Why volunteering rocks!

Every now and then a thought crosses my mind – a few years down the line, will we be able to continue providing all these voluntary (free) services?

This thought bothers me especially when it comes to the free clinic we run and all the other health programs run through Doctors for Seva.

It is not because I’m concerned about how we will sustain ourselves; in the 2 years that I’ve been doing this work, I’ve realized that every sincere work will somehow find support, even if it means a bit of an initial struggle.

My concern arises when I look around and find that there’s hardly any NGO or charitable organization or charitable hospital which has been around for long and continues to provide voluntary service. Most of them charge a user fee – an amount so small that it hardly contributes to sustaining the work they do. Yet they all insist on it.

I’ve really wondered what the reason for this could be……Could it be because we want patients to “value” what they get and not take us for granted? Could it be simply because the whole process becomes much easier when you introduce money? Could it be because somewhere we are concerned about being looked at as foolish for giving away something as important as healthcare for free, and not getting anything measurable in return?

I don’t really know the reason.

But somehow I have the belief that there might be a better way of answering all these questions and still providing voluntary service.........because it makes sense.

So then……how about asking someone who has been on the receiving end of our service to do the same for someone else instead of paying us for it? The concept of “paying it forward” or in other words the beneficiary becoming the benefactor. Nothing new really, but still it raises doubts unless we’ve tried it out consciously.

That’s when I spoke to Bhavani who manages our free clinic, and she immediately told me about Gangadhar, who we had helped with an open heart surgery, and he’s been constantly asking her to give him some opportunity to volunteer!

Today morning, Gangadhar, equipped with a letter from our clinic, volunteered to take a new patient to Jayadeva. He was with the patient all through and helped get things done. He knew how to do all this because we had done this for him when he needed his surgery.

And, he’s not the only one. Other patients who we’d got surgeries done for have also come forward to volunteer. Patient Kalpana’s husband is an auto driver and volunteered to ferry patients around when needed. Patient Muniraju volunteered to donate blood for another patient at Jayadeva, and went on to donate blood for many others since we’ve done that for him. And of course, our very first patient, Charles, who we’ve helped with a brain tumour surgery, sponsored another patient’s surgery expenses. I’m sure there must be more such cases happening all around us which we are unaware of.

What if we consciously decided to make this a part of our working process? What if we offered every patient who we helped the opportunity to become a YFS volunteer and help others? Wouldn’t it be a great way of generating dedicated and sincere volunteers from within? Can we attempt to run our entire process through this concept?

Keeping in mind that this does not apply to children who we help or severely ailing patients, we should make an attempt to include this process as part of our other services. Yes, it’ll be a bit of an effort since the ‘transaction’ doesn’t end on the spot. But that’s the beauty of it. Where money successfully closes a chapter, this concept of volunteering could open up a wonderful chain of positive actions.

I do believe that there is something so beautiful about volunteering that nothing can replace. Volunteering truly rocks! J

Love, Infatuation and the rest…

After successfully completing another awareness session on Menstrual Hygiene, as requested by the teachers, we gathered only students of Std. 10 for a “Special Session”. The teachers of this school had specifically requested us to speak to their young students about Love & Infatuation.  

While preparing the content and format, we realized that it is quite difficult for all of us to actually go back and think about our time as an adolescent. But that’s exactly what we all did – go back in time and asked ourselves what we needed to know as adolescents, and how we would have reacted to  the manner of presenting such a topic. That’s how we came up with the format - with all of us recalling our own youth and moments of confusion, exuberance, passion and again confusion! J

Hardly any adolescent (or even adults for that matter!) can really differentiate or put in words the difference between Infatuation and love. But does that mean we let youngsters experiment and find it out themselves? Some lucky ones escape wiser from such an experience, some learn it the hard way with scars that may never heal, and others may never recover from such experimenting. And when it comes to girls, we need to be a lot more cautious than usual. Keeping all this in mind, here’s how we delivered the talk. It did go almost exactly as planned, and in fact we added the portion about Good Touch & Bad Touch spontaneously since it seemed important.

How we began

Instead of asking them if they ever had a crush (they simply wouldn’t have answered), we asked the girls if they liked any movie star. Their answer was a scream – DARSHAN! We couldn’t believe it. The chap who recently went to jail for beating his wife is the hero of these young girls! Anyway, we then asked them to list out what they liked about Darshan (answers ranged from his height and weight to his dialogues and his nature as a person!). Then we asked them to describe “Love” as they saw it in movies. We got the usual answers which were about Physical Attraction, Possessiveness, Insecurity, Jealously, lack of trust, “I’ll-die-for-you and kill-for-you” and the rest. We wrote them down in one column on the board.

Our next question was – describe the love that comes to your mind when you think of a mother-child relationship. Here, the answers were about trust, selfless giving, security, unconditional love, understanding, forgiveness, not based on physical attraction and other positive feelings. These too were listed out next to the previous list.

The next question to the girls was – Is it possible that all these feelings in a mother-child relationship can actually be in a man-woman (husband-wife) relationship? We further told them that this in fact is what love & healthy relationships should be all about. And what they had initially listed is what is often called Infatuation, but confused as love. They had never thought of it that way.

About Running Away – The girls were so silent that I wondered if they were too innocent for all this. Instead of trying to guess what’s on their mind, I asked them if they knew any cases of girls from their school running away with older men. Half the class nodded. I got my green signal.

Next, I asked them what they would do if any of their friends confided in them about her plan of running away (I framed it this way so that they don’t feel judged). The girls could only think of “I’ll tell her it is wrong”. Then I made them realize that it might be better to get the friend to think about the consequences – What about her studies? Where will she stay? What if the man dumps her? What about leaving her family? What if she becomes pregnant and so on. Most adolescents do not think beyond that moment of running away, and having to think about the consequences might just make them pause. Or at least that’s what I hope.

Good Touch and Bad Touch – I’ve always noticed how young girls really value the truth and the fact that I tell them things as it is, without beating around the bush or feeling shy. It is so important for someone to tell them the truth and equip them with names and words to express themselves if ever needed. 

Besides making them give a few examples of good touch (mother’s kiss, brother’s hug, etc) and bad touch (stranger in the bus pinching you!), we wanted to tell them exactly what is NOT ALLOWED. We told them that nobody (except her husband) has the right to touch 3 specific parts of their body – breast, buttocks and area between the legs. And repeated this several times till it registered loud and clear. And if someone did violate these rules, they have to immediately scream and protest and run out of the room(as obvious as this may seem, most abused people just freeze due to the shock of what’s happening). Next, they must inform a responsible adult (family member or a teacher) about the incident.

While we were wondering if we crossed any lines, the teacher came forward and specifically told the girls that this was very important information, and added more about pregnancy and abuse. About abuse, the teacher said – it is wrong, and you must report the incident, be it your uncle, a close relative or even your grandfather!

The 2nd Awareness talk - Nutrition

How do you explain to children from government schools the type of food they need to take and what constitutes healthy food, when they hardly even have 3 meals a day....

The entire talk on Nutrition should revolve around what they can afford despite not having a lot of money. We need to also make it interesting enough and not get too deep into explaining carbo, protein, fats, vitamins, etc.

Unfortunately, the starting itself went wrong. To get the children to maintain silence, the teacher starting hitting little ones with a wooden cane, and when all were silent and a few were crying, they told me I could start. I blame myself for not coming up with some creative way to handle children so that they remain silent. I should have gathered a few of them and started to sing a song aloud or show some magic tricks or have some interesting pictures (the flow chart arrived late!) to get their attention and prevent the caning. I hope to be better prepared for this next time.

Intro - I started the session by asking children what they usually eat and if they knew what it contained. A lot of children were aware that Idlis are made of rice and chapathis of wheat but they did not know what rice and wheat contain. So, I told them that this session is meant to help them understand the food they eat, and how to make sure its healthy and what constitutes a balanced meal.

Using pictures - I then explained in brief what Carbohydrates, Protein, Fats, Vitamins, Minerals and Fibre constitutes and gave them a lot of examples of food that come in these categories. Including food like ragi, jowar, bajra makes it easier for them to relate and these are also easily affordable. Use a lot of pictures. Readily available charts on food can be obtained from any local stationary.

Planning your meal - We then played a game. I wrote three categories on the board - Common Food, Healthy Food and Tasty Food. I asked children to name food(by food, I mean, a meal like dosa, idli, anna-saar, and not milk or vegetables) that comes in each category and listed the same on the board. Then, check to see if any food appears in all three categories, since this will be the best type of food.

For those food items which appear in only one category, ask the children what can be added to it to make it a balanced meal. For Ex: a lot of children name Anna-Saar (rice and rasam) as a healthy food item. But, rice only constitutes carbo and the saar is usually so watery that it has very little nutrients. But if we added a dal (pulses) and some vegetables to it, it would be a healthier meal. Similarly, if we add peanuts (protein) to lemon rice (carbo) and a few vegetables (vitamins), it will be a healthier meal. Also, idli (carbo & protein) along with sambar (vitamins if there are vegetables in the sambar) and chutney (fibre) is a great example of a complete, balanced meal which is commonly available, healthy and tasty.

By the end, children had a clearer idea of how to convert a regular meal to a healthier one by adding a few basic ingredients to it.

Some observations - 70% children said they skip breakfast. The primary reason they gave was that their mother had to rush to work and had no time to cook for them. I suggested that they at least eat a banana before coming to school.

Also, a lot of food gets wasted from the mid-day meal every single day. I have seen them empty almost half the food container into a nearby gutter! Someone told me that the reason is that the school gives Iskon the total expected strength of students at the beginning of every year, and often only around 60% children are present on any given day. Since they cannot change the food order on a day to day basis, this huge wastage occurs. I told the children to carry a tiffin box to school, and take some food home for dinner as well. I'll check next week to see how that goes.

The first awareness talk

As part of the Health Awareness Drive planned during November in 16 schools where we've done the medical screening and treatments, we conducted the first awareness talk. The topic was General Hygiene.

The topic in itself is a simple one if you think about it. After all, how difficult is it for children to know that they need to take bath daily, or cover their mouth while coughing/sneezing, or wash hands and brush teeth and so on? Yes, it was partly easy because in this school (Munichinappa School, Adugodi) most children knew the basics, thanks to the teachers. Yet, there were some instances that stood out in the session, which I'll now share with you all.

The teachers divided the students from std 1 to 7 in two batches, combining children from std 1 to 4 and then, a separate class for std 5 to 7. While it was fun doing the session for the younger batch, it might have been better to split the older students even if it meant doing the session on another day, as it was a little difficult to handle a large class, especially since the sessions are made interactive.

Beginning: We wanted to begin the session by making the children really enthusiastic about a relatively dry topic such as hygiene. So we told them that for this day they are all doctors, and as doctors they have to check their classmates on the hygiene aspects we point out. They then introduced themselves as Dr. Ramya, Dr. Varsha, Dr. Rajesh and so on.... One child said "I'm Dr. Thayamma, MBBS, and I'll become a doctor and provide free service for all as Seva", and added a big grin to go with her introduction. :-)

Being animated: Be as animated as possible, and have children follow your actions. This way they'll remember what is being told much better.

For instance, after telling them to close their mouth while sneezing and wash their hands after that, I asked them what they'd do if they were holding something with both hands and suddenly felt like sneezing! A couple of kids took my instruction about covering their mouth with hands so seriously that they said they'll immediately drop whatever they are holding and rush to cover their mouth. We couldn't help laughing....

Then all of us and the children enacted the situation where we're holding some imaginary thing and are beginning to feel a sneeze coming....The whole class, teacher included, with our nostrils flared, went Aaa...Aaaa....Aaaaa.....Choooooo and the kids followed me covering my sneeze with my arm and elbow. I'm sure the kids wouldn't forget this one!

Being practical: When we spoke about taking a bath daily, some children admitted to not being able to do so. The reason for some was that water was not easily available, and for one child the reason was that she worked as a maid in two homes before rushing to school and again worked after school, hence never found the time for a bath.

Therefore, its important that we understand where they come from, and give them solutions which are possible in their daily life. We told them that even if they couldn't manage a bath everyday, they should at least wash their face, hands, feet, underarms and private areas every single day. To this, they all agreed.

Make it interactive: For each topic of discussion in the presentation, we first asked the children what methods they followed before giving them our inputs.

When it came to taking care of their ear, we asked them how they keep it clean. Around 80% said they use a cotton bud daily, around 5% said they use a pin, matchstick, any stick, and just about anything they find.

Being really young children, we didn't want to risk asking them to clean their ear with sharp objects themselves. So we told them about how the wax in the ear is in fact not a bad thing, and putting a bud makes the wax go deeper and block their hearing. We told them that cleaning the outer ear with a finger and a piece of damp cloth would suffice and wax usually comes out on its own. We also told them to immediately inform us or visit a doctor if they had ear pain, hearing discharge or diminished hearing.

Putting forth our points as responses to their answers would make them remember it better.

Home remedies - Most children know so many home remedies that its scary! We might not be able to tell them if its OK to use Coffee Powder and Limestone on a bleeding wound as their grandmother tells them to, unless we do a thorough research, or win an argument on Colgate toothpaste being better than Gopal Tooth powder! But what we can do is make them realize that experimenting with their health is not a good idea. Basic hygiene practices can go a long way in preventing ailments and common problems.

Why women won't speak up....

In the many sessions Vyjayanti and I have done on Menstrual Hygiene, the one thing which we always and  consciously did not bring up is the cultural and religious practices associated with it. Every individual has the right to follow a set of traditions and procedures which have been in place from time immemorial. And its absolutely fine if it makes them happy to do so.

But there are some questions which are difficult to answer.

How do you explain to a young girl that the reason she is excluded from prayers during festivals or prevented from visiting a religious place if she's having her period, has nothing to do with her bring impure or unholy? How do you make them understand that though this practice has no scientific reason, we can't stop doing it?

It is not uncommon, even in this day and age for menstruating women to be kept "aside" until her period is over. It is not uncommon that she is excluded from sharing a plate or a meal with the rest of the family. It is not strange that I have come across women who are made to live in a cowshed during this entire time. And this isn't just about a rural women who is not educated. In case of educated women, the cowshed becomes an outhouse. That's the only difference.

During our sessions, we do try and explain the original reason why it all began, which was to make sure that women get enough rest during her period, and doesn't have to worry about house hold work or any other tiring task. We do try and tell girls that it certainly doesn't mean that they are impure or unholy, it just an old tradition which nobody has attempted to change.

While all this can still be brushed aside if its really important on some religious or cultural level, how do you justify it when women end up compromising their health just to keep up with tradition?

So often, we have been asked by many adolescent girls and young women about the "period postponing pill". I was quite surprised the first time I heard these questions, more from rural girls than from girls in urban schools. I wondered how they even know about such a pill. And many of them even know the name, the dosage, etc. These pills are very common in villages and girls keeping popping pill after pill to delay their period, without consulting a doctor.

The reason? Festivals and ceremonies happen very frequently especially in villages. On one hand, menstruating girls feel very left out that they can't participate in a family event, and on the other hand they find it extremely embarrassing to proclaim the reason why they can't attend the event. Thanks to the saving pill, they end up confusing their natural biological processes resulting in heavy and painful bleeding during the delayed period.

I have asked so many women why they wouldn't speak up. For some, its fear to speak against an elderly person, for some its superstition, for some its respect for an age old tradition. Even those women who are educated do not speak up. By nature and by upbringing, women have been taught to be respectful, to be obedient, to think of others before themselves. Well, they're doing a good job at it. The only small hitch is that they are compromising on their health in the process.

If you are a man and if you are reading this, maybe you could speak up - for your wife, for your daughter, for your sister, for your mother. Because she wouldn't. She'd rather put up with the embarrassment, the humiliation and worst of all, put her health at risk, than speak up.

Henry Joseph

A month back, I visited a few rural areas near Kolar to identify suitable candidates for a certain project involving distribution of LED lamps and batteries for those who are wheel-chair bound. The concept, developed by Mr. R.S. Kalawar, an 83 year old retired railwayman, was intended to help out those people who used to be bread-winners, but a spinal cord injury has left them unable to do even the most basic work.We took the help of the Association for the Physically Disabled (APD) located in Banaswadi, Bangalore for shortlisting and identifying people who would suit our criteria.

I set off early one morning with another volunteer and Mr. Palasami from APD and visited 4 people, 2 from Hoskote and 2 others from Bangapete and KGF (Kolar). All of them were aged between 22 to 35 years, and were perfectly normal until an accident caused a severe spinal cord injury. I was really surprised to learn from APD that only about 10% of Spinal cord injuries are due to specific diseases, and the remaining 90% of these injuries are caused by entirely preventable accidents such as falling off coconut trees, or falling off a roof top, and in one case, poor management of the patient after an accident thanks to the mob who gathered to help!

Most of those I met and some others I spoke with later on were all identified by APD when they made rural visits. Before APD came along, these people were entirely bed-ridden, most often their bodies covered with bed sores and they had completely lost all hope in life. They never imagined that life could ever go back to normal, or that they could ever be independent again. Must say, APD does amazing work in rehabilitating people with Spinal Cord injuries in just about 3-4 months, by the end of which the same bed-ridden person is completely independent thanks to his wheel chair, walker and lessons learnt at APD. Many of them cook their own food, take bath themselves, even travel from place to place all by themselves.

Most of the people I met were trying to get over the fact that they are no longer as they used to be, and were very emotional about how their life turned around after the accident. One person, however, was different. Henry.

Henry, unlike the others, came in the 10% bracket where he suffered from TB of the spine when he was in std 8. Since then, he was bed-ridden for 6 painful years, before APD found him. After rehab, at the age of 20, he got back to his schooling, completed it, applied for PUC and also applied for ITI training. His college is located 8 kms away, but that is not a big problem for Henry, as he covers that distance every day on his wheel chair! Henry also travels to Bangalore whenever he needs to visit APD. He does this without any assistance, by a train, and even by a bus if needed. He frequently acts as a communication channel between the local villagers and the Panchyat. People go to Henry for any problem, and he always finds ways to help them. When we proposed the idea of the LED lamp to him, his first question was "Can I give you names of some more people like me who could benefit from this? There are 35 others like me in this village."

Henry lives in a small little house, given by the government, with his mother and younger brother. Earlier, he used to rent out bicycles to children, and earn a decent amount from that. Then along came a Chief Minister and distributed free bicycles for all, leaving Henry with hardly any clients. His tiny house is full of interesting things - 3 piggy banks, each saving money for a different purpose, some mobile phones which he sells and others which he repairs, some "inventions" he keeps trying out. When I asked Henry, what do you want to do in life, his immediate answer was "I want to do something that will be of help to others"

Was he always like this? In his own words "No, I was never like this. The problems I've been through have given me a new courage, and a new way of looking at life. My old friends and those who knew me before my injury are surprised at the change."

Henry stood out from the others because he had gone beyond trying to get used to his situation, he had gone way beyond feeling sorry for himself. He confronted his situation, took it head on and decided that the best way to deal with it, is to make something positive out of it.

Hats off to Henry!

Quitting tobacco...

My first initiative under health through Youth for Seva, was the Anti-tobacco skit and awareness program we did for the high school boys at the government school where I was teaching.

Anand (who was also teaching at the same school) and I put together this dramatic skit of a common person (played by Vikshut) who gets drawn to cigarettes in college, gets addicted, tries to quit, and then how he struggles with withdrawal symptoms. We showed two parts of the story - In one part, our struggling hero succumbs to the temptation and eventually dies. In another part, our hero finds enough reason to quit and actually changes his life around. The message was clear - the choice is yours.

Having written out the detailed script, we started looking for people who could act and for someone who could be the narrator. The narrator's role was to simultaneously make a presentation on the ill effects of using tobacco. I was clear that we should have as many male volunteers in the program, so that young boys will have some role models to look up to. Another aspect to selecting volunteers was that they themselves should not be a tobacco user, because then the whole thing would seem hypocritical And we didn't want any preachy lectures on tobacco which'll put the children to sleep. So our hunt began for the right candidates.

What grand demands I made - a good actor, a good narattor who doesn't use tobacco, and is willing to act in our strange skit! One week after we sent the request, all I got was silence from volunteers! I guess I was asking for too much. Luckily, somewe found Vikshut who fit the role perfectly of the main character, and he actually didn't use tobacco himself. But then, who would play the equally important role of presenter?

I looked at Anand, who guiltily admitted that he smokes. Left with no other choice, we cast Anand with the condition that at least during the duration of the practice and the skit, he wouldn't touch a cigarette. He made faces, he cribbed, he sighed, he tried to reason why its not hypocritical if he was a smoker. When nothing worked, he agreed. (Of course, I secretly hoped that being part of the skit will get him to quit)

The day arrived; we performed; the children applauded and jumped up to take an oath to never touch tobacco. I looked around for Anand during the oath, he had hidden himself in some corner so that he wouldn't have to take that oath!

As with all our programs, we hoped and wished that at least one child would have the courage to say no to tobacco when the time comes. But this is something only time will tell.

Meanwhile, Anand never quit. He told me just yesterday that he hasn't decided to quit smoking. But, he also hasn't touched a cigarette since the first skit we performed. And that was almost one and a half years ago. :-)



The details of the skit (http://www.doctorsforseva.youthforseva.org/downloads/) and some pics can be seen at http://www.doctorsforseva.youthforseva.org/gallery/

Ask not....and you shall still receive!

Sometime in Feb-Mar 2011, Youth for Seva and Anatha Shishu Nivasa(an NGO & orphanage) made a joint decision to start a free clinic for the needy. ASN wanted to put to good use some space they had in their premises, and was willing to take care of all infrastructure and medicine costs. Youth for Seva came into the picture to help find doctors who will run the clinic. Doctors! Did someone say Doctors for Seva?

Yes, Doctors for Seva is a network of doctors who are willing to do some amount of voluntary work for the needy. We started off with just Dr.Vimochana, a Pediatrician, and had the support of Dr. Latha Venkataraman(Gynecologist) and Dr.Shubha Badami (a Pediatrician) in the initial days. The idea was to provide an easy platform for doctors to serve the most needy, voluntarily. We have some amazing doctors in the network  - Dr. Dhiraj, a Pediatric Surgeon and Dr. Srimani, a Gynecologist, who so kindly and with minimal questions waive off their surgeon's fee for needy patients. We have Dr. Vimochana and Dr. Jayalakshmi who go out of their way in helping any child in need, by adopting govt schools, screening and providing medicines for free. And some really Seva minded hospitals like Mahaveer Jain who've done around 200 free surgeries through us, Sri Krishna Sevasharama, Narayana Nethralaya and others who've been very actively and genuinely involved in helping those in need.

But here, we needed doctors who'll come to "our" clinic and consult for free. A different story altogether! Its not at all reasonable to ask doctors to leave their clinics and instead consult in ours. I made calls after calls to as many doctors as I knew, and it was just not happening. Besides, I was not mentally prepared to start a clinic, and it didn't feature in the plans I had for the Health team. This one time, I really thought I won't be able to do it. I remember asking Dr. Vimochana and Vyjayanti about this. I told them "My heart's not in it. I don't think I can do it this time; there's too little time before we inaugurate the clinic, and we have no doctors!" They told me to keep trying.

On the day of the inauguration, Dr. Rachitha Rama Murthy, a DFS member, had just dropped in and was impressed with the clinic. I didn't loose any time asking her if she'd like to consult for a few days until we find another doctor. She agreed. We heaved a sigh of relief.

We inaugurated. We still had no confirmed doctor. We had to start the very next day. Patients began queuing up from the nearby slums - 18 of them on our first day! Dr. Rachitha came. All of us broke into big smiles - smiles of relief, smiles of victory, smiles of gratitude, smiles of hope.......smiles.

I still remember in the midst of all the chaos typical of a first day, I looked at Anand and said "can you believe it, we're running a clinic?" He said, "I know!" We now have Dr.Subbalakshmi who consults every evening, Dr. Mamatha who consults every morning, Dr. Aradhana, Dr. Geeta, Dr. Gayatri, Dr. Shashikala who come once a week. We see about 10 patients per day. We've got 4 cardiac surgeries done, an ENT surgery and a gynecology surgery through our network hospitals. And its been 6 months since we started.


I passed by the clinic the other day, and saw the board outside. It had "Doctors for Seva" written on it. My mind went on how we struggled to start, how every day was an effort in convincing people, finding doctors, treating patients. And now, our clinic. We didn't ask for it, but here it was, giving new hope and new dreams.

Doctors for Seva is no more something in my head, its not some fiction. Its a reality. And its on that board.

The first spectacle

I used to teach Spoken English at BBMP School in Malleshwaram for students from std 8 to std 10, sometimes after the school hours. There was this girl, in std 7, named Harshitha, who was very bright and keen on learning English. She used to often attend my classes though it was not meant for her. And I naturally took notice of her since she knew more English than her seniors who sat in my class. That year, Harshita topped her class, and distributed toffees to all of us; her parents being really pleased with her academic performance. I remember her as a very pleasant, bright and cheerful young girl.

I stopped teaching when I took up the Health initiatives in YFS full-time. But, this gave me an opportunity to visit the same school as a health volunteer to do a health pre-screening. You know, when you are a health volunteer, whether you like it or not, you end up learning so much more about each child. Besides learning about their daily health habits and ailments, you also come to understand their family history and background. You get a glimpse into that side of the child which you would may not have seen when you just teach them for an hour or so.

Harshitha was really excited to see me, just as I was to see her, and co-incidence or nor, she landed up in the queue which led up to me (there were other volunteers also who were doing the screening that day). So I began asking her the usual pre-screening questions about any problems with her hearing or skin or sight. She immediately said that she has a vision problem, and has difficulty seeing the board, and reading books. I wrote her name down to be seen by an eye specialist. But, to my surprise, she told me that she's already been to a doctor and was prescribed spectacles. I asked an obvious "Then?"

"Well, miss, my parents don't have the money for buying Spectacles"

Without a second thought, I told myself, I will sponsor her spectacles. At that time, we had just begun school screenings and had no funds readily available, and honestly, we didn't really think about where the money for follow-ups will come from! So fine, Harshitha would have got her spectacles because I knew her and knew she deserved it. But how many children could I sponsor? Surely, the other children too are likely to be deserving and might be needy; where'll their spectacles come from?

Sometime around then, we had just started a google group for the Health team, which had about 30-40 registered volunteers. I posted a simple message on the group, requesting volunteers to come forward to donate for spectacles, saying that I pledge to donate for at least one child myself.

The response was really overwhelming - within 2 weeks, we received enough donation for 42 spectacles! And we hadn't even planned to cover that many children. That got us going, and we thought - lets just go ahead and screen more children, the money will come. By the end of the academic year, we had screened 2901 children, of which 92 children needed spectacles, and we got a group of employees from a particular company (who wished to be anonymous) to donate for the spectacles.

And this year, we've screened 12,000 odd children, and have Philips willing to sponsor spectacles for all the children who may need it!

Dear little Harshitha, I need to tell her some day what she started.

Charles

I first met Charles, sometime in September 2010, when we had just about initiated Doctors for Seva. At that time, we had only about 1 or 2 doctors and Anand and me in the name  of a "team".

Charles was a very lean man, aged about 30 and spoke reasonably good English. He walked in to the office one morning asking for me, and when we did meet and shake hands, the first thing he said was "I am at an advanced stage of Brain Tumour. The doctors have given me a week's time, and if I'm not able to do the surgery by then, I may not make it." Stunned, I stared at him. Then he said "I heard from someone that you have a team which can help me arrange funds for the surgery. I hope you can help me raise Rs.60,000 in one week".

True, I wanted to started a health team which can cater to any needy person...True, I was hoping that some day we'll get to a stage where we'll have surgeons and hospitals willing to take up cases such as Charles. But, we had only just started, and no way was the "team" capable of handling such a case. Worse still, I began feeling that this person has for some reason come to me, and if I can't help him, I don't know if I'll have the courage to do anything further in the name of Doctors for Seva.

Most people felt that I was somewhat mad for taking up Charles' case, many told me that I'm acting purely on impulse, some good friends thought I'm going through depression, and some said that even if I did miraculously (back then, it seemed like a miracle to raise Rs.60,000 in a week!) manage to raise the amount, it is not the right way of going about such work.

They were quite right. I was somewhat mad.

But it takes some amount of madness to do what seems impossible. My "contacts" back then were volunteers Anand and Vikshut, who went about spreading the message among their friends circle and work place, and we did raise a little more that Rs.60,000/- in just about a weeks time. It certainly wasn't easy. But all who donated (about 23 of them) understood how genuine the case was, and that making an effort to give another human a chance at living, was a cause totally worth it.

Anand did some amazing stuff in following up with Charles, visiting his hospital, speaking to his surgeon, being with him on the day of the surgery, and doing all the running around for him. You see, Charles' family is not in Bangalore and he didn't want to get them worried. So Anand pretty much became his family during that time.

I met Charles just before his surgery, and he was so positive that he'll make it. It didn't leave a single doubt in my mind about the work we'd put in for raising funds for him.

He underwent the surgery. Anand, Vikshut and I met him at the hospital after the surgery with a bunch of flowers, a large card with best wishes from all the donors, and some books which he told me he'd like to read while in the hospital.

I spoke to Charles a few weeks back. He underwent a second surgery (this time with his own money), and he is doing well. He remains extremely positive and enthusiastic about life.

Charles was worth it. My madness was worth it.

Not many know, but this was one of those incidents that really motivated me to create a Doctors for Seva network. Today, if Charles came to us, we would have had multiple options to help him out. And I'm so glad we've gotten there.

Thank you, Charles, for making me believe.


- Sinu

Talking beyond Menstrual Hygiene

On Sep 19, 2011, Vyjayanti and I had been requested to do the Menstrual Hygiene Awareness talk for about 180 girls from std 8 to I PUC, at St. Antony's School in K.R.Puram. The children studying here are mainly from the nearby slums, and their parents are most often construction workers.

Along with our regular talk, and the usual queries that followed it, the school also made a special request - *To speak about child abuse. *Or more specifically, sexual abuse. The reason - most of these children's fathers are drunkards, and cases of abuse aren't uncommon.

Although we have touched upon similar topics in the past, the schools haven't usually been very welcoming. So in this case, we were quite pleased that the school teacher insisted we do this talk. This meant freedom of speaking on such a topic without any restrictions or inhibitions. So we began......

We touched upon the meaning of a "Good Touch", a "Bad Touch” (Physical abuse) and a "Sexual Abuse Touch". We spoke about why the child is never at fault no matter what the abuser or anybody else tells her; we spoke about
how an abuse is very confusing since physical pain may not necessarily be associated with it, unlike in case of a bad touch; we spoke about the need for an abused child to immediately report the case and speak up, even if it is a person known to the family; we spoke about it never being too late to speak up; we tried to explain how a child is often tricked or forced into an abusive relation; we told them that Vyjayanti and I are trained lay counselors and can guide any person in such a situation through Prasanna Counselling Centre.........we spoke.

There was pin drop silence.

As with all our talks, we needed to hear from the girls, but we knew that it may not be as easy for them to speak up. So we asked them to write any questions they had on a paper and give it to us, anonymously. We didn't realize or expect the impact….the girls began handing us different sizes of papers, and they didn’t seem to mind that we know who’s written the question. Some of the questions they wrote:

1. What is the repercussion of a sexual touch?
2. If abuse happens only by being in touch with boys/men, then is it better that we completely stop talking to boys?
3. Some "Sirs" touches are not good, so how can we avoid them?
4. If boys who are in our class behave “close” to us, is it right or wrong?
5. Is pregnancy the only “bad thing” that can happen from a sexual abuse touch?

Worse still – It was time for the college students to leave for their tests, and they came to us and said “Ma’am, can you quickly tell us just this much, since we badly need to know, and don’t have much time to wait for you to read all questions -*“What is the repercussion of a sexual touch?”*

Quickly??

With very little choice, and faces full of expectation staring up at us, we stood in front of the crowd of 180 odd girls. Yes, we touched upon what causes pregnancy, we touched upon HIV/ AIDS being a risk, and we did tell them about the use of contraceptives. But we didn’t want to leave them with thoughts that if they avoided pregnancy or even HIV, the rest is OK.

The truth is, in the society we live in, girls will be humiliated, girls will receive no support, they end up missing out on basic education, and they stand a chance of being made an outcast if they indulge in a sexual relationship with a man without realizing the consequences. And we could tell these girls were at an age where they just wouldn’t realize the things they are putting at risk, or what they might be getting into. And it is not their fault, it is just the age their in.

So we explained how they need to focus on their studies and future at this stage of life; they have to think through every such situation and realize what the consequences could be; they had to understand that its not just about getting pregnant, or HIV, but about the guilt, the shame, the ridicule, the blame that society will pile on them in the event of such a
thing happening. At the same time, we told them how they can interact with boys; they can be study partners, sports partners and just plain friends. We told them that there is a time for everything in life, and now is the time
for them to think of studying, and being in a place like Bangalore, opportunities are a plenty even for women.
We were wondering if we had conveyed the correct message, but the school authorities put our mind at rest when they thanked us for talking so openly to the girls and said that it was badly needed. In fact, the school requested us to do a similar session for the boys as well.

Yes, it wasn’t a fully prepared talk, and next time around we will be better prepared knowing now what to expect. But, even if we managed to influence one girl’s mindset, I think we will have done a decent job.

By the way, did you know, in India 1 out of every 3 girls, and 1 out of every 10 boys are sexually abused in childhood! And in 70% of the cases, the abuser is known to the family. If you wish to know more, check this link
http://www.nalamdana.org/Combat-child-abuse.html

Stories of young girls from government schools, some as young as 12 years, running away with much older men (auto drivers, cobblers, etc) who stand outside the schools, aren’t exactly rare. I have myself come across such a case when I was teaching in a government school. I guess they’re just not spoken about as much.

- Sinu