We provide exclusive dental healthcare services for the Wongchhu Sherpa Memorial Hospital catchment area in Nepal. As our founding project, we maintain a steadfast commitment to supporting the hospital staff. Recognizing that dental health is fundamental to overall wellbeing across all age groups.
Our annual dental camps, dedicated to providing free dental care and healthcare services to remote regions.
Since the Wongchhu Sherpa Memorial Hospital opened in April, 2022, it has enhanced the ability of the people in the area to have healthier families. Anyone can walk up the hill to the hospital and receive excellent primary healthcare from a dedicated staff. Knowing that some patients are too old or sick to make the walk to the hospital has led to some unique outreach programs.
We are so honored to have Dr. Gyaltsen Gurung, the physician leading the hospital, here to tell us about two of the outreach programs he has initiated: a class on menstruation and a class on dental hygiene and hand washing. These topics are not covered in the general education at the local schools. Giving young girls the tools and knowledge to understand what is happening with their bodies is paramount to changing the way menstruation is approached in Nepal. Boys are included in the lectures to help educate everyone. Dental hygiene is more important than ever, too, with the influx of sugar drinks that are now available locally.
We are privileged to have Dr. Anumesh Dahal give us his firsthand account of the second Musa Masala Dental Camp, held at the Wongchhu Sherpa Memorial Hospital Tapting at the end of April, 2023. We are so grateful for the team he put together to bring the only oral health organization to the area. We are thankful to Dr. Gyaltsen Gurungand the staff at the WSMH for working with us to make this possible.
We also thank our friends, Jason Tartalone at Sergeant Rescue and Pem Dorjee Sherpa of Imperial Expeditions, who helped put up the funding for this camp. Without the donations, we simply could not do this. Jason donated the funds raised during their Spring 2022 Everest Base Camp Trek to help us. Sergeant Rescue is based in Pennsylvania and provides classes in SAR, EMS and wilderness medicine. Pem Dorjee Sherpa is a friend of Musa Masala and a board member of the Himalayan Yokpu Foundation.
Almost six months ago, we held our third annual Free Dental Camp at the Wongchhu Sherpa Memorial Hospital. The growth of these events has been so inspiring. We started out with one dentist. At this camp, we had six!
Not only is this so much better for the community, allowing for more patients to be seen with a much more time-friendly exam period, but it shows the love the Nepal dental community has for being involved in a project like this. It is not easy to leave your practice, take a 10-12 hour jeep ride to a remote hospital and treat a solid line of patients who are not familiar with dentistry for four to five days. We are so grateful and overjoyed with the results of this event.