News
Shocking plight of victims of barbaric acid attacks in Nepal
Version of the following article has appeared on the Daily Record website on Feb 5 2012 By Jenny Morrison
Many women are deliberately targeted by husbands in so-called dowry violence in an attempt to extort money from their family and others have terrible scars after setting themselves alight in a bid to kill themselves and end their brutal marriages. Charity pioneer Wendy Marston has launched a drive to help the victims but admits it gets no easier to deal with the terrible aftermath of the acid attacks.
Sitting in the burns unit of the Bir Hospital in Kathmandu, Wendy admits her life today is far removed from her childhood in the Highlands but she insists the plight of young Nepalese women is simply too heart-wrenching to ignore. It is hard to cope with seeing such devastating injuries but, sadly, it is the reality of what is happening here. Many of the patients we see have burns across more than 75 per cent of their bodies. There are a great number of difficult cases but that just makes our work all the more important.’
This image has been taken form the dailyrecord.co.uk website
Wendy and husband Robin, a former army major who served with the British Gurkhas, moved to Nepal more than 30 years ago. A chance meeting with a surgeon at a dinner led to Wendy volunteering to raise money to help improve care for the poorest burns victims being treated at the hospital where the doctor worked. Over the next 10 years Wendy was shocked to see that an ever-growing number of the patients admitted with horrific burns were young women who had either been attacked or had set themselves on fire to escape extreme poverty or domestic violence.
Deeply moved by the stories of the young women she was meeting at the hospital, Wendy wanted to do something specifically to help Nepal’s poorest burns patients whose injuries were caused by such horror so she and her daughter Alison, 33, set up the Burns Violence Survivors – Nepal charity. Three years on the group is still working hard to give burns patients the short and long-term medical care and psychological support they need.
Wendy, who moved to Edinburgh as a young girl, said: ‘My husband and I first came to Nepal on a trekking holiday in 1976 and fell in love with the country. Two years later Robin left the army and was offered a post working with a trekking company in Nepal. We drove to Nepal from London in an old yellow Land Rover and trailer. It took us nearly six weeks to drive here. We loved so many things about the country, the people, culture, weather and incredible scenery so that we decided to stay.
For most of that time I had no idea that burns violence was such a huge problem in Nepal until about 13 years ago. I was at a dinner and sitting next to a Nepalese surgeon from a government hospital and he asked me to help raise money for the very poor patients who came to him.’ While extreme poverty is the root cause behind many of the accidental burns injuries, violence through domestic abuse or suicide attempts is behind the rest. ‘Burns violence, whether from an acid attack, a homicide or a suicide attempt, is a deeply tragic form of violence, with serious, long-term physical and psychological consequences.
While there are no official statistics on burns violence, there is disturbing evidence that such incidents are now widespread and on the rise. There are many acid and dowry cases but one of the biggest problems is attempted suicides. Many women, married off far too young, find themselves trapped in extreme poverty and with no way to improve their situation. They attempt to commit so-called ‘spontaneous’ suicides by throwing kerosene over their heads.’ In such a poor country, Wendy says few can afford to pay for the specialist hospital treatment they need to survive their burns.
This image has been taken form the dailyrecord.co.uk website
The fundraising allows many burns victims to receive medical, physiological and nutritional support which they would otherwise never be able to afford. BVS – Nepal are also working hard to promote vocational training aimed at preventing future cases of burns violence. Wendy said: ‘Burns are very expensive to treat and our patients are often in hospital for several months. They are often so poor that they don’t even have their bus fare home after their hospital stay. We are the only charity for burns victims in Nepal. Our role is to help pay for the operations, daily physiotherapy, medical supplies, extra nutrition, counselling, overalls, hospital furniture and even toys and games for the young burns patients at the nearby Kanti Children’s Hospital. Most of the supplies we need are available in Nepal but we need financial donations to buy them. Even the smallest donation can go a long way.”
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Posted on February 08th 2012 by Office in ASTI news
