January 13, 2003

Dear Friends,

Such a long time since I have sent you a newsy letter. So sorry. It has been a very busy time. I suspect you have been hearing on-and-off news from Nepal. The insurgency is slowly worsening. Its effects are being felt in the economic sector; tourists are not coming. Much of the government budget is spent on security, and thanks to the U.S. and the U.K., weapons on both sides are becoming more sophisticated, so killing is more efficient (the Maoists steal the new weapons from the security forces). Many of the victims are the civilians, caught in the middle-thought to be informers by the Maoists, or used as human shields during battles, or thought to be supporters of the insurgents by the security forces. Villagers are fleeing the rural areas now by the hundreds. Thousands each week are crossing into India. At first it was just men, escaping from being enlisted into the Maoist forces (one per family), but now it is entire families. The government is ignoring the problem and not providing any assistance so there is really nothing to keep the people in Nepal. The problem will come when India gets fed up and closes the border.

We are still able to work in some of the rural areas that are still relatively quiet. In Mugu, an extremely remote area in western Nepal, on the border with Tibet, we have a community health and development project, which provides services to women. One of their activities is targeted at changing the delivery practices. The traditional practice is for women to deliver alone, unaided, in the animal shed. The birth process-specifically the blood-is considered to be impure, and would contaminate the house if the women gave birth there. (Read Leviticus 12) What is very exciting is that the project is beginning to have an effect. Younger women are beginning to be allowed to deliver inside the house, and also to be attended to during delivery and fed afterwards. (Women are traditionally given very little to eat for the first ten days after delivery. The baby, too, is not breastfed for the first 48 hours.) Colostrum, a principal substance in breast milk, is full of mother's antibodies, which helps to protect the baby from infections. The older women in the community had to be convinced that these new practices were better, but it only took a few healthier babies and mothers to do that. It is exciting to see the healthier practices catch on.

Closer to home for me is the implementation of the United Mission to Nepal's new strategic plan. It is quite exciting as we feel that it is very responsive to the needs of Nepal at this time. A particular challenge during the transitional phase will be the change from the implementation of work to focusing on facilitation and capacity building. We do have a lot of experience in the latter, so that is good, but it will be a challenge for UMN and its projects to get out of implementation! We have been here for nearly 50 years and everyone is pretty happy with the arrangement. But it has become an arrangement very dependent on expatriates. And considering the uncertain times-as well as UMN's vision, which has always been for its work to be managed and owned by Nepalis-it is high time that UMN no longer implements. I'm working closely with Sanu Ranjit, deputy director of health services in United Mission to Nepal. He will be working with the UMN sealth services projects that now must evolve out of being implemented by UMN. My experience in India, time and again, has been so helpful because when I started out, the "missionary era" was just coming to a close and from departing mission workers, I was able to give a lot of pointers!

Right now, I am helping the leadership of UMN make decisions regarding the details of the structure of the organization. I am also gathering a lot of information for deciding where in Nepal to locate our clusters of work and am beginning to develop more detailed program strategies for the various areas of work that we will be involved in. It's a far cry from being a pediatric nephrologist! In India, there is a wonderful phrase with which you close a letter when you are asking for something to be done: "Kindly do the needful." And that seems to be a lot about what being in mission is all about.

May this New Year include "doing the needful" in the lives of the people around you.

Beverley

The 2003 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 166