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