50th Anniversary Celebration Of Sir Ed’s First Hospital

Kiwis Join the 50th Anniversary Celebration Of Sir Ed’s First
Himalayan Hospital

Fifty years after Sir Edmund Hillary built a hospital in the remote,
mountain village of Kunde, the first hospital in the Everest region of
Nepal, New Zealanders will join local health professionals and the
community in Kunde to celebrate 50 years of healthcare in the region.

The celebrations will take place on May 28, 2016, the eve of the
anniversary of Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay's historic ascent
of Mount Everest. From the 1960s onwards, Hillary funded and built
schools, health clinics and hospitals to improve the social welfare of
the Himalayan people.

Sarah Hillary, daughter of Sir Edmund Hillary, said: "As well as the
advantages that education would bring the local community, it was clear
to my father that medical care would also have an immediate beneficial
effect in the Everest region. The opening of the Kunde hospital in 1966
was a very proud moment for Ed and the many New Zealanders who worked so
hard to make it happen."

Many of the New Zealanders taking part in the celebrations are former
volunteer doctors who helped run the remote hospital with the support of
Nepali staff from when it was first built by Hillary in 1966 until the
hospital was handed over to a Nepali doctor in 2002.

"It was a life-changing experience for the Kiwi doctors who worked at
the hospital," said Christchurch resident Lynley Cook, a volunteer
doctor from 1991 to 1993. Cook is also the current Chair of the
Himalayan Trust New Zealand, the charity founded by Hillary to improve
education and healthcare for communities in the Everest region of Nepal.

"As volunteer doctors we were welcomed into the community with warmth
and hospitality. It was a privilege to be able to help provide health
services to this community as well as visitors to the region. Though it
was some of the most challenging work I have ever done, it was deeply
rewarding. I learnt a great deal from the community and that had a
profound impact on me and my future practice."

The small, stone hospital, nestled on the edge of a mountain at 3,849
metres and surrounded by snow-capped peaks, operates all year round and
services up to 8,000 local people, plus the thousands of trekkers that
pass through the region during the climbing seasons.

There have been remarkable improvements in the health of local
communities since the hospitals and health clinics were established -
the near eradication of TB, the elimination of goitre and cretinism
through iodine injections, as well as major improvements in maternal
care. The hospital now runs a substantial immunisation programme and a
family planning service.

Since 1976, the Sir Edmund Hillary Foundation of Canada has managed the
funding of the hospital, while the New Zealand-based Himalayan Trust
continues to support other health initiatives in the mountain district.

For the past 14 years, the Kunde hospital has been fully staffed by
Nepali medical professionals. Dr Kami Temba became the first local
doctor to take over the full management of the hospital. The story of
how Dr Kami came to be the first doctor-in-charge at Kunde hospital is a
story that spans the whole of Hillary's aid work in the Everest region.

"Without the schools and the hospital built by Sir Ed I would never have
attended school, or acquired the training and opportunity to get a
medical degree," said Dr Kami.

Dr Mingmar, who grew up in the nearby village of Thame, is currently
completing a two-year placement at Kunde Hospital. Dr Mingmar believes
Sir Ed would be very happy if he was able to see how the hospital is
operating fifty years on.

"This is what Sir Ed wanted; we have our own hospital with our own
doctors."

ENDS

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