MEDICAL CAMPS

Medical Camps are conducted regularly at different areas based on the necessity involving the local smithis who organise all the necessary requirements like doctors, nurses, seva dal and supply of medicines.

Medical Camps are also conducted at the Brindavan ashram on the 1^st Sunday of every month.

Given below are the details of one such camp conducted at Alike.

Alike is a picturesque village in the coastal district of Dakshina Kannada (also called as South Kanara) in the southern Indian state of Karnataka. This tiny hamlet, about 50 kms from the city of Mangalore, is nestled in the lap of nature. Surrounded by hills and covered with greenery and beautiful flora, Alike is amazingly serene.

But it is not for this reason why it has caught everybody’s attention. What was moved eyeballs here are striking blossoms of a different kind – the shining students of the Sathya Sai School of Alike. It is a wonderful school and we will bring you a comprehensive story on this later this year, but for now here is the account of a riveting medical camp that was organized in the Primary Health Centre attached to this school in January 2007.

Between January 28 to 31, more than 11000 poor people were served and treated – all for free, in this school. While many doctors came from UK, and nurses and other support staff joined from local medical colleges, the bulk of the work was done by the students who acted as volunteers. It was a grand show of love in action, where Bhagavan’s grace was very evident.

Specialties offered are General Medicine, Surgery, Gynecology, Pediatrics and Radiology. They already had in the hospital the basic laboratory, Pharmacy, Ophthalmology, ENT, and Dentistry.

The old students of the Alike School, distributed in the various parts of Karnataka, prepared a database and formed a timetable for doctors’ availability.

A local well-wisher, who runs a Nursing College , said he will send nurses who will work freely. The Chairman of the Medical School in nearby Mangalore offered to send the required number of doctors for the Camp. So, the doctors comprised of old students, friends of doctors working in Alike, as well as the doctors who had come from different parts of Karnataka, apart from the many Doctors from the Medical School. The total strength was 18 from UK. The minimum number of doctors we had was 73 and the maximum number was 102 serving on each day. The entire support structure needed was organized: Doctors, Pharmacists, Nurses and 1,000 students from the campus who served as volunteers.

For a villager going to a big city means fear; he doesn’t know the place; he has to pay for auto rickshaw; there are many other problems including language barriers. But here, as many specialists could speak the local language, the villagers were very happy. The next thing is the referral and surgery. Usually when a Medical Camp is done, it runs for one week, and the last day when everything is over, there is no more contact with the patients. This was not the case here. Continuity is maintained regularly.

The most important factor is the service that they gave. It was real Madhava Seva (Serving God in man). The students were sitting under the trees and waiting with nice cold water for patients who came there in the hot sun. When the people got down from the bus, every 100 yards there was a water point and the students were sitting there happily serving water. Thousands of patients were fed every day with breakfast.