--By Gaurav Aryal

 

Seeing Hands Clinic is a medical massage provider and training centre at Thamel. One of its own kind, the centre is owned and operated by the blind and has been providing remedial massage services along with masseur trainings to the blind, since its inception three years back. The organization owned by Chiran Jeevi Poudel, has gained sustainability and this has encouraged him to add another clinic within Kathmandu by April 2014, preferably either in Patan or Boudhha. He plans to follow the same footsteps that he took in establishing the first clinic, for making the planned clinic sustainable. If his plans actualize as envisioned, he wants to go for the third clinic too in the near future.

 

Poudel’s undeterred commitment for the growth of the enterprise is driven with a cause. He wishes to train and create employment for blind people, like himself, who have been marginalised in the society. So far, Seeing Hands Clinic has trained 23 blinds, both in Kathmandu and Pokhara. After completing this training, 16 of them have been employed as masseurs, while seven of them choose some other profession of their choice. Currently, in its second batch, the clinic is training four blinds. According to Poudel, trainees are selected annually and are provided with scholarships for the entire course.

 

Services Offered

Seeing Hands Clinic offers medical massage treatments and scholarship-backed masseur trainings to blinds. Poudel says that the clinic offers medical massage services only through blind masseurs. The clinic is determined to train and enable blinds as professional masseurs considering the conception that blinds have heightened touch sensitivity and thus considered suitable for the profession. The clinic 

offers two types of massage services: Remedial Sports Therapy and Swedish Relaxation Massage. 

 

Poudel says that over 90 per cent of the clinic’s clients come for remedial treatment. Both of these treatments can be availed for 60 and 90 minutes by paying Rs 1500 and Rs 2100 respectively. A certain portion of the massage fees is used for providing massage trainings to blinds. Considering its underlying humanitarian objective and exceptional services, the clinic is listed with priority by both Lonely Planet and Trip Advisor.

 

Current Situation

Poudel is happy about the progress made by the clinic, so far and is optimistic about the future.  He says that it is gradually gaining self-sustainability. The clientele is mostly foreigners. “As our clients are foreigners, the business is relying on tourist seasons,” he says adding, “Despite being in a seasonal business, we are able to gather fund and train people.” 

 

The clinic receives highest number of clients during the tourist seasons mostly from March to May and October to December. During the peak season, up to 33 clients take service in a day and sometimes it gets as low as three to four customers in a day. In October this year, the clinic treated 414 people. The clinic is employing five blind therapist and two other supporting staffs.

 

 

Start-up Challenges

Seeing Hands Nepal clinic is a UK Registered Charity. After receiving training from Seeing Hands Clinic in Pokhara and working for it for nearly five years, Paudel started his own clinic in 2010 under the same brand name Seeing Hands. 

 

SHN was set up in 2005 by British founders Rob and Susan Ainley, and is backed by a global network of volunteers that range from trustees and members, to professional massage tutors and teachers. It is also linked to the London Institute of Sports and Remedial Massage (ISRM), which helps to induct volunteer tutors and procure equipment and course materials.

 

Poudel was associated with the Seeing Hands Nepal since its initial days. He was selected through interview for being trained as a blind masseur. Poudel boasts that he was the first student as well as the first qualified therapist in Nepal. He worked for five years as a massage teacher as well as a senior therapist there unless he realized that he could do something on his own. “I realised I can do something on my own. On November 1, 2010, I started the clinic at Thamel,” he shares.

 

Setting up a massage clinic at Thamel, Kathmandu’s tourist hub, was a better choice looking from a business perspective but keeping its image clean, as the massage business there is tainted for some unethical practices, was challenging. “Thamel also has a negative perception among people. Unprofessional trade going on in massage centres was a challenge for the clinic. Arranging finances was another challenge,” he recalls his initial challenges adding that being blind was another hindrance in gaining support for his start up.

 

However, he received an Rs 400,000 loan from a UK based charity. The charity later waived the loan. Similarly, the Ainley couples supported him with Rs 290,000 for starting the business. He successfully paid them back after the venture became self-sustaining. Of late, the clinic has added necessary infrastructures and decorated rooms of the clinic.

 

Visions

Poudel envisions employing 100 people with blindness in the next one decade. Though the target may appear small, he thinks it is a challenging goal. “I might get just four students in a year or might get even 12 but my plan is to train and employ 100 people in ten years,” he says expressing his determination. He is looking forward for the clinic to develop as a successful social enterprise rather than a mere profit making business. The change that it could bring in the life of the socially and economically marginalized blinds, he feels, will be the achievement of the clinic’s initiative. 

 

A Surya Nepal Asha Social Entrepreneurship Award winner of 2012, Poudel encourages people who want to follow his footsteps, “It would be encouraging if many people have an enterprise of their own, especially when blind people in Nepal have remained quite backward. It is a good thing to adopt a new profession but firstly, one must gain skills and should not expect returns overnight. Patience is a must and there is no other option than going for a fair competition.”

 

He believes that local clientele is essential for long term sustainability of the business but wonders why the clinic is not receiving Nepali clients while other spas are. Poudel feels that promotion of the clinic has been challenging due to relatively lesser popularity of medical concept of massage among local client base.