Kathmandu, Sept 11: The Ani Choying Drolma Foundation provided finance assistance of Rs 18 million to the Kathmandu Institute of Child Health (KIOCH).
The Foundation helmed by philanthropist and nun Ani Choying Drolma donated the amount to construct the buildings for the multi-specialty children hospital at Budhanilakantha Municipality in Kathmandu.
On the occasion, Ani pledged to support in making the multi-specialty healthcare services accessible to all Nepalis. She shared that she sold her an expensive car and donated that amount. “I feel happy to donate the amount to the Hospital by selling off my car. I pledge to support to the best of my ability to expand the Hospital’s branches all over the country,” the singing nun said in a hand-over ceremony on Monday.
KIOCH’s President Dr Bhagawan Koirala said that since the maternal and infant mortality rate were still high in Nepal and to reduce it, the first step towards addressing it was to establish a specialized children’s hospital.
KOICH which aimed to deliver integrated multispecialty high-quality child healthcare that is affordable, accessible and available to all, would be expanded to all seven provinces, according to Dr Koirala.
“Of the 28,000 beds in the healthcare facilities across the country, only 2,800 are for children at present. Moreover, 80 per cent of the bed, medical officers and nurses are centered in Bagmati Province,” Dr Koirala said, calling for cooperation from all quarters to expand specialty healthcare services for children across the country.
The non-profit organization, KIOCH, has been providing healthcare services to children by establishing a Children’s Hospital at Damak in Jhapa district since four months. During this period, 8,300 children received OPD services while 1,850 got IPD services, Dr Koirala shared.
