UPDATE JULY 2010

[ See also recent photos: July 2010 ]

Dear friends, namaskar.

I'm sorry that it's been such a long time since you've received an update of our project. Since more than a year we've faced big challenges and obstacles which have made it very difficult for me to keep up with the regular updates as well as with other computer work. Technical as well as staff problems along with maintaining the normal service activities kept us fully occupied. Despite all the challenges, we've been able to make progress in various areas.

The outpatient services are continuing as before with homeopathy, acupuncture, allopathy and physiotherapy. In 2009 we treated a total of 11,035 patients, which averages to 919 patients per month or 35 per clinic working day (6 days a week). This is a significant increase compared to several years ago, when our daily average was still below 30 during several months of the year. In 2009 the lowest average of patients per day in one month was 30, the highest was 44 per day.

Since our physioherapy services began a few years ago, we've only been able to afford a physiotherapist one day a week. With the help of an overseas sponsorship for one year's salary of a physiotherapist, we've now been able to extend the physiotherapy to 3 days a week. This will help a lot for the treatment and rehabilitation of the many childen in our area suffering from cerebral palsy, as well as for the many adults who have arthritis and related degenerative diseases already at a relatively early age. These and most other health problems of the villagers are caused and worsened by the chronic malnutrition which approx. 90-95% of them suffer from. We hope to continue the expanded physiotherapy services beyond the sponsored salary for one year.

As education about more nutritious and healthy food is essential for us to break the vicious cycle of ignorance and disease, we made efforts to expand as well as continue our educational programs. The regular screening of our nutritional education video takes place regularly in a different village every week, except during the peak of the rainy season. This filmed comedy drama about malnutriton continues to entertain and educate between around 100 to 300 villagers at every screening, teaching them how to overcome their deficiency diseases esp. by frequent consumption of the green leafy vegetables growing freely in their surroundings, rather than by expensive visits to doctors and pharmacies.

September 1 every year is World Nutrition Day, and the Indian govt. declared some years ago Sept. 1-7 as National Nutrition Week. Every year during this week we organize special programs for nutritional education besides the weekly video screening. On September 1 2009 we held a half-day program at the clinic in cooperation with the local branch of the NGO CARE. In the beginning an interactive talk was held for more than 100 participants on how to recognize and overcome malnutrition. This was followed by an indoor screeing of our nutritional education video. At noon time our staff demonstrated how to prepare several nutritious as well as delicious dishes, and these dishes were then served to all the attending villagers. After finishing their healthy meal, many of the plants in our nutritional herb garden were demonstrated to the participants, with explanations about their specific benefits and how to take them as food supplements.

On Sept. 7 2009 we held one more nutritional education program at a nearby high school, demonstrating at least 10 green herbs and leafy vegetables to approx. 100 students and explaining the health benefits of each plant.

Apart from the National Nutrition Week, since last year we are organizing more educational programs also on other Inernational Days. On Mother's Day in May we held a talk at the clinic for all the women who came, teaching them about nutrition, hygiene and various ways in which they can improve their own as well as their

family's health. On the occasion of World Environment Day on 5 June we organized a tree planting program at a nearby village, distributing free tree saplings and talking to the villagers about the dangers of deforestation.

The monsoon season every year is the busiest time for our gardening work, as many herbs and other plants need to be replanted as well as new seeds sown. In preparation for this we recently made another two rows of plots at the back of the medicinal herb garden, so that 10-12 additional plots could be added to the existing ones. We now have a total of 70 herb varieties in the medicinal herb garden and 22 in the nutritional herb garden. The numbers will increase again in the coming weeks, as some plants died in the hot summer season and will be replanted during the current monsoon season.

Before and during the rainy season, strong and windy storms sometimes damage smaller trees and plants in our compound. This year part of our boundary wall also collapsed due to the strong wind, as the previous land owner constructed it with mud rather than cement to hold the bricks together. Within a day we were able to rebuild it. Other construction work included the tiling of both of our guest rooms. The attached bathrooms which were constructed two years ago were already tiled last year. Now with a tiled room floor rather than bare cement, our visitors and volunteers can enjoy more comfortable accomodation.

Last year an overseas supporter made a donation for the purchase of several more solar panels. The 6 panels which we’ve used so far can provide only less than half of our energy needs. After extensive market research in India to find the best deal for solar panels, we were able to purchase five additional 75 Watt panels in addition to the four 75 W panels and the two smaller panels already in use on the roof of our clinic. This has made it easier and quicker for us to recharge our 4 lead-acid batteries which serve as our backup energy supply when the govt. electricity supply is gone. On normal days the outside supply comes only about half of the time, and when it does come the voltage is irregular and fluctuating. During rains and storms the poorly maintained electricity cables in our area often break and are not promptly repaired by the local electricity department, leaving the clinc without govt. electricity supply for one or more days.

Last September we received a lot of help from Kiran Rathod of the UK, a homeopath who successfully treated many of our patients. Besides the medical treatment, she gave us the urgently needed help we needed to begin entering our patient data into computers. During earlier months we had acquired 3 secondhand laptops from overseas, as the filing away and retrieving of our paper patient sheets could not be done quickly and accurately enough by our local assistants. So after long considerations we decided to start a computerized patient data system. But we had no good knowledge of how to organize the data well in computerized
documents and tables. Kiran, also having professional background as a business consultant and being very well versed in computer skills, designed patient data tables so that the data can be easily entered as well as retrieved.

In November we had two more volunteers from overseas: Christina Burns from Canada and Vijaya Lakshimi from Malaysia. Christina is an experienced acupuncturist and very knowledgeable in the entire field of Traditional Chinese Medicine, so she not only helped in treating many acupuncture patients but also in training our acupuncture assistants in theory as well as practice. Vijaya is a senior teacher at a school for spastic children in Malaysia. With specific exercises and games she was able to give very good additional treatments to the children suffering from cerebral palsy who are coming to our clinic for acupuncture and physiotherapy. She also taught one of our assistants and the parents of the children how to continue with these exercises after her departure from the clinic.

As usual we had our yearly blanket distribution program in December, when the poorest villagers suffer a lot from the cold because they can't afford blankets or warm clothes. After sending our staff to the nearby villages we identified and registered the presently poorest in each village. About a week later the approx. 30 poorest villagers received a blanket each at the clinic.

On Feb. 6 we held a "handicapped camp" at our clinic. The Indian govt. provides some benefits for recognized and registered poor handicapped persons, such as 200 Rs. financial aid per month, which is only approx. 4 US$, but still a significant help for poor villagers. In order to be eligible the patients must submit application forms with photos and also be screened and registered by a designated govt. doctor. It's very difficult or impossible for the mostly illiterate villagers to mange this beaurocratic process on their own. So in cooperation with another local NGO, we facilitated the process through the handicapped camp. For about 2 weeks before the date of the camp we again went out into the villages to look for the disabled and handicapped persons, list their names and invite them to our clinic for registration. After filling out the forms for each of them as well as taking photos of them and printing it, they came again several days later for medical inspection by a group of govt. doctors who came for this purpose. From morning till evening, more than 400 handicapped villagers were seen and registered by the doctors. Now many will be able to receive the govt. subsidies.

These are the highlights of our activities since the middle of last year. Once again my apologies for the long lapse since the last update; in the coming months you'll be getting them more regularly again. Thanks to all of you for your ongoing interest and support.

Yours,
Dada Devashuddhananda

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