For a year now, I have been temporarily supporting a family in Kathmandu with 1000 SEK a month. It is as far from “effective altruism” as you can get, but sometimes you cann’t help but get involved and let your heart make the decisions. Kim Lal doesn’t survive without his immunosuppressive drugs. And they are expensive. Right now the situation is extra difficult – the highly contagious covid variant B.1.617 is ravaging in Nepal and the country is not equipped to take care of the sick and the dead. Large parts of the country have for the third time gone into a total “lockdown” and no one can work, or move outdoors. No income – no medication. Maybe together we can send a little extra support to Kim Lal during this difficult time?

Kim Lal (father) and Laxmi (mother) Reuli from the Salyan district lived at the BAS shelter with their sons about seven years ago. Before that, Kim Lal worked in Dubai (a common source of livelihood in Nepal – about 26.5% of the country’s GDP consists of money sent home by Nepalese working abroad). Unfortunately he suffered from kidney failure and was forced to go home to the village in Karnali Province. His condition worsened and a trip to the capital for hospital stays and regular dialysis became necessary. But that was not enough. A transplant was the only thing that could save him and the whole family was accommodated at BAS Nepal.

No one in Kim Lal’s biological family was willing to donate a kidney but Laxmi volunteered in an attempt to save her husband. The family sold their small piece of land in Salyan, and all their belongings, to pay for the transplant – SEK 180,000 was the final sum. A fortune in Karnali where one in two inhabitants is counted as multidimensionally poor.

After the operation, Kim Lal, Laxmi and the two sons Roshan and Laxman moved to BAS Nepal’s farm where they got paid work and a house to live in. Unfortunately, the operation was not entirely successful and Kim Lal is dependent on expensive immunosuppressive drugs to survive. Thanks to them, however, he survives and now the family has managed to rent some land on the outskirts of Kathmandu together with two other families. They live in a tin shed and grow pumpkin and corn. Not an easy life but they survive. When there is work, Kim Lal works as a guard and Laxmi as a cleaner. An avalanche-like increase in the highly contagious covid variant B.1.617 is currently taking place and no decrease is in sight. Kathmandu is in total lockdown and no one is allowed to go out, and no one can work. For a family already living on the border, life is extra difficult.

For a year now, I have been sending SEK 1,000 a month to cover the costs of the immunosuppressive drugs Kim Lal needs. It’s giving with a time limit – when the economy turns and both have work, money is not needed anymore. But for now, I thought together we could send some extra money to them as my birthday present! If 50 friends donate SEK 49, Kim Lal has money for medicines for almost 4 months <3

Update!

Together you have collected SEK 4,598 which I have now sent to Kim Lal in Nepal – this will be enough for medicines in the autumn! I am speechless, and infinitely grateful!