COEUR d'ALENE - Sampling Nepalese culture here in Coeur d'Alene can help bring health care to villagers there.

The location is Muri, a small village in the Himalayas. The goal: Establishing medical and dental camps by March to improve health and quality of life for the villagers in the region where the life expectancy is only 48 years old.

Mike Szymanski is the man taking on the mission.

"It's going to take a whole lot of people to help them out," said Szymanski, who noted the region functions closer to "a medieval society on day-to-day functions Westerners may take for granted. Their government can't help them out."

Szymanski, working for Dirne in Coeur d'Alene for three years, and his family are teaming up with International Nepal Fellowship to establish medical and dental camps in Muri, Nepal by March.

The Szymanski family has been involved in health care projects in Nepal since the 1980s.

While the medical and dental camps are taking place, team members will be providing extensive health education with an emphasis on disease prevention so the locals can learn to pass on the lessons themselves.

"We'll see a thousand patients," Szymanski said. "But thousands will come with those thousands."

Project Muri works with a group called RIDS-Nepal to bring some of the basic necessities required for eliminating some very preventable diseases. Those basics are called "the family of four" and include clean drinking water systems, establishing toilets, smokeless wood cooking stoves and solar electricity.

Westerners may take those things for granted, but in Muri those implementations can be a medical breakthrough.

North Idahoans can support the cause at 6 p.m. Sunday at the Project Muri benefit dinner at Lake City Community Church, 6000 N. Ramsey Road.

Experiencing Nepalese fare and learning a thing or two about the regions culture during a presentation can help fund the medical mission. The goal is to raise around $7,000.

Tickets cost $25. Reservations are required. RSVP to Ginger Seaman, 292-0286 or by e-mailing [email protected].

Donations can be made, even after the dinner, by mail to: Project Muri Nepal, C/O Dirne Community Heath Center, P.O. Box 3648, Coeur d'Alene, ID 83816.