By Anant Nevatia | President
It has indeed been overwhelming to receive funds that have allowed us to set up and operate ten primary health care centres (5 Rural Clinics and 5 Urban Clinics) in across four districts of West Bengal, India reaching out to over 1.1 million people. Each centre runs four departments namely General Medicine, Optometry, Dentistry and Homoeopathy. At the cost of INR 60 ($ 1), patients are provided diagnosis and free medicine for seven days. The centres also provide free spectacles to those in need. Beside this, each primary health care centre, in collaboration with other organizations, facilitates free cataract and cleft lip/palate surgeries for those in need.
The task at hand is huge and our intention over the last few years, has been to spread out and serve as many people as we can, by establishing more such healthcare centres. The need in the current times is to scale up our existing operations to other districts of the state. In order to operate and set up new centres, we require constant funding. The funds would be used for purchasing medical equipment, hiring medical as well as support staff, staff at the Head Office, setting up infrastructure at the clinics, purchasing medicines etc.
Since the Government run medical facilities are sparse in these rural areas , news of patients benefitting from the treatment received at our clinic spreads to the neighbouring villages , resulting in constant increase of footfall of patients at our clinics. We therefore feel the need to reach out to more such areas addressing the needs of more patients.
The following is the feedback of a patient who is benefitted from our services.
Nadira a resident of Bamunpara, district Nadia, a weaver by profession , used to earn her daily living but due to fading eye sight could not continue with her work as it required very fine stitching. Earlier in the area where we operate now, for a spectacle one had to travel to the nearest town and pay hefty fees to the doctor along with the cost of the spectacles to be able to see or read properly. One such spectacle would cost not less than 1000/-
Once our centre became operational, Nadira came to our centre and got her eyes tested and also received prescribed medicines by qualified doctors. Spectacle was given to her at free of cost since she could not afford to pay.Soon she was relieved of the trouble of going to town and paying hefty fee to the doctor.
Now Nadira is busy with her job of weaving and earning her money again. She has returned to her normal life .The money saved by her is now invested to educate her children.
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By Anant Nevatia | Anant Nevatia
By Anant Nevatia | Anant Nevatia
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