Redefining Hope

Traveling to the Thane District, North of Mumbai, our fearless and feisty guide for the day, Neelam -all of 5 foot, and 1 inch of her- balanced against a turbulent bus ride through the city traffic to brief us on Impact India and the work being done at the rural sites we were about to observe.

For the past 28 years, Impact India has actively taken part in clinical care as well as prevention. This work includes addressing disability through health education, immunization, and access to appropriate healthcare. This NGO provides clinical care and treatment for curable disabilities such as blindness and deafness as well as physical deformities such as cleft palate and other facial malformations. A team of volunteer surgeons board “The Lifeline Express,” and ride this train through Northern India stopping in rural locations to perform corrective procedures. This train, literally painted with rainbows and clouds, is a beacon of help and hope for communities that have little access to healthcare. The train comes with all necessary equipment and operating space- for all intents and purposes- it is a hospital on rail. From this idea, similar mobile healthcare has been inspired, such as hospital trains in China and other parts of Asia, as well as riverboat hospitals in Bangladesh and Cambodia. This has been an extremely effective method of delivering healthcare, yet when asked about the vision for “The Lifeline Express” Neelam replied, “we hope for it to become unnecessary.” With this statement she made it clear that “The Lifeline Express” is a temporary solution while the ultimate goal is a proper hospital setting without reliance upon a traveling method of delivery.

Impact India also provides care through a mobile van program. This van travels to rural villages to test individuals of the community for vision and hearing impairments. Once again all the needed equipment to conduct these tests is available in the van. Travel to remote villages in the Thane district and similar areas throughout India require these mobile vans to drive through rough and often dangerous roads. With these road conditions and the remoteness of these villages, the mobility of this care is crucial to the medical attention and knowledge of the people with whom they reach.

The feel of the Thane district was altogether unique, no more bustling Mumbai-instead we saw the lush, agricultural view of India. Our first site was a boarding school where we were welcomed by a group of young ladies who were taught to become health monitors within their school. They were trained to look for signs of anemia and poor hygiene, and to encourage healthy nutritional practices- they were given vitamin A supplements to prevent unnecessary blindness. Also, regular hemoglobin testing is performed to monitor anemic individuals. These girls are sharp and proud of what they are doing within their small community. They are contributing to further the health practices within their village and endow the next generation with more knowledge than that of the previous. Slow, but steady improvement is better than false hope for complete extraction from a difficult reality.

We were welcomed and allowed to sit in on a breast-feeding education session delivered by a nurse within the community. It is common for new mothers to throw out their colostrum, or their “first milk.” This breast milk has antibodies that protect the newborn from illness. This is especially important in locations without clean drinking water, where often times children are given water with formula instead of breast-milk, exclusively.

The second site of the day was a rural clinic funded by the government. The doctors there treat everything from snakebites to delivering each child born to the village. Though it appeared from our visit and observations that little was done on part of the doctors to encourage preventative health, there hung a form of census data within the doctor’s office. Above his desk there was a sophisticated record of the total population, the number of households, the number of village wells along with more crucial information as to the breakdown of the population, and what major health procedures are most often necessary. This neat and well-maintained board of data appeared to be the beginning of a community needs assessment.

The visits on site in the Thane district served an invaluable purpose. From these visits we could truly get a feel for the work of Impact India. The realities were glaring, and sadly there is often the realization that the majority of the individuals we met will remain exactly where we parted-we board our bus to eventually go home while they remain. However, there is the promise that with programs like Impact India, each generation of families will be slightly improved. As Kelly Healy articulated well in discussion today, “it is important to simply raise the baseline.” An organization can measure success by raising the baseline of health standards and community knowledge. There is no magic bullet, therefore it is important to be honest and face the hard truths about poverty and lack of access to education and health. However, communities pull together when they have nothing, and as such the sites we visited were on their way to raising the baseline. No matter how slow the progress, it is progress nonetheless, and that has to be enough.