After completing my third year of medical school (one more year left!), I moved to Nepal to work in environmental health research through a program called the Fulbright-Fogarty Public Health Fellowship. I have been living in Nepal for over a month in a guesthouse that is connected to a traditional wood carving workshop. From my house, I can see one of the three main squares in Bhaktapur city, called Taumadhi Square, which has the tallest temple in Nepal! Right now, there is a 15-day festival called Dashain happening. It's when families come together to eat special foods, fly kites and play lots of music. Bhaktapur is very festive and lots of music groups play in the streets from early morning until late at night.
My research focuses on how harmful pollution effects worker health. Nepal's capital, Kathmandu City, is one of the world's most polluted cities. Part of what brought me to Nepal was that in early 2019 while visiting family in India (my family is from two Indian states Assam and Maharashtra), we visited Nepal and experienced how polluted Kathmandu City can become in the winter months. I wanted to return as someone helping solve this issue. Pollution in the Kathmandu Valley (Nepal's capital city area, surrounded by the Himalayan mountains) is locally caused by vehicles, road dust, open trash burning and brick kilns. Brick kilns are large ovens where workers make and bake clay bricks, often doing hard jobs like shaping, carrying and stacking them. My work focuses on these workers, determining how we can improve their health. At my office we work on multiple health surveys and research projects, mostly focusing on lung health.
