Abraham is neither an epidemiologist nor a medical practitioner, he is a journalist with over 25 years of experience covering conflict, politics and health. Maybe that is why the book reads more like a thriller with an engaging real-life account of what goes right (and what can go wrong) in the fight against a disease-causing pathogen.Read also:<a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/Bouncing-back-higher-wheelchair-basketball,3802" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bouncing back</a>, Shreejana Shrestha<a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=16116#.W_aWJTgzaUk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Laxmi dreams of flying</a>, Rupa Joshi

Polio hunt

In the black and white photograph, General Wangdu smiles broadly in front of the dusty cactus garden in Kathmandu’s Annapurna Hotel. With an ill-fitting jacket and shaggy hair he looks benign enough, but this was the last leader of the Tibetan freedom fighters who led the resistance against the Chinese from their remote mountain hideouts in <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/comings-and-goings-in-mustang">Mustang</a>. Five months later, Wangdu was dead. Snapped in March 1974, I had only recently arrived in Nepal. How did I meet this legendary fighter? Possibly with his devoted camp follower, Lynne Klapecki, and probably in the Om Restaurant near Freak Street which was the preferred <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/hippie-trail-nostalgia-in-kathmandu">hippie hang-out</a>. Om Lobsang and his brother Yeshe were <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/page/earthquake-brings-back-memories-of-camps-for-tibetan-refugees">refugees from East Tibet </a>whose cafe offered a friendly welcome and<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/multimedia/momo-loco"> the best momos</a> - they became my in-laws after I married their eldest brother Tenzin, but that was a decade later.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025052403054_4573b34282b0f5395c007243d6bef12c7ba76bfd520419e994cdcea048d795a1.jpg" data-media-id="editor_4" data-image-id="2025052403054_4573b34282b0f5395c007243d6bef12c7ba76bfd520419e994cdcea048d795a1" data-rendition-name="original" width="1000" height="1583" loading="lazy" alt="The last days of the Khampa NT"> <figcaption>Photo: LISA CHOEGYAL</figcaption> </figure>  Wangdu’s English was enthusiastically rudimentary, but even riding around town with him on the back of an aging <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/kathmandu-s-new-motorbike-museum">motorbike</a>, he was a commanding presence. Always flanked by armed outriders, impressive scars marked his forearms and a pistol hung from the cord around his neck. A charismatic guerrilla leader, Wangdu was celebrated by his followers for his tough commitment and respected for his measured pragmatism. He seemed so young to have shouldered such a responsibility of command, leading hundreds of hardened <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/50-years-after-the%20raid-into-Tibet,1012#google_vignette">Khampa combatants </a>through what had been a particularly <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/heavy-snowfall-over-nepal-himalaya">brutal winter in Mustang</a>, the last bastion to hold out against the Chinese invasion of their Tibetan homeland.&nbsp; The freedom fighters of Tibet, known as the Chushi-Gangdruk, had emerged to resist the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/territorialism">Chinese takeover</a> of Tibet during the 1950s. Estimated to be 80,000-strong at the time of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/what-or-who-after-the-dalai-lama">the Dalai Lama</a>’s final escape to India in 1959, the sheer number of Chinese deployed into Tibet eventually forced the Chushi-Gangdruk to retreat to Mustang, From this high Himalayan stronghold, they continued cross-border raids on the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) throughout the 1960s.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025052403054_8a4a935ba25ae79dc3a63bb5c14626927020e5ec098093c45ccb9a5982e009fd.jpg" data-media-id="editor_10" data-image-id="2025052403054_8a4a935ba25ae79dc3a63bb5c14626927020e5ec098093c45ccb9a5982e009fd" data-rendition-name="original" width="1114" height="676" loading="lazy" alt="The last days of the Khampa NT"> <figcaption>Guerrillas known as the Chushi-Gangdruk emerged to resist the Chinese annexation of Tibet during the 1950s. Photo courtesy: MIKEL DUNHAM</figcaption> </figure>  Their Kathmandu base was a small discreet lodge in a back lane near Rani Pokhari. Sipping sweet tea from a blue mug with a chipped lid, I sat bemused in a corner of the Mustang Hotel room whilst Wangdu and his cohorts received a battered brown suitcase from their CIA connection, a tousle-haired American in a leather jacket. Heaved onto the dingy bedspread that covered the thin mattress, it was clicked open to reveal piles of neatly stacked dollar bills.&nbsp; I cannot think why Wangdu allowed me to witness this handover but I was clearly no threat, a newly arrived world traveller with no understanding of the stakes nor any Nepali or <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/multimedia/tibetan-music-in-nepals-sacred-valley">Tibetan language</a>. Despite armed guards in the corridor,Wangdu radiated confidence and bravado, and there was a practiced familiarity to the tense transaction. This deadly dance for many years had been funded by the Americans, tolerated by <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/the-kingdom-within-a-republic">Mustang’s residents</a>, and permitted by King Mahendra and the Nepali authorities who it suited to turn a blind eye.&nbsp; But Mahendra died in 1972, and times were changing. Richard Nixon’s ping-pong diplomacy thawed the cold war and signalled a fresh entente with China. Nepal’s yet-to-be-crowned <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/if-birendra-was-alive-nepal-could-still-be-a-monarchy">King Birendra </a>was under pressure to curb the irritating incursions against the PLA launched from the Nepali territory of Mustang. Keen to appease his northern neighbour, on several occasions the King summoned Wangdu for peace talks but, despite increasingly overwhelming odds, Wangdu refused to surrender.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025052403054_a8efd5cfb92cd997bd7cb74296a936fef46e2f7428f9cd642b03f1ac4ea11ecb.jpg" data-media-id="editor_14" data-image-id="2025052403054_a8efd5cfb92cd997bd7cb74296a936fef46e2f7428f9cd642b03f1ac4ea11ecb" data-rendition-name="original" width="1055" height="885" loading="lazy" alt="The last days of the Khampa NT"> <figcaption>General Wangdu flanked by two Tibetan resistance fighters in Mustang in the 1970s. Photo courtesy: MIKEL DUNHAM</figcaption> </figure>   <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025052403054_75969125a745847a2ef82b6fe8b9106c0b21a116d85b8efdf5d2ee89a347bb31.jpg" data-media-id="editor_15" data-image-id="2025052403054_75969125a745847a2ef82b6fe8b9106c0b21a116d85b8efdf5d2ee89a347bb31" data-rendition-name="original" width="1044" height="792" loading="lazy" alt="The last days of the Khampa NT"> <figcaption>King Birendra with General Wangdu (right in dark glasses) taken in 1974 possibly in Mustang after one of their few attempts at negotiation. Photo courtesy: RAJRNDRA KUNWAR</figcaption> </figure>  While I naively rode pillion around Kathmandu in the spring sunshine, Wangdu was in the midst of what turned out to be his final round of negotiations with the Nepal government. Refusing to cease hostilities with the Chinese, Wangdu must have suspected the cost of his decision, making his cheerful smile in the photograph all the more poignant and brave. It was only much later that I appreciated the significance of the moment. Wangdu had been sent to replace the first resistance leader in Mustang, Baba Gen Yeshe, a much derided corrupt character who stole money meant for his troops and exploited fleeing refugees by seizing their treasures. Baba Gen Yeshe never forgave Wangdu,and sought revenge in May 1974 by betraying him and his commanders to the Nepal authorities. Renewed Chinese incursions from the north, active PLA collusion with the Nepali forces under the new King, and treachery from within the Chushi-Gangdrukranks combined to seal their fate.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025052403054_e0987a7c90d76431b0d7d5e6115ebfe3dbda7ab939e5941e079c18d722e884c0.jpg" data-media-id="editor_16" data-image-id="2025052403054_e0987a7c90d76431b0d7d5e6115ebfe3dbda7ab939e5941e079c18d722e884c0" data-rendition-name="original" width="1400" height="769" loading="lazy" alt="The last days of the Khampa NT"> <figcaption>British television journalists George Patterson and Adrian Cowell embedded themselves with Khampa guerrillas and accompanied them from Tsum Valley on a cross border raid on a Chinese Army convoy in 1964. Photo: ESSAYS ON NEPAL / SAM COWAN</figcaption> </figure>  Mikel Dunham, renowned author of Buddha’s Warriors, writes: ‘It is possible that Wangdu was waiting for some cue from the Dalai Lama’s government-in-exile in Dharamsala, India. It is equally possible – during that last, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/multimedia/the-human-cost-of-nepal-s-yarsa-gold-rush?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR31-Cqw8oyIwMPzf_35e4Skr0ululJvLf3_vDkzHn-AYG2h8uPw2rqqErg_aem_tGVn5coY1-jA7fze_xqhew">desolate winter </a>– that he made the decision to go out in glory rather than admit defeat. Over the last fifteen years, Wangdu had experienced Tibet’s organized resistance being squeezed and shoved around by every conceivable outside force.&nbsp; First they had been pushed out of their own country by the PLA; then they had been refused sanction while on <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/borderlines/nepal-india-trans-boundary-bonds?fbclid=IwAR0PpJ5zUEbwdug3g_U3ar6FUugngRY0S8Tl2v_7wqzrsHmXWcXsKjvL4t4">Indian soil</a>; then they were abandoned by the Americans because, apparently, Nixon wanted to make friends with Wangdu’s mortal enemies, the communists; then they had been betrayed by the vampiric Baba Gen Yeshe – a Tibetan and, even worse, a fellow Khampa; and now, finally Wangdu’s army was being evicted by the Nepalis. One thing was certain: Wangdu was a warrior. To imagine Wangdu simply giving up and settling down in the pacific squalor of a <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/elderly-left-in-bhutan-refugee-camp">refugee camp </a>was unthinkable.’  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025052403054_8fc1ffef4ae751628b90ae781b66e11e51e4fdde2787207c9042efbee345ce49.jpg" data-media-id="editor_20" data-image-id="2025052403054_8fc1ffef4ae751628b90ae781b66e11e51e4fdde2787207c9042efbee345ce49" data-rendition-name="original" width="500" height="746" loading="lazy" alt="The last days of the Khampa NT"> <figcaption>The much derided Baba Gen Yeshe, the first Tibetan resistance leader in Mustang, who betrayed Wangdu for personal gain. Photo courtesy: MIKEL DUNHAM</figcaption> </figure>   <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025052403054_b1d833cdb00d3ac4416b844d8730475cd88c238caaaf8da69889a584eea229a3.jpg" data-media-id="editor_21" data-image-id="2025052403054_b1d833cdb00d3ac4416b844d8730475cd88c238caaaf8da69889a584eea229a3" data-rendition-name="original" width="500" height="656" loading="lazy" alt="The last days of the Khampa NT"> <figcaption>Aditya SJB Rana of the Royal Nepal Army whose team ambushed Wangdu and his cohorts at the top of Tinker Pass in Darchula, West Nepal. Photo courtesy: GAUTAM SJB RANA</figcaption> </figure>  By August 1974 the game was up. Wangdu and six of his exhausted party were killed on their horses by <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=7270">the Royal Nepal Army</a> on the brink of escape. The officer in charge, Aditya SJB Rana, cleverly predicted their route into India after they failed to silence a police radio in Yari. A carefully laid ambush trapped them near the summit of the Tinker Pass in Darchula,at 5,000 meters the highest military operation of its time. Wangdu’s body was helicoptered to Kathmandu, and a big show made of the royal Nepal victory.&nbsp; The Tibetan armed insurgency against China had reached its end.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250524030520_3ff9c6fc85a65bc9a2c3afe9736d9f5f9413de752e790a5d9dca0981ea94f9b4.jpg" data-media-id="editor_23" data-image-id="20250524030520_3ff9c6fc85a65bc9a2c3afe9736d9f5f9413de752e790a5d9dca0981ea94f9b4" data-rendition-name="original" width="1136" height="702" loading="lazy" alt="The last days of the Khampa NT"> </figure>

The Last Days of the Khampa

Starting 17 September Turkish Airlines will fly daily to Seville, one of Spain’s major tourist draws. This is Turkish’s sixth destination in Spain after Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Malaga, and Bilbao. Seville is in the Andalusia region on Spain’s south coast with a rich Moor history. There are approximately 30,000 Nepalis living in Spain.&nbsp;

Turkish to Seville

The newly-formed Himalayan Art Council is set to launch Nepal’s National Art Protection Platform that seeks to preserve <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/the-history-of-heritage">Nepal’s unique cultural heritage </a>using<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/artificial-censorship"> AI-powered tools</a>. The Council seeks to safeguard <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/nepali-art-going-places">Nepali art works</a> from neglect, theft and counterfeiting as well as preserve existing artwork and celebrate living masters by giving them a cultural space to continue the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/sacred-survival">sacred art traditions</a>. "We are introducing a new digital platform designed to preserve, verify and elevate <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/nepals-new-generation-of-alternative-artists">Nepal’s art for generations to come,</a>” says a statement from the Council, adding that the digital platform will use AI told for authentication and blockchain to keep track of works of art. Artists can now be protected by <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/multimedia/ayo-ai?fbclid=IwAR1uwmTVq4gUB70ljfRezjzukD9ArWXPuMnUikopeQ8PoiZMjicToPSwhKE&amp;=1">AI tools</a> that detect forgeries, identify their work even when unsigned, and ensure they receive proper recognition and credit. The archives will be searchable with translated inscription and interactive guides. Says curator Meena Lama: “AI and blockchains are tools that give us the power to detect fakes and identify unsigned paintings and track every piece. With these tools we can restore trust, secure authorship and give artists the dignity they deserve.”  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250514170544_2ab58f6313c0458f75114a692b0016bd9efb3b59d5f8f07f0da72e1e37b82f53.jpg" data-media-id="editor_6" data-image-id="20250514170544_2ab58f6313c0458f75114a692b0016bd9efb3b59d5f8f07f0da72e1e37b82f53" data-rendition-name="original" width="1300" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="Artwork at the Traditional Art Exhibition at Patan Museum."> <figcaption>Artwork at the Traditional Art Exhibition at Patan Museum.</figcaption> </figure>  The Council is also holding an exhibition of Nepali cultural masterpieces with 50 historical <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/Buzz-the-art,671">thangka and paubha </a>by past masters and <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/review/between-the-sacred-and-everyday">contemporary works by current artists</a>. This curated collection is a living tribute to <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/when-yaks-go-so-does-culture">Himalayan culture</a> with economic depictions of deities, mandala and sacred narratives. The exhibition at <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/multimedia/a-portal-into-patan-s-past-and-present">Patan Museum</a> also provides an opportunity to meet painters and custodians of art and culture. Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/review/golden-deities">Golden deities</a>, Sewa Bhattarai ‘The exhibition is only the first step in a long journey to ensure that Nepali art is no just seen but fully understood, <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/Narratives-of-Faith-and-Memory-Remembering-the-Lost-Sculptures-of-Kathmandu-exhibition,987">protected and remembered</a>,’ the Council says. Artist Kailash K Shrestha of Artudio has spent decades promoting thankha and paubha traditions because of their beauty and devotional meaning. But he also says artists are underpaid, exploited and ignored. He adds, “AI and blockchain are not just buzzwords, they are powerful tools that can protect Nepal’s artists from fraud, verify authenticity and build a permanent record of provenance.” Traditional Art Exhibition Till 17 May Patan Museum

Digital protection for Nepal’s art

<a href="https://www.instagram.com/prabalgurung/" target="_blank">Prabal Gurung</a> left Nepal for New York in 1999 to escape years of bullying, sexism and homophobia, and to pursue his dream of becoming a fashion designer. He <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqN0VaoAI5w" target="_blank">realised his dream</a>, but did not escape discrimination and racism in the new world. Propelled by passion for fashion, Gurung overcame everything America threw at him. He has attained <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/style/story/prabal-gurung-recalls-his-first-met-gala-when-zoe-saldana-was-at-his-side?srsltid=AfmBOooy-H0oGgxMit864FnW_Pmw8mUnV8rYrh-co-f6OyYK6m2ip5hP" target="_blank">fame and recognition</a> for his haute couture dress designs while remaining true to his Nepali roots, and is even more resolute in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSmNauyzACk" target="_blank">fighting prejudice</a> in all its forms. Prabal Gurung’s newly-released memoir <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Audible-Walk-Like-Girl-Memoir/dp/B0DG11HCDQ?fbclid=IwY2xjawKZfpxleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHuZcIJO2OXyXcRm1oq1iG6wzeoF7VJFrQ7GXOFI0YxuZZ4id_CNvSZSZZIna_aem_pG_mOKG73RTnYvN8JaC4fA">Walk Like a Girl</a> is a saga of harrowing abuse in boarding schools in Nepal and India, only finding himself facing a different kind of bullying in the US. He prevails over it all to be where he is today: an award-winning American fashion designer with his own label. Walk Like a Girl was launched last week in New York at a time when everything Gurung fought for — tolerance, inclusion and diversity — are in retreat in his adopted country because of a president who has espoused a culture of bullying. The book is a searing, raw exposé of how cruel and abusive people can be even at a young age in school. On the other hand, it also shows that there are generous, compassionate and open-minded souls out there. In his book, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4le_uWX7YE">Prabal Gurung</a> calls out those who tormented and tried to hold him back (some of their names have been altered). The moral of his story is: resist, never stop believing in yourself, do not let others define you, never lose sight of your dream, and help those who have been kept out. “Walk like a girl” was a slur used by bullies back in school in Nepal and India for Gurung’s effeminate ways. He fought back then, and he is still resisting by turning those words into something to be proud of.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250519170544_4ffc9c3f565dd2cfa754d10b224816897b82bb31ebaee91b6d79d469fc96f14e.jpg" data-media-id="editor_6" data-image-id="20250519170544_4ffc9c3f565dd2cfa754d10b224816897b82bb31ebaee91b6d79d469fc96f14e" data-rendition-name="original" width="1000" height="1253" loading="lazy" alt="Prabal Gurung NT"> <figcaption>Prabal Gurung at home in Kathmandu in the 1990s.</figcaption> </figure>  “Living through it all was one thing, but writing about it is one of the hardest things I have done in my life,” admitted Gurung during the launch. “I broke down constantly during the six-year writing process.” He continues: “I did not want this to be a victim’s book. I did not want to burden my readers with my emotions. I wanted my struggle to be an inspiration for others facing what I faced. I am grateful to those who bullied me in school, they made me a stronger person ready to face the world.” Indeed, this book is a departure from his earlier one titled simply, Prabal Gurung (Abrams, 2019), which was a lush pictorial autobiography of his career in fashion. Walk Like a Girl is not a typical fashion book, it is an intimate tale of <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=16997">Gurung’s travails and triumphs</a>, and how he willed himself to succeed. Prabal pays a lavish tribute to his mother Durga Rana. We find out she is a descendant of the first wife of the eldest son of Jang Bahadur Rana who was banished to Palpa in the late 19th century. Prabal’s father served in the Singapore Police and that is where he was born before the family returned to Nepal when he was four. Gurung relates with brutal honesty about the violence his mother endured from his father. Durga raises three children as a single mother in Nepal, and Prabal credits her for his fierce determination to resist patriarchy and injustice, which in time manifests itself in his hyper-feminine and subversive dress designs. Writing the book has been a cathartic experience for Gurung, who says he is now relieved of the burdens of his past. It no longer haunts him, and he does not have to prove anything to anyone anymore. Walk Like a Girl has life lessons not just for the <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DJmOcSgxdWz/" target="_blank">fashion industry</a>, but for every other profession. How can my job serve a greater cause? Gurung tells us his work is <a href="https://asiasociety.org/blog/asia/why-designer-prabal-gurung-doesnt-want-just-stick-fashion" target="_blank">bigger than just making clothes</a>, it is about making the world a better place because it could do with a lot of improvement.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250519170544_d75296ad8bfdc00d88935f40d23543c6fea3d4d6a10e61a99d6cfc6127f2ee5b.png" data-media-id="editor_10" data-image-id="20250519170544_d75296ad8bfdc00d88935f40d23543c6fea3d4d6a10e61a99d6cfc6127f2ee5b" data-rendition-name="original" width="1516" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="Prabal Gurung"> </figure>  This story of chasing the American dream may sound familiar to many immigrants: knocking on doors for jobs, rejections, trying to survive from day to day on expensive rent, and dealing with subtle racism in white America. Gurung finds racism is rife, and he is often mockingly called ‘gaysian’. He writes: ‘There was a strong hypocrisy — this idea of independence felt like a marketting ruse … and for all the talk of feminism in America, these high society women were trapped by the patriarchy just like in Nepal and India.’ After a trek to the Khumbu region in 2013, Gurung is inspired to use the colours, palette and textures of Nepal for his collection exhibited on Manhattan’s 8th Avenue. A major buyer tells him bluntly: “Stick to making pretty dresses … if I need to see a collection like this, I could buy a copy of National Geographic.” The New York Times was equally dismissive: ‘The designer tries to draw connections between blistered techo-fabric used to construct it and the topography of his homeland, Nepal. But, at the moment, he has lost his map.’ One potential investor tells Gurung he cannot design for Americana because “you do not look American”. Gurung wants to use expletives, but restrains himself. After a fundraiser in New York for the Nepal earthquake in 2015, some belittled his effort, saying: “Here comes the saviour."&nbsp; Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/review/prabal-gurung-by-prabal-gurung">Prabal Gurung by Prabal Gurung</a>, Kunda Dixit The Gurkha DNA must be dominant in Prabal Gurung’s genes because he does not take such mistreatment lying down. When asked by a fashion publicist why he was designing clothes for fat people, he snaps back: “Because of people like you.” He joins the Black Lives Matter and #MeToo movements, launches the Shikshya Foundation charity in Nepal, and has powerful allies among celebrities who wear clothes he designed: Michelle Obama, Oprah Winfrey, Sara Jessica Parker, Kamala Harris, Deepika Padukone … it is a long list.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250519150556_48a5f4211991a23fa85b64bbd5377575ca7081d97309d7542035591dda5180fe.png" data-media-id="editor_12" data-image-id="20250519150556_48a5f4211991a23fa85b64bbd5377575ca7081d97309d7542035591dda5180fe" data-rendition-name="original" width="1114" height="1534" loading="lazy" alt="Being Prabal Gurung by design"> <figcaption>Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie wearing Atelier Prabal Gurung’s design for Met Gala 2025 in which the theme was ‘Superfine: Tailoring Black Style’. </figcaption> </figure>  “I don’t dress women to look beautiful, they already are,” Gurung says. “I try to bring out their innate strength and grace.” <a href="https://www.instagram.com/stories/highlights/17908766880140171/" target="_blank">Admirers</a> tell Gurung he makes it all look so easy, but he used to put up a strong facade to not show his own vulnerabilities in public. “I was closed because of my childhood experiences,” he says. “I was always on guard to defend myself because I never knew where the next punch would come from.” But in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPVepzPA210" target="_blank">Walk Like a Girl,</a> Gurung comes to terms with his vulnerability, and bares his soul. It has not been easy, it took sustained will power and support from his mother, sister Kumudini and a circle of close friends. “I made unbelonging my power,” he says. “Nepal is where I still have my heart and soul. Nepal grounds you. It is where people go to find themselves. But I escaped.” Recently appointed vice-chair of the <a href="https://cfda.com/about-cfda" target="_blank">Council of American Fashion Designers</a>, Gurung says: “I can’t believe I am here, it feels like it is happening to someone else. Writing this book, the healing has finally begun.” <h2>‘Everything is better in color’</h2> The Met Gala was two weeks later, and my table was an example of everything I’d been fighting for all these years as my guests represented everything I believed in: dynamic, powerful, influential women who were unapologetically original and unabashedly graceful. I was grateful to Anna for inviting me to host and dress a table that reflected my ethos—and for her guidance in doing so. I was also aware of the privilege as one of the first-­ever Asian fashion designers—not just from Nepal, but from the entire continent— to get the opportunity to do so. That fact was not lost on me. I reached out beyond the expected Hollywood celebrities and well-­known socialites to curate a table of exceptional women who inspired me. I invited Deepika Padukone and Alia Bhatt for their first-­ever Met Galas, as well as Michelle Yeoh, Mindy Kaling, Camila Cabello, Ashley Park, Denée Benton, KiKi Layne, Quannah Chasinghorse, and Grace Elizabeth. Together we checked many boxes: Asian, Black, Latinx, and Indigenous, each woman undeniably chic and powerful, a dazzling array of skin tones and experiences that proved my decades‑in‑the-­making hypothesis: everything is better in color. Excerpt from Walk Like a Girl Viking © 2025 by Prabal Gurung  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250519170520_6b91d560e9f072c37d16876901058c073a51ffa05e7ad1b9461d19e1c9c28215.jpg" data-media-id="editor_16" data-image-id="20250519170520_6b91d560e9f072c37d16876901058c073a51ffa05e7ad1b9461d19e1c9c28215" data-rendition-name="original" width="1136" height="702" loading="lazy" alt="Prabal Gurung book details NT"> </figure>   <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250519170520_345240c21be400e2ce2ec629b52bd82bb53890e5bd86fe95b48340d84b5f1748.jpg" data-media-id="editor_17" data-image-id="20250519170520_345240c21be400e2ce2ec629b52bd82bb53890e5bd86fe95b48340d84b5f1748" data-rendition-name="original" width="1136" height="702" loading="lazy" alt="Prabal Gurung book details NT"> </figure>  &nbsp;

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