It gives us great pleasure to announce that on November 1st 2010, our second Seeing Hands Clinic opened in Kathmandu.

Comprising two treatment rooms and accommodation for therapists, the new clinic is based in a quiet area of Thamel (off Jyatha) and is already attracting passing tourists. As our opening also coincided with celebrations for Tihar (Deepwali or festival of lights), we’ve decorated with vibrant marigold malas, oil lamps and candles.

Our new receptionist, Sneha made a beautiful mandala in our entranceway and all these efforts are designed to attract Laxmi, the God of Wealth into our clinic.
Behind the scenes, we’ve been working frantically - the last fortnight a frenzy of cleaning, painting, carpentry and other fitout works. Budgets are admittedly tight but we plan to work hard to market the clinic over the next few months so we can quickly generate the revenue we need to cover the set up costs. Chiran and Laxmi are presently working in the Kathmandu clinic and will be joined by more therapists as the clinic gets busier. In our first week we’ve only seen a handful of clients but we’re confident more will follow soon once word gets around.

Meanwhile, back in Pokhara the students are receiving training from our latest volunteer; Andre, who is qualified in a number of massage therapies including sports, traditional Thai massage and acupressure. Andre is also fluent in a number of languages such as Portuguese (mother tongue), Swedish, English, Spanish, Norwegian and Danish. We’ll bring you more news on their progress soon.