Dambar Aley, Programme Director at Lalgadh Hospital, Retires

Dambar Aley at his retirement party

We are sad to lose Dambar Aley from the team at Lalgadh after more than 28 years of working with people affected by leprosy. Many of you will remember that Hem Pradhan retired in early 2018 and Hem and Dambar began the medical work at Lalgadh together when they went to live at Lalgadh village to begin to survey the area for leprosy, and to start relationships with the community at Lalgadh and further afield. Much of the success of the work over the years has depended on the good relationships that we have enjoyed with the various communities around us, and this began at Lalgadh.

Lalgadh has always been a key to our work because we are part of the Lalgadh community, and all our patients have to walk through Lalgadh to get to the hospital. The bonds established back in 1991 by Hem and Dambar, have therefore been of great importance to the work.

Beyond that, Dambar faced a number of frightening situations during the time of the Maoist terrorist activity and was frequently threatened in various ways when he had to refuse their demands for money. He always maintained to them that Lalgadh would treat both their injured and the army’s injured without prejudice of favour. Eventually, because Lalgadh was well known for its service to the poor, the Maoists left Lalgadh in peace as they maintained that they also were standing for the poor of Nepal.

Dambar had a retirement party while our Envisioning Trip group were there and so our Trustee Sue Wells was able to honour and thank Dambar for his service to NLT over those many years. Dambar will continue to live at Lalgadh for the time being, and will devote his time to doing more work in the church. we are so grateful for Dambar’s work with NLT, and pray that this new chapter in his life will be as fruitful as the chapter just completed.