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| Anil Upadhyay- General Secretary of MDF |
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| Karuna at the place she loves |
Anil Upadhyay and Karuna Pokharel, started Muscular
Dystrophy Foundation, Nepal around 2000, shortly after they learned their son,
Anushpa Nepal had Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. Although Anushpa died in 2008, his parents still fight for the children that need them.
The roads in Kathmandu are in great shape compared to the
rest of Nepal but in poor to damn awful shape compared to roads in the US. Because of this children with muscular
dystrophy usually stop going to school
due to accessibility problems. They stop going anywhere.
The Center provides physical therapy and ambulance services
with a full time Physical Therapist and a driver to go with the ambulance. The
driver picks up kids to bring them to the center. A couple days a week the PT goes to the homes.
The center also provides counseling to parents and sisters of
boys with muscular dystrophy.
The government supports the Center by paying for diagnosis
through CPK or biopsy. They provide
braces and wheelchairs if necessary.
MDF, Nepal plans to build a Center where every aspect of
muscular dystrophy can be addressed, including genetic diagnosis and care of boys with
physical therapy.
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| A boy with duchenne at the MDF Nepal Center |
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| Prabha Chaulagain offers counseling and runs the MDF office |
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| Karuna and Prabha are in the MDF office every day. |
After all of the talk and meeting the wonderful people who do so much with so little to help boys with muscular dystrophy, I did a little sightseeing and souvenir buying. It was so much fun!
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| Temple in Kathmandu |
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| Me, at a temple door in Kathmandu |
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| They do have cats in Kathmandu! |
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| Hustle and bustle |
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| The gods can be scary! |
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| Anil and me |
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| More temples |
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| So many temples! |
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| In Kathmandu, a local goddess appears once a year in the golden window in this picture |
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| The story of the local goddess |
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| The market street in Kathmandu |
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| so happy |
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| After the fun, I will remember Duchenne and a wonderful 12 year old and his family |
