From Anne Moss: Narendra and I have been emailing back and forth for a few months. While suicide is stigmatized here in the US, it’s even worse in Nepal, home of Mt. Everest and a country that ranks number 8 in the world for completed suicides and one of the poorest and least developed of the third world countries.

There are no resources in Nepal for suicide and Narendra has been working tirelessly, without funding, to create an ambitious training program to educate citizens to recognize and offer peer to peer support that is in keeping with their culture of family first.  I hope you’ll be willing to donate the price of a cup of coffee to help Nepal help themselves when it comes to suicide prevention. Narendra’s note to me below. His tireless passion has touched me deeply and I am overwhelmed by how much he has accomplished with so few financial resources. 

Greetings from Katmandu, Nepal

I am Narendra Sngh Thagunna PhD, President and Founder of The School Of Psychology (TSOP) Nepal, Psychologist, Researcher, Consultant, and CEO of Psychdesk Foundation, and a suicide prevention activist in Nepal.

TSOP Nepal is currently focusing on suicide prevention in Nepal.

From 2016 we have launched a 2-day Suicide Prevention Facilitation Training for members of the community. After completion of their training they are able to conduct suicide prevention awareness programs at the community level.

To date we have

• Trained 386 individuals through 21 training groups and covered 20 districts of Nepal
• We have hosted 149 events and 14,282 individuals have participated, reaching communities throughout the country

I have designed the training workshops and up to now, I have conducted all of these activities without any funding.

I ask today for your help for the celebration in Nepal of World Suicide Prevention Day 2017. Due to lack of suicide-related knowledge, the topic is still taboo and stigmatized in Nepalese society. The aim of this event is to promote awareness about suicide and save a life that is in danger among communities throughout Nepal.

We will conduct these programs between August 25 through September 10 2017 on World Suicide Prevention Day 2017.

We will utilize the money for the creation and distribution of materials and to conduct a series of presentations.

The goal of this event is to reduce suicide stigma and bring our message to the community level. We plan to do this by conducting a series of lectures and courses, by providing public media announcements, newspaper articles, talk programs, and a national poetry show.

We need $6000 USD to conduct this event, and we have created a gofundme.com announcement to help us raise this money. The gofundme.com link provides more information on this event and how you might contribute. A contribution of any size will be appreciated and will help us achieve our goal. Thank you so much for your openness to help us conduct this event.

Looking forward your support

Dr. Narendra Thagunna
President, The School Of Psychology Nepal (TSOPNepal)
More information and an update here

 Donate to Suicide Prevention in Nepal

According to a World Health Organization report, the most suicide prone countries were:

1. Guyana with (44.2 per 100000)
2. North Korea (38.5 per 100000)
3. South Korea (28.9 per 100000)
4. Sri-Lanka  (28.8 per 100000)
5. Lithuania (28.2 per 100000)
6. Suriname (27.8 per 100000)
7. Mozambique (27.4 per 100000)
8. Nepal and Tanzania (24.9 per 100000)
9. Burundi (23.1 per 100000)

The dismal fact about the position of Nepal, in top ten list of the most suicide prone country is heartbreaking. The number of people who died by suicide was at its peak in 2015 during earthquake, when the suicide death totaled 7,000.

ASQ Suicide Screening Tool Meeting with NIMH