How the mountain villages protect themselves from Corona
April 2020: The strict curfew also applies in the Mugu mountains. In our remote project villages, people are trying everything in their power to protect themselves from infection with Corona.
All contact between the villages is broken. The village communities stay among themselves. Nobody who comes from outside is allowed in, even if they come from the village. Many Mugali who work as day laborers in Kathmandu or India are now trying to return. Without a daily income they cannot afford to stay in the city. Some run for weeks without a cent in their pockets.
The returnees pose a great danger to the remote mountain villages, where there is no or at most rudimentary medical care. Mugu’s only hospital, responsible for 55,000 people, is not remotely prepared for an outbreak of the virus. The returnees must therefore remain in quarantine outside the villages.
18 QUARANT STATIONS – WE HELP WITH | The local authorities have set up quarantine stations for this purpose. Back to Life also made an active contribution and financed sanitary equipment and camp beds. There are currently 18 official quarantine stations in Mugu. The buildings of the closed schools are mainly used for this. Some villages have built small sheds themselves.
All important nodes within the mountain region have check points that are guarded day and night. The mountain residents want to prevent the virus from spreading in their villages.
RAPID TESTS IN OUR BIRTHHOUSES | In the meantime, the local authorities have also started testing for Corona in Mugu. Since we built our birth centers at nodes so that they can be reached by as many households as possible, the authority uses our infrastructure. You set up the test station outdoors in front of the birthing centers.
PREGNANT PROTECTORS | If a pregnant woman has to be quarantined, we have developed emergency plans for the various birth centers.