Dr. Govinda K.C.
Govinda K.C. is a Nepali orthopedic surgeon and philanthropic activist. He is a professor of orthopedics at Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital, part of the Institute of Medicine, Nepal. He is known for humanitarian work in Nepal and internationally, and for his activism in favor of independent academic functioning of the government medical institutions in Nepal. His non-violent protests and fasts have successfully pressurized the government and stakeholders.
TUTH offers K.C. a few weeks of vacation every year. He goes to the most rural clinics of Nepal, far from public transportation, often traveling there on foot. He trains health workers in rural Nepal to identify orthopedic emergencies, to provide emergency treatment and if necessary provide timely referrals. He organizes health camps in remote places. He gives medications to these people and makes necessary arrangements to give free medical treatment when they come for further treatment in Kathmandu. He has faced allegations of being a spy or an insurgent when he worked during the Maoists' insurgency. The rural districts of Nepal had an outbreak of cholera some years ago. Many doctors refused to go there, even if paid. K.C. carried medicine on his back to provide humanitarian aid.
K.C. has traveled extensively to assist victims of natural disasters. In 2001, he spent three weeks in the Bhuj region in Gujarat, India after the earthquake. In 2005, he served in Northwest Pakistan for around 20 days after a disastrous earthquake. After a cyclone in Myanmar in 2008, the government of Myanmar prevented foreign aid agencies from entering the country, but admitted him for two weeks. In 2010, he went to Haiti in the wake of the disastrous earthquake and served for three weeks. In 2011, he served flood victims in Pakistan for two weeks. In 2013, he went to the Philippines to treat people affected by the Tsunami.
KC has been a prominent campaigner for medical sector reform in response to public allegations of both corruption and of undue political pressure to give medical college affiliation to facilities with inadequate infrastructures.His ongoing advocacy over several years has included several lengthy personal hunger strikes, which have received extensive media coverage, and successfully pressurized the authorities to make some changes.
His movement got widespread support from social sector activists, medical professionals and students, artists including Nepathya and "Maha". However, there was a latency in exhibiting support from Nepal Medical Council and Nepal Medical Association.
K.C. is unmarried and lives within the hospital quarters. He has his mother, two brothers and a laptop. When asked by Vijay Kumar Pandey in a television interview to list three priorities in his life, he listed service to patients and his students- and no third priority.
References:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Govinda_K.C.
https://www.facebook.com/pg/SolidarityForProfGovindaKc
https://www.facebook.com/DrGovindaKC
