Dr. Gyalsten
Gurung
What a delight to celebrate Gyalsten’s graduation from medical college.
And what a wonderful example of the reality that we can make a difference, especially when we are ‘giving’ opportunities to others who otherwise would not have them.
“The purpose of life is to contribute in some way to making things better.”
Robert F. Kennedy
We first met Gyalsten when he was in year 7 at Snowlands School, one of the many “school/pretend orphanages” in Nepal. Once the children have finished their basic high school education they are sent back to their remote villages where there is little opportunity for further career progression.
BUT
With the generous support of some wonderful sponsors, IGWR-Nepal took Gyalsten and some of his peers under their wings and enabled them to complete their “Plus2” education, and then we enrolled Gyalsten in Medical Studies. He’s done really well throughout his studies, and also overcame the complication of having to have a kidney removed during his third year at college.
This year we celebrated his graduation as Dr Gyalsten Gurung, and we look forward to all that he will now give to others in his new career.
Already Gyalsten is making a difference and ‘giving back’ as was mentioned in this article from “The Conversation”
“In Nepal’s second-largest city, Pokhara, when students’ classes were cancelled due to COVID-19 in March, medical student Gyalsten Gurung, 25, left the city. He returned to Shimen, the remote village where he was born in the Himalaya’s Upper Dolpo region.
There, he taught villagers about good hand hygiene, social distancing and ways to prepare safe water for consumption and cleaning where there is no running water. He also created COVID-19 posters in the local language and engaged elders through whiteboard activities, diagrams and storytelling.”
There is a proverb that states “it takes a village to raise a child”, however, when children are displaced, or when they live in poverty and places of no opportunity; then those of us who can need to become the village, and from around the world IGWR-Nepal is supported by sponsors and volunteers that enable the ‘village’ IGWR-Nepal to raise children like Gyalsten.
