Sherpa hospital in Himalayan heights
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For the Sherpas of the high Everest or Khumbu region of Nepal, keeping healthy is a struggle.
The climate is harsh and the area is isolated. There are no roads and sanitation is basic.
That is why the one hospital in the region, the Kunde Hospital, is vitally important.
Set up in 1966 by Sir Edmund Hillary in the mountain town of Kunde at a height of 3,840m, the hospital is mainly funded by foreign donations.
But for the past 10 years, it has been staffed and run totally by local Sherpas.
Dr Tsering Wangdi Sherpa, 27, is currently running the clinic, which serves 8,000 patients from the four main valleys of the Khumbu district.
"It's very important to have this hospital," he says.
"Before it was built, the health system here was absolutely bad. There were a lot of problems with birth control and immunisation. People had very bad infections and the hygiene was really bad," he says.
'Unusual'
Dr Tsering has only been working at Kunde hospital for the last seven months.
But he has been connected to the clinic all his life.
He was born here in 1983 - delivered by a Canadian doctor who was volunteering at the time.
His father used to work as a health assistant to the foreign doctors, but thanks to a grant from the Sir Edmund Hillary Foundation of Canada, he was able to complete his own medical degree and became the first Sherpa doctor to work at Kunde.
Dr Tsering has been connected to the hospital all his life
"It was pretty unusual for my father to become a doctor," says Dr Tsering.
"It was very expensive to afford the training. The Sherpas live around Khumbu region which at the time was not very well-developed and most people did not have the money to afford good schools and colleges."
Dr Tsering's own training was also funded by the Sir Edmund Hillary Foundation.
He describes the New Zealand mountaineer as a "godfather" to the Sherpa people for building the hospital and helping the local community.
Dr Tsering works six days a week, running the 12-bed clinic from nine to five most days.
The small stone hospital, built on the side of a mountain with a view of the snow-capped mountains, is able to deal with minor surgeries and has a laboratory to conduct basic tests.
The climate is harsh and the area is isolated. There are no roads and sanitation is basic.
That is why the one hospital in the region, the Kunde Hospital, is vitally important.
Set up in 1966 by Sir Edmund Hillary in the mountain town of Kunde at a height of 3,840m, the hospital is mainly funded by foreign donations.
But for the past 10 years, it has been staffed and run totally by local Sherpas.
Dr Tsering Wangdi Sherpa, 27, is currently running the clinic, which serves 8,000 patients from the four main valleys of the Khumbu district.
"It's very important to have this hospital," he says.
"Before it was built, the health system here was absolutely bad. There were a lot of problems with birth control and immunisation. People had very bad infections and the hygiene was really bad," he says.
'Unusual'
Dr Tsering has only been working at Kunde hospital for the last seven months.
But he has been connected to the clinic all his life.
He was born here in 1983 - delivered by a Canadian doctor who was volunteering at the time.
His father used to work as a health assistant to the foreign doctors, but thanks to a grant from the Sir Edmund Hillary Foundation of Canada, he was able to complete his own medical degree and became the first Sherpa doctor to work at Kunde.
Dr Tsering has been connected to the hospital all his life
"It was pretty unusual for my father to become a doctor," says Dr Tsering.
"It was very expensive to afford the training. The Sherpas live around Khumbu region which at the time was not very well-developed and most people did not have the money to afford good schools and colleges."
Dr Tsering's own training was also funded by the Sir Edmund Hillary Foundation.
He describes the New Zealand mountaineer as a "godfather" to the Sherpa people for building the hospital and helping the local community.
Dr Tsering works six days a week, running the 12-bed clinic from nine to five most days.
The small stone hospital, built on the side of a mountain with a view of the snow-capped mountains, is able to deal with minor surgeries and has a laboratory to conduct basic tests.
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