There were supposed to be jeeps. Then the monsoon season lasted longer than expected, so the small band of healthcare professionals and porters trekked three hours to the village of Tilche in Manang District, Nepal, one of the poorest places on Earth, where scattered villages are isolated by a rugged landscape and reaching the nearest hospital is a day-long journey.
This is where Devi Gurung States (left) grew up. When he was 15, his parents died. He was too young to work and soon ended up homeless. Devi developed a friendship with another homeless boy, and together they eked out a life, until Devi’s friend fell ill. “I couldn’t take him to the hospital,” he recalls, “so I lost him.”
Eventually, Devi became a dishwasher at a local restaurant. There, he met his future foster father, Dr. James H. States, who was visiting Nepal to climb Mount Everest. The doctor took an interest in the teen, who told him about his dreams to own a restaurant and “do something that would improve the health of children that were suffering as I was.”
After moving to St. Louis, Devi opened Everest Café & Bar in 2004. Five years later, he founded the Himalayan Family Healthcare Project, which started as a two-week visit from healthcare professionals to the Manang District. Now, with help from the St. Louis–based nonprofit Wings of Hope, Devi plans to build a 15-bed hospital. In an area where dental chairs are made from school desks and doctors wear headlamps to work past dusk because there’s no electricity, the facility could have a huge impact. —Rosalind Early
Photojournalist Whitney Curtis travels to Nepal to record the impact the Himalayan Family Healthcare Project is making.
Photography and captions by Whitney Curtis
