President Air Rescue Programme Becoming Effective in Dolpa

– Ram Chandra Neupane

18 Aug, Dolpa : The President Air Rescue Programme, launched targeting pregnant and post-partum mothers, is turning to be effective in mountains district Dolpa. The programme aims to prevent such women from facing untimely death in lack of safe motherhood services and the rescue is free of cost.

Dolpa, the part of Karnali state, lacks a reliable means of road transport and during the fiscal year 2076-77 BS (2019-20), 12 pregnant and post-partum mothers were rescued, Chief District Officer Suresh Sunar said. The figure was higher than those rescued in the previous fiscal year.

As Sunar said, the programme has been very effective in this remote district and it has helped save lives of many women in life-threatening conditions due to pregnancy and post-delivery related health complications. Health post in far-flung areas are not in the position of ensuring safe delivery as they face lack of resources and required facilities.

The mass people are not aware of the availability of the air rescue facility. “In emergency, some directly dial up the administration number and some directly visit us and then proceed towards the rescue,’’ according to him.

As he said, all the rescued women are taken to Surkhet, Nepalgunj and other cities for treatment. President of local civil society Sher Bahadur Budha said the President Air Rescue Programme is truly effective in a mountainous district like Dolpa which does not have access to quality and advanced health services.

Budha said it requires a large amount of money (may be hundreds of thousands rupees) if a pregnant woman from the district has to be taken to other districts for treatment at personal expenses in case of complications related to child birth.

Before the implementation of the programme, many women used to die due to delivery related complications. This programme has come as a boon especially for the women from the poor economic background.

Budha opined that this programme should be expanded in other districts where the health services are not accessible and affordable. The people of Dolpa have demanded with the government that this programme should be continued as it is about saving the lives of pregnant and new mothers from the economically vulnerable communities.