“It was monsoon season when Amar started bleeding from the mouth", recalls his wife Laxmi Bista. "It was like buckets of blood.  He was just like a stick and weighed only 29 kilos. I had him carried by another village man and walked for two full days to the nearest road.”

Amar and Laxmi Bista are from Dailekh District in far western Nepal. They ended up in Nepalgunj where Amar receives treatment for multi drug-resistant TB (MDR-TB). Their two children are also with them.

As Amar and his family have to stay away from home during the 2-year treatment against MDR-TB, they needed an income to support themselves during that period. "INF gave me 10,000 Nepal Rupees (US$150) to start a roadside stall", Amar recounts. The family is now sitting in a stall started with a grant from INF (International Nepal Fellowship), an organization which helps TB patients with their economic and social issues as well as their physical recovery.

"I started by selling small things spread out on a piece of cloth on the ground. Slowly, as business picked up, we rented the first stall and now we have two stalls. We rent a room which serves as a kitchen and a place for the children and Laxmi to sleep in. I have to guard our stalls in the night so I sleep here. I don’t think that we will move back. My parents will stay there. We will go and visit them.”

Amar and Laxmi are a contrasting pair. Amar is dark, squatty and except for bright shiny eyes, he has a quiet, almost tired look, a shy, almost inaudible voice and speaks sparingly. Laxmi is fair, slim and tall. She breaks into a bright smile when she recalls the 29 kilos that her husband Amar weighed only 16 months ago. “He has to take medicine for eight more months. Now he weighs 55 kilos,” Laxmi laughs proudly.