Housing News

13 October 2015

Dear Donors and Supporters
Namaste

Due to a magnificent gift from Marie in Switzerland, a completely new Care House for the DHC New Life Centre Family is being constructed on the outskirts of the city in an area that is much more safe during earthquakes as there are no surrounding tall buildings, and the location is 5 kilometres from East-Pole school so the school bus will continue to collect the children. It is ikely to be completed in a few months time.

Marie-Josée de Quevedo writes:

This is how my association “Surya Association Drukpa Suisse” was born.

His Holiness the 12th Gyalwang Drukpa, has his main residence in Nepal, at the Amitabha Monastery located in Sita Paila on top of a mountain not far from Swayambunath Kathmandu. In 2005 His Holiness, conscious of the surrounding poverty and the lack of medical assistance, contacted me during one of my trips to Nepal, and provided me with a piece of land for the construction of a clinic within the premises of his monastery.

For the inhabitants of the mountainous regions of Sita Paila it is extremely hard to reach medical aid given that the sole access road is very steep and during the rainy season becomes unsuitable.

Back in Switzerland I created Surya association with some friends and started fundraising. 4 years later the Druk White Lotus Clinic was inaugurated. We had 495 patients on the first day! The Clinic is led by a French couple, he Dr.Thierry Dupart is a generalist and she Dr. Cécil is paediatrician and 3 to 4 times a week comes a Nepali doctor. The Dental Lab is also under the guidance of a French dentists Dr. Michel and Corinne Guinet and in their absence comes a Nepali doctor.

We do a yearly Eye Camp to offer new sight to those who have lived in the darkness due to cataracts. We have between 200 and 400 patients who come from all over Nepal. Gyalwang created a international association under the name of “Live to Love” who gets funds from all over the world and donates these surgical interventions.

Being busy down town in Kathmandu I stay at Bairoling Monastery, in Tinjuli, property of Bairo Rinpoche, father of H.H. Gyalwang Drukpa, and while there one time, I was contacted by the DHC Jorpati. This is how I met and followed Amrit’s work.

When he started his ONG, The DHC New Life Centre Nepal and the circumstances led him to move continuously the children from house to house I decided to build a real home for them. I trust Amrit,, who is not only intelligent, but has shown his aptitude, kindness and great sense of responsibility.

Regarding myself:

I was born in Switzerland and belong to a family of three generations of diplomats , Swiss and Portuguese, and was married to a Portuguese diplomat. I studied ethnology in Brasil (Amazonia) and worked as a interpreter and photographer.

Before building the Clinic in Nepal, I contributed to the education of young girls from families with leprosies, in Dattapur, Wahrda, where Gandhi built his first leper centre and helped in the education of outcast children in Jaipur.

Best Regards
Amrit and all the DHC New Life Centre family.