The Good and the Bad

On Sunday, we conducted a healthcamp for the families of construction workers at Infocity (a new software park) through an NGO called Mobile Creches. We were helped by residents from the H. V. Desai Hospital and Dr. Dilip Bidwe. We saw about 120 people, mostly children and infants. Almost all the children we saw had some sort of nutritional issue, like Vitamin A, B and D deficiencies, as well as anemia. We saw about 30 cases of GI infections, 50 respiratory tract infections and 40 vision problems. Skin infections were also common. Some of the more interesting cases we saw included Ventricular Septation defects (Ona caught it during the physical), Cystic Lung disease(John), Leprosy (Kay), Rickets (Megan), Pica and Progeria. Andrew, Nick and John helped with checking the boys for hernias, while I moved around translating and keeping things in order. I was really impressed with the efficiency that the camp was conducted and wish it was on video so everyone could see the work that was done, but pictures will have to suffice. The success of the healthcamp prompted me to organize an additional one next sunday.

Unfortunately, we lost out on our volunteering opportunity at the Ruby Hall Clinic. We went and checked out the facility today but it was too small to accomodate all eight of us. It also catered mostly to gynecological issues which would prevent the boys from doing much work. The cultural and logistical issues conspired against us on this occasion, however, the experience we will gain through the four health camps should more than make up for what we missed out on.