Vaccinations, Leadership, and Community: Spring 2024 Update
Our work at Oda Foundation is always busy — with a small staff, we are day-in and day-out partnering with local schools, serving patients in our clinic, and looking for opportunities to support local development. Every month, we host a Women’s Cooperative meeting and meet with our Nepal-based board.
Beyond running our ongoing programs and birthing center, January to March 2024 have been months of realignment and expansion: completing leadership goals, listening to our community, and amplifying local healthcare capacity for vaccinations. Read below for our favorite highlights from this quarter, and download a PDF here.
Questions? Send us a note at info@odafoundation.org.
Oda Foundation staff, gathered together on campus.
Steps Forward for Oda Staff and Leadership
We have some big news — Karan Singh, our co-founder and CEO, completed a 7-month leadership training with the visionaries at Kanthari, and he has just returned to Kalikot. We were honored to have the Kathari team, including Ria, Chacko, and Simon, visit to explore our campus and share strategies and mechanisms that can sustain our work.
In March, we celebrated an incredible visit with US-based staff and supporters — see some photos, below!
At the 2024 World Social Forum, an international conference, Oda Foundation conducted a panel and shared about our history of growth, challenges, and resilience. Former doctors, education staff, and our CEO supported this important moment to share about our work with the NGO and iNGO community.
And longtime supporters of Oda will remember Oda Foundation Scholar Kalasha Singh, who has completed her studies with your support and returned to Oda as a full-time nurse in our clinic!
In Manma, the larger city several hours from Oda, we met with other NGOs and INGOs working in the District of Kalikot, centered on avoiding duplication and learning best practices from each other.
The Oda Foundation team also traveled to Rukum East in a March exchange program to learn about promoting local seed and indigenous practices of farming, which is deeply important in our community. In our two-day stay, we learned about the kitchen garden concept, nursery management, and sustainable operations at Juhmlaband Village Foundation.
Our staff, pictured outside main campus (the kitchen!) with staff and friends visiting from the US.
Health Operations and Vaccination News
January to March are important months for vaccinations — the clinic gained certifications to vaccinate newborns to 15 months, we completed data collection for dadura-rubela vaccines and began vaccinating over 150 students for dadura-rubela, and we continued support for typhoid vaccinations.
Ongoing trainings are frequent — in addition to further meeting on vaccinations, staff attended a 2-day mobile health training.
We continue in our extended partnership with Doctors for Nepal, meeting with Dr. Kate and Nigel to discuss future plans for health camps and ongoing vaccination support for our rural communities. Nurse Yuna Shahi (with Doctors for Nepal) also held a community awareness program on family planning and pad-making.
Health trainings out in the community.
Committed to Education for All
The Education Team has led a computer training for both education staff and for our own Oda Foundation staff, aimed at basic schools required for school and job management. This training is crucial for the sustainability of our organization.
Attending the Educational Management Information System (EMIS) Training at Chanadevi Secondary School in Kuni may not sound exciting for all — here in Oda, this is a huge step for our education team, modernizing operations and creating independence for school management. An additional School Health Awareness program further supported the integrity of our school partnership.
We also spent 3 days (including walking for 3 hours each way) visiting two high schools in another ward to see the status of the school and potentially support their administration, training, and management.
Work in education is important in our own community, and in all the communities around us.