Nepal, one year after the earthquake.

[Hope]

http://bit.ly/1Smp14y

So sad to read that the Nepalese Government still hasn't got its act together.  It is being left to NGOs and INGOs to do their work for them.

[Harrowby Hall]

There was an item in Woman's Hour yesterday reflecting on the aftermath to the earthquake. A Dr Kate Yarrow talked about her experiences. You can get it on iPlayer.

What horrified me, however, were some of the revolting cultural attitudes to women: "unclean" during menstruation and following childbirth and forced to live in cowsheds until they were judged "cleansed".

[Hope]

What horrified me, however, were some of the revolting cultural attitudes to women: "unclean" during menstruation and following childbirth and forced to live in cowsheds until they were judged "cleansed".

I think I've told the story before, about how my wife had to help in an extremely complex (even in British terms) burns operation on such a lady whose 'woodshed - not even a cowshed - had caught fire with her inside and  caused something like 65% burns - including the loss of nose/earlobes/etc from her gold jewellery melting and, effectively 'melting' her flesh.  The doctors at the hospital in Pokhara managed to rebuild fingers and other extremities and save her and she returned home with her husband who had accompanied her on a 6 day walk and flight journey and sat at her bedside every day she was in hospital - only to take a second wife a few months after their return, as wife no 1 wasn't really able to cope with all the work that living in the sticks in Nepal involves.  At last he retained her as a wife, rather than rejecting her, though.