MSMT

 

Introduction

The Mrigendra Samjhana Medical Trust (MSMT) was established in 1975 as a non-profit charity organization with a view to providing medical care, health and social services to the underprivileged communities in Nepal. Registered with Government under the Association Registration Act, 1959, the MSMT is governed by the Mrigendra Samjhana Medical Trust Rule and Regulations 1975, duly approved by Government of Nepal. Dr. Mrigendra Raj Pandey, a noted physician and social worker is the founder of the MSMT and the rental accruing from a building donated by him forms the primary source of its funding.

The objective of the trust is to initiate the spirit of service and cultivate and extend it with time. Over the years, the community based integrated health services and research activities have been expanded to the far-flung remote areas of Nepal including the entire district of Jumla, in mountainous region of Far Western Nepal.

Founder Members of MSMT

Objectives

The overall objective of the Trust is to provide medical care, health services and social services to the underprivileged community, together with education, drinking water, income and employment generating facilities, improved indoor environment and anti-tobacco activities in the country The natures of the activities of the Trust are as follows:

  1. Free medical examination and treatment to the needy under privileged, poor and people in the remote areas of Nepal
  2. Holistic health approach and risk factor reduction through lifestyle modification and increased awareness on hygiene, sanitation, provision of drinking water and life skill education including reversal programs.
  3. Provision of scholarship for deserving, meritorious and poor students in secondary schools, medals to the top student in Medical and Nursing education and oration to medical doctors and social workers for their outstanding achievement.
  4. Support for women's group for the management of their reproductive health problems in a life cycle approach through their own effort and income generating activities to help poor people in rural areas.
  5. Advocacy and special community based action research programs to address the issues of indoor and ambient air pollution and tobacco smoking since its very inception.
  6. Conduction and promotion of action research for finding out optimal ways and means of delivering essential health services to the masses at an affordable cost with the full utilization of local resources.
  7. Inclucation of the habit or respect, mutual trust, social service through words, deed and action to bring about equity, justice and safeguard human right with the true spirit to God.

We pay due homage to her

Late Dr. Samjhana Pandey (1965 to 1993) "There are some men who owe their greatness not to anything they achieve, nor indeed, to any special force of character, but to the fact that they are prophets" - Anonymous. The Trust was greatly shocked by the untimely demise of our beloved Dr. Samjhana Pandey, the daughter of Dr. M.R. Pandey and Uma Pandey. She obtained her MBBS degree from Bhopal, India in 1990 and started her service to mankind from Bir Hospital, one of the legendary government hospitals in Kathmandu. She met untimely sudden death during her postgraduate study in Kasturba Medical College at Manipal in May 1993 at the age of 26. She volunteered to serve the sick at the clinic established by Janaklyan Paribar in Thapathali, free of charge. She showed her interest and was ready to assume responsibility of the Trust founded by her father. As a tribute to her memory, the Trust amended its name as Mrigendra Samjhana Medical Trust - MSMT with due approval by  HMG of Nepal in 1993. In her memory, the Trust carried out community based reproductive health program focused on underprivileged communities in Nepal like Tamang and Balami. A core fund was established and local women's committees (Didi Bahini Samuha) were formed to encourage and utilize  their innate potentials for change and sustainable development through people's participation from grass-root to the policy level. In her memory the following service has been established:
  • Samjhana Clinic at the Trust's building
  • Smajhana Memorial Prize
  • Samjhana Service Prize
  • Samjhana Memorial Programs
  • Samjhana Magazines
  • Samjhana Smriti Birami Kuruwa Ghar
  • Special Bed in I.C.U. of Patan Hospital, dedicated to her

Sale of Trust Building - A painful decision

When Mrigendra-Samjhana Medical Trust stopped getting foreign aid while running its program in Jumla, the country witnessed the emergence of a number of NGOs which were running programs in different areas. We were finding it harder and harder to work. The Trust did not make its plans in a business-like manner. It was probably natural because the Trust was on a mission different from that of a business organization. Let us leave it to the future to judge whether we were right or wrong on this issue.

The only source of income for the Trust was the rent from the property at Jamal but here too we were not dealing with our tenants in a business-like manner. As a result, we were unable to collect the rent amounting to some 2 to 2.65 million rupees in arrears. May be our internal management was too soft, not business-like or naive. We had not increased the rent for ten years although inflation was going up every year. Yet we were unable to collect all that was due. We had entrusted the responsibility of collecting the rent to the Manager of the Trust. We deputed some extra hands to assist him. Even then we could not collect all the rent that was due. So we introduced an incentive package—a 10% rebate to those who would pay rent on time. We even fully renovated the property as demanded by the tenants. Despite that, the tenants would not pay the rent on time and in full amount. Actually the gap in rent collection dues was widening instead of narrowing.

Tired of this situation, we formed a committee to discuss what we should do next. A five-member committee headed by the Ex. Vice-Chairman of the National Planning Commission the late Dr Raghav Dhoj Pant was formed to advise on this problem. The committee members met and discussed all the possibilities regarding the management of the Trust's property. The question was: if it was so hard for the founders of the Trust to collect the rent of the property, how could the future generations do it? So the committee recommended to sell the property which was approved by the Board of Trustees, the Executive Board and the General body of the Trust unanimously.

We formed various sub-committees to explore possibilities of expanding the sources of income for the Trust and also chalk out various strategic plans. Nothing concrete came out. We also talked about separating the work of the Trust, e.g. service and research as two separate branches for future programs. However, the idea also could not take any concrete shape.

   

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