Nirmaya Lamichhane: How the enrolment through openIMIS saved her daughter’s life

Nirmaya Lamichhane from Nepal was 26 years old when she experienced a tragedy in her life: she lost her husband. Since then she tries to hold her family with in-laws together and attempts to be a good role model for her two children Alisha and Khemalal, aged 16 and 11.

 

Nirmaya’s husband had passed away due to a kidney disease. Because of their poor economic situation, they could not afford medical treatment in time. Since then she and her family have been facing hard times. The only source of income is a small farm they own. However, the farm is so small, that the crops growing there are not enough to feed Nirmaya’s whole family. That is why she also makes bamboo handcrafts.

 

Scared of facing another case of illness in her family, Nirmaya saved the money she made from selling the handcrafts for health insurance. The increasing health insurance enrolments through openIMIS in her community caught her attention. An enrolment assistant explained the procedure, so she was able to register her whole family.

 

One day, her daughter felt sick and started bleeding out of her mouth and nose. Nirmaya immediately took her to the Medical College hospital where Alisha was treated. ‘Earlier, we had to depend on home remedies for any sickness, now we have treatment without any cost. Without our national health insurance, I might not have been able to get treatment for my daughter’, Nirmaya explains happily. Alisha adds prosperously ‘Health insurance saved my life’.