The 2nd health care center “Gabde”
Since 2011, the Golog Support Foundation has supported the renovation and construction of a second health center in the town of Gabde, a small town not far from the larger town of Dawu. Gabde is becoming an increasingly important center in the region, offering public and commercial services to nomad families and local people.
In 2013, the construction of the Gabde health center was completed, transforming a previously single-floor, simple building to a reinforced and expanded two-floor building. Over €55,000 has been raised and transferred by Golog Support Foundation’s numerous donors and friends from our three associations in Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Ireland.
Medical license acquisition
Earlier this year, GSF partnered with the Golog Institute for Traditional Tibetan Medicine, the director of which will serve as our local representative and partner. After over five years of project negotiations with local government authorities, this spring 2018, the GSF and the said Institute partnership successfully purchased a pharmacy and associated clinic business for EUR 20,000, which included both the operating licence and related furniture. Last summer, the pharmacy and associated clinic business was moved to our Gabde building. For these first months since opening, the clinic sees about 20 patients per day. Through our partnership with the director of the Institute for Traditional Tibetan Medicine, our training hospital and school will help preserve and carry-forth centuries-old knowledge on Tibetan medicinal plants and Tibetan medicine for new generations of young doctors
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Free or affordable medical care to the neediest
Lama Jigme and Pema Dorje, director of the Institute, share in their vision of serving the most needy of the local population. All medical services are provided on a scale commensurate to the patient’s income. Your donations to GSF ensures that services remain affordable, and/or free. Both traditional Tibetan and modern medical services are available. We aim to have the hospital serve as a training hospital for medical students associated with the Institute, with traditional Tibetan medicines produced on the premises.
Moving forward and next steps
GSF is looking to raise by spring 2019 over EUR 40,000 for needed equipment and materials to expand the infrastructure of the hospital. The next funding of the project later in 2019, will consist of renovations to the second floor of the building, which will become patient and surgery rooms compliant with government standards.
Your donations help to ensure that more Tibetan families receive the medical care that they need, particularly maternal and child care. It is Lama Jigme’s hope that in the future, the Gabde hospital will provide important gynecological and obstetric care to the nomadic women of this remote part of Tibet.