Sonam trained for six months to run the Yangma health post. She grew up four houses from it.

The post

It is one room with a bed, a locked cupboard of basic medicine, a birth kit and a radio on a solar charger. The nearest clinic with a doctor is two days away on foot.

The call

In February a birth went wrong at two in the morning. Sonam used the radio to reach the doctor on call at the Valley Health Network, who stayed on the line for three hours and talked her through it.

Mother and child were both well by morning. A year earlier the only choice would have been to carry her down the valley in the snow.

An ordinary week

Most of the work is quieter than that night.

• Dressing wounds and treating coughs and stomach bugs
• Weighing babies and keeping the growth charts
• Visits to the six oldest people in the village
• A weekly radio check-in with the network's nurse

What it costs to keep open

$2,400 a year covers Sonam's wage, medicine and two supply trips. Yangma's council maintains the room and the solar charger.