Kanti Hospital was built through the financial and human resource contribution of the former Soviet Union. To begin with, it provided general medical services to the Nepalese people. The Soviet Union handed over management to His Majesty's Government of Nepal in 1968 and under the instruction of His Majesty King Mahendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev, the facility was upgraded to provide specialty care for children in 1970.

Today Kanti Children's Hospital provides health care to 30,000 admitted and 100,000 non-admitted patients: newborns to fourteen-year-olds. The only children's hospital in a country of 23 million people, it has 56 doctors, 410 support staff, and 250 beds. It offers a wide range of medical services with specialized neonatal, immunization, oncology, and nutritional services. It provides pediatric training to medical students as well.

Spiny Babbler's Intervention

Spiny Babbler's program at Kanti Children's Hospital is oriented towards terminally ill patients or patients suffering life-taking conditions. Often, due to the nature of the illness, parents and guardians are not able to give quality time to their children. Some children facing these serious conditions are abandoned due to the lack of financial and physical resources on the part of their guardians.

The children are restricted to their rooms and to their beds, and they have no one "new" or "interesting" to talk to and share ideas with. Because they are in a hospital setup, they have little space for creativity that could provide them a nurturing environment, enrich their lives, give them greater freedom of expression, and a private realm for exploration that could be of great use when Spiny Babbler intervention stops and they are on their own. Spiny Babbler's main purpose at Kanti is to make a direct positive impact on the lives of those suffering these conditions, even if the positive impact is temporary. We believe that different forms of art will help children to better understand themselves and cope with their often life-taking situations.

Volunteers from Spiny Babbler have been conducting art classes and telling stories to the children, they have been visiting different wards and have continued to gain the interest of the children as well as "parents and guardians" who listen to stories and share their own. According to Priti Shrestha, a volunteer at Spiny Babbler, "Though the children are physically unwell, they don't lack imagination and creativity, and only need a chance to explore their minds. We believe that art has helped them do so." The program also gathers the children together so that they make friends and it encourages the guardians that are there to give greater quality to the time they share with their children as well as other children in the hospital ward.

Personal Experience

"Once I was in the cardiac unit of the hospital telling stories to children suffering serious heart conditions. Everyone was listening to my story with great interest until a nurse came to inject one of the children his daily dose of medication. The child was asked to lie down and the boy was crying. The whole process took about ten minutes. I could not continue my story with the other children until the whole process was over. When the nurse left, the child came back and sat by my side. I saw the same expression of deep interest creep upon his face. He was transported to another world and his eyes seemed to say to me, 'Please don't end this story.' I have realized that these activities have been very useful to the children. Drawing pictures and listening to stories help them leave their worries and also, in many cases, a constant nagging pain and provide space for communication and self-expression. With the help of art, I and my friends at Spiny Babbler hope to contribute to more lives."