UPDATE FEBRUARY/MARCH 2007

[ See also recent photos - Feb/Mar 2007 ]

Dear friends, namaskar.

As we had to wait through many months of beaurocratic procedures until we finally got the govt. electricity connection for the clinic, so also we’ve been waiting since long for the local authorities to dig a tube well on our compound, which is part of a govt. funding program to support rural areas. In the meantime, as a temporary solution, we were fortunate enough to be able to connect to the tube well of a neighbour. Last month we completed laying the pipes and installing the sinks and taps in all the rooms, so that now the clinic staff as well as visitors can finally enjoy the convenience of running water. We also installed a hot water boiler for the cold season, which supplies both bathrooms.

Apart from the govt. electricity supply being very irregular and available only about 50% of the day, over the past months it was also often of much too low voltage. This was mainly because the authorities didn’t complete the installation with the proper cables running between the nearby transformer and our clinic building; too thin cables were installed as they had no stock of the ones normally used. After waiting for many weeks for it to come, we decided to go ahead on our own by buying and installing the permanent cables ourselves. Since then the voltage has improved a lot.

With running water from the taps, we’ve finally been able to start irrigating our herbal garden more adequately, which was gradually drying up. During the past weeks, we’ve been able to revive the existing herbs as well as plant many more varieties. For this we added another row at the rear of the herbal garden and also started a new section at the side of the building. We now have a total of 38 medicinal herbs as well as 13 newly planted varieties of greens and nutritional herbs. Rows of bricks have been laid into the ground between the individual plots, to serve as better boundaries and as walkways. Also the original wooden name signs, which don’t last long under the influence of sun and rain, have all been replaced with painted metal name plates. The whole garden has a much better appearance now.

26 January is Republic Day in India, to commemorate the beginning of the Indian government and constitution after independence was attained in 1947. It’s celebrated throughout India with flagraising ceremonies, also in the village areas. This year we invited the children of a nearby village to come for a ceremony at our clinic. Around 50 came; they sang the national anthem along with other songs. Afterwards they eagerly lined up for sweets which we distributed.

Middle of February we had a larger children’s program. This was organized esp. because volunteer and supporter Ho See Luan of Singapore had collected more than 50 donated soft toys and brought them to our clinic. During her several days stay she also helped in various areas of the clinic work, esp. in the herbal garden. We used many of the soft toys as prizes for the outdoor games, which we conducted for over 200 children who came from several nearby villages. We were uncertain how the response would be as it was our first program of this kind. It turned out to be a huge success, with all the children as well as adults having a great time. All the winners were proud of their prizes; even the older children liked the soft toys, as they don’t have such toys at home. The remaining soft toys are being kept for children who come as patients, esp. those suffering from cerebral palsy who we see regularly and who can be helped with acupuncture treatment.

In January we treated a total of 685 patients, at an average of 29 per clinic day and in February 750 patients, averaging at 31 per day. We expect the numbers to increase now that winter and the harvesting season is over and the villagers can more easily cover the distances to the clinic.

In our weekly village programs we’ve been continuing with the disinfecting of drinking water wells and spraying of stagnant surrounding water with diluted phenyl to prevent water-borne diseases. In January and February we cleaned a total of 98 wells in 7 villages. Our new homeopath, Dr. Prabhas, has proven to be very active and helpful during these programs: while our assistant staff does the disinfecting and spraying, he explains in detail to the villagers about necessary water hygiene, well maintenance and the diseases arising from bad water hygiene, such as malaria and filariasis. As Dr. Prabhas is from a village in this area, he can explain all this to the villagers in their own local dialect.

In one of the villages we visited, nearly every well was in extremely dirty condition as well as having no protecting wall, so that dirt and debris constantly gets swept inside. Villagers can also easily fall into such primitive wells. We recently had a woman come for acupuncture treatment as follow up to the operation on her broken back, which she got by falling into a well. Since the operation she can only move in pain and with the support of a back brace. The acupuncture treatment can help for her rehabilitation.

We’re now preparing to shift from well cleaning back to nutritional education programs for the next few months. Our plan is to make this more interesting and attractive by having a group of local actors perform a play about malnutrition, deficiency diseases, vitamins, natural nutrient sources, etc. Over the past weeks we’ve met several drama groups who specialize in educational plays. Now we’ve finally found the best one and are in the process of preparing with their director a good script for the play. The plan is to also film the play and make it into a DVD, which we can then show anytime at further villages with a laptop and data projector. This project is being funded through the efforts of Anton and Yuri Szilasi of Australia, who visited us last December and installed our solar energy system, also funded through donations which they raised back home.

Several months ago we received a large amount of donated secondhand eyeglasses from Ronald Browning of England. We’re now preparing for an “eye camp”, to be held within about a week, where the glasses will be distributed to villagers with poor eyesight – most villagers never use glasses as they cannot afford them. Poor eyesight, though it makes their daily life more difficult, doesn’t give them pain, so this problem is usually not given attention or treatment. Last week an optometrist from nearby Bokaro city volunteered to come on two days and do eye-sight testing for more than 50 villagers, so that we can now prepare for prescribing the proper glasses to them. We’ve also started to collect secondhand clothes in Bokaro. These will be be distributed at the eye camp as well.

Thanks again to all for your continued interest and support!

Yours
Dada Devashuddhananda

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