East Andheri Slums

Day 2: East Andheri Slums.

Yesterday was eye-opening. We began our day early at 8am ready to climb onto a bus (without A/C) and go towards AmeriCares India, off Linking Road. The AmeriCares India Foundation is a charitable organization that "provides immediate response to emergency medical needs and supports long-term humanitarian assistance programs in India and neighboring countries". AmeriCares India works across numerous states around India. Specifically, in Mumbai, AmeriCare India provides medical commodities, emergency response & disaster preparedness, mobile medical camps and health promotion programs.

Our day yesterday was focused on working with the mobile medical camp in the East Andheri Slums. After receiving a brief yet extremely motivating and inspiring orientation on the mission of AmeriCares by Dr. Purvesh Parikh, VP and Managing Director, we set out with the mobile van to the slums. All while getting lost and spending an hour on a bus without A/C.

We parked a bit outside of the gully's (or alley's) where we stepped out to a petid smell of human and animal waste, and mounds and mounds of trash that comes from all over the city. We walked towards the alley's and watched the mobile clinic make a makeshift camp. The camp was led by two volunteers and one physician. In the actual "camp", the two volunteers were responsible for registering new patients. This involved one volunteer taking height and blood pressure and the other volunteer typing/recording the patient’s record. It was quite interesting to watch, because the new patients were huddled into a line inside the camp and had to share their ailments one at a time. Each patient would record their ailments to the volunteers as the volunteers recorded them. Then a picture was taken of the patient to keep in the records. The patient was then directed to the mobile van, where the physician was waiting for them to give them medicines. For this particular day, only women and children were seen.

In India, there are so many health issues that are stigmatized, so it was interesting to see this process. Every patient expressed similar ailments – pain in body, dizziness, and fever. Due to the crowding environment it was apparent that women were not sharing and discussing how they were actually feeling. We also later found out that today’s camp was only available to women and children so sex workers could also take advantage of the medical care without being singled out. It makes sense then, in these congested camps, they did not discuss their actual complaints.

It was evident after approximately 30-45 minutes of being at the camp site, our team was more of a distraction to the mobile clinic than helpful. Being in a group of 19, these we were a bit overwhelming and caused excitement and anxiety with all those who walked by the camp. Children came running up to us to share what English they new as did some parents. Children sang to us and hugged us and wanted to learn from us. Yet, the purpose of the day was to get adults and children access to care that they did not normally receive.

It is absolutely amazing to have watched AmeriCare India Volunteers in action. Though only 3 individuals go out in their vans, they go out six days a week from about 9am to 3:30pm. They see approximately 100-150 patients a day and reach hundreds of thousands of individuals, that in normal circumstances would be denied or not be able to obtain access to care. To ensure continuity or care, the vans go back to each slum/ward every 15 days. In addition, AmeriCare India has partnered with various pharma companies and consulting firms to help support the work they do. With this support, AmeriCares India Foundation has already delivered more than Rs13 crores worth of free medical assistance in this past year alone.

Nitasha