HOMEWARD BOUND
I'm glad someone's doing something to fix this country ('Homeward bound', #469). And the help's coming from the most unexpected of places: villagers, not our snooty, college-degree toting city people. It's an ironic twist on the old 'Back to the Village Campaign'.

Prakash Rai,
Dhankuta

* It's heartening to note that there are women who are not enamoured of urban living but choose to return home to serve their village folks ('Homeward bound', #469). The initiative described is laudable as it is helping people to help themselves. Trained midwives would go a long way in preventing maternal deaths during delivery. Moreover, they would be in a better position to advise the mother about baby care and see that necessary immunisation shots are administered without fail. What Nepal needs is to provide primary health care in each and every village so that minor ailments as well as preventive aspects of health care can be provided at the local level. A large number of trained 'bare-foot' doctors at the village level would be highly desirable. One hopes the government, NGOs and the corporates will work towards creating such a force that could minimise the burden on the already sorely tested government hospitals, where these exist.

D.B.N. Murthy,
Lalitpur

BLACK DAYS
Exactly right, what will happen to our students ('Black Days', #469)? Politicians forget that the repercussions of their mistakes and squabbles will be felt for generations, not only a couple of years. We simply can't erase them and pretend they never happened. Students exasperated by all this bad politics will either leave the country or join in the melee. Neither will help us.

Name withheld,
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LEADING BY EXAMPLE
Sometimes I wonder whether a world without men would be a better place. Our woman CA members suggest to me that it may ('Leading by example', #469). Women of all stripes, communists and Kangresis, Maoists and MJF members, have put aside their differences and really taken a big step forward by drafting a charter of women's rights. Men in the same position would still be squabbling over committee memberships and we'd be hit by a whole new set of protests about the supremacy of this or that.

Laxmi Shrestha,
email