Bajura

What is it like?

Bajura, with a population of around 134,900 people, is one of nine districts in the western Sudurpaschim province in Nepal. The south of the district is more fertile and more densely populated, while the north, where PHASE works, is very rural and remote with no road access. There are 471 public health facilities across the nine districts of Sudurpaschim, 18 of those are located in Bajura. This includes 16 health posts, one government hospital and one primary care centre. Like in many of the districts PHASE works in, the distribution of public healthcare facilities is uneven across Bajura. The south is host to the majority of healthcare posts, highlighting the difficulty in healthcare access for the communities that occupy the rural villages of north Bajura.

Across all of the districts PHASE works in, Bajura has the highest rates of food poverty – between 65%-80% of the entire district lives in food poverty. The livelihoods of many Nepali communities in Bajura are reliant upon local agricultural produce for household income, as 83% of the Sudurpaschim region is dependent on agriculture for household income. In PHASE, we are very aware that problems in livelihoods opportunities have close ties to problems in health and education, which is why we are committed to taking an integrated approach in our work.

What do we do in Bajura?

PHASE’s most recent work in Bajura has focused primarily on community health support. The PHASE supported Primary Care Centre in Kolti, and the health centres in Bichhaya and Rugin see approximately 25,502 patients per year, this includes around 10,511 children and 1,233 emergency cases. This health support not only provides isolated communities in Bajura with the opportunity to access healthcare, but also brings healthcare right to their door through our outreach programmes. The focus is very much on strengthening reproductive health care (family planning, antenatal care, safe childbirth) and child health and nutrition (facilitating access to vaccinations and educating mothers and communities about child care). Healthcare is a key pillar in supporting remote Nepali communities, something that everyone, everywhere should have access to.