First and foremost I am grateful to all for providing me with this marvelous opportunity to pursue one of my dreams, the CHT exam.
I am a physiotherapist from Nepal, one of the South West Asian countries and like many others, my ambition was always to do something for my country and help others in one way or another. In 2015 I had the opportunity to work with a hand surgeon, I was thrilled with but soon found myself struggling with outcomes due to a lack of skills and knowledge. In my quest for hand therapy education, I applied for this scholarship in 2015 but unfortunately did not get it.
I felt bad but didn’t lose hope and kept learning from online free resources, hand surgeons, and certified hand therapists who traveled to Nepal, by participating in and conducting camps, workshops, seminars, and conferences. Later on in 2018, with the support of colleagues and mentors, the Nepalese hand society (NSHRR) was established under my presidency, which aims to provide a platform for education and awareness in hand therapy. But due to a lack of Nepalese expertise/ certified hand therapists and funds for travel we couldn’t conduct many programs and Covid restrictions made it impossible for the next 3 years.
Luckily by a social media post, I was reminded about this scholarship again in early 2022 and won. This scholarship will help me to become a certified hand therapist and allow me to train and support another therapist (PT/OT) for the continuation of hand services and education in Nepal.