Medical Camps
The past year has been a very busy one for our Not-for-Profit initiatives. Great news from India – the medical camps and feeding programmes are going from strength to strength. The most recent medical camp took place on 3rd December; 500 people were seen and 50 cataract operations organised. In India it costs less that £20 to remove a cataract and restore someone’s sight. Imagine the joy those people feel, who were blind but now can once more see their loved ones’ faces, who can once again be independent and proactive in their communities.
Thakor (our amazing co-ordinator in India) has also begun a new initiative which supports some young women to train as nurses, a professional qualification which gives them self-esteem, a practical way to serve their community – and an income to support themselves and their families.
Archive:
The first free medical clinic was held on 2 October 2005 in a local school. “We visited all the doctors beforehand to give them idea about village poverty and what they were going to face,” explained Thakor Patel, Director of the project. A total of 288 people benefited from free medical consultations and medicines that day.
Since that time, regular medical camps have been held. Doctors, dentists and nurses have given up their free time to support the clinic. One of our team in India explained, “I went to visit one doctor who will now come twice a month to see patients, if we provide transport. We are trying to get another doctor so that we can have one visit per week.”
Malnutrition is common in this area, so each villager who attends the medical camp is given a food parcel and nutritional supplements such as iron, vitamin C and multivitamins.
A total of nine Medical Camps have been run to date, seeing approximately 2400 people, and 4 Eye Camps where over a thousand people have been issued with spectacles and many people received cataract operations. Read more about Eye Camps.
Ravjibhai, a 65 year old local farmer, came to the clinic with breathing difficulties and suspected cataracts. He said that he had always had faith that God would help him to find treatment, ‘This medical camp is the answer to my prayer.’
Congenital defects, routinely corrected in the West, are common. 12 year old Vijay has had a cleft palate from birth and cannot speak properly. The World Peace Flame is helping to finance his orthodontic treatment and the operation to correct his hare-lip. Other children and old people are receiving free operations for eye defects, cataracts and orthopaedic treatment.
Shantiben doesn't know exactly how old she is. She lives alone in Moldhara village with no close family to take her to hospital for her cataracts and crippling osteoporosis. The World Peace Flame staff organised transport for her to visit the doctor and receive treatment.
Thakor (our amazing co-ordinator in India) has also begun a new initiative which supports some young women to train as nurses, a professional qualification which gives them self-esteem, a practical way to serve their community – and an income to support themselves and their families.
Archive:
The first free medical clinic was held on 2 October 2005 in a local school. “We visited all the doctors beforehand to give them idea about village poverty and what they were going to face,” explained Thakor Patel, Director of the project. A total of 288 people benefited from free medical consultations and medicines that day.
Since that time, regular medical camps have been held. Doctors, dentists and nurses have given up their free time to support the clinic. One of our team in India explained, “I went to visit one doctor who will now come twice a month to see patients, if we provide transport. We are trying to get another doctor so that we can have one visit per week.”
Malnutrition is common in this area, so each villager who attends the medical camp is given a food parcel and nutritional supplements such as iron, vitamin C and multivitamins.
A total of nine Medical Camps have been run to date, seeing approximately 2400 people, and 4 Eye Camps where over a thousand people have been issued with spectacles and many people received cataract operations. Read more about Eye Camps.
Ravjibhai, a 65 year old local farmer, came to the clinic with breathing difficulties and suspected cataracts. He said that he had always had faith that God would help him to find treatment, ‘This medical camp is the answer to my prayer.’
Congenital defects, routinely corrected in the West, are common. 12 year old Vijay has had a cleft palate from birth and cannot speak properly. The World Peace Flame is helping to finance his orthodontic treatment and the operation to correct his hare-lip. Other children and old people are receiving free operations for eye defects, cataracts and orthopaedic treatment.
Shantiben doesn't know exactly how old she is. She lives alone in Moldhara village with no close family to take her to hospital for her cataracts and crippling osteoporosis. The World Peace Flame staff organised transport for her to visit the doctor and receive treatment.
