Mobile Medical Van/Waste Site

FUN FACT: India has the largest number of post offices in the world. (www.india.gov.in/myindia/facts)

Today was our first day in India, and we were given the opportunity to work with AmeriCares India in their mobile medical van.

7 am - Afer eating a quick breakfast we started off the day trugging through the heavy Mumbai traffic (only normal) and made our first stop at the AmeriCares India office. Here we met Dr. Purvis M. Parikh and were given a brief introduciton of what type of work AmeriCares India does - distribution of free medical supplies and service via mobile van to regions of Mumbia that recieve minimum NGO support compared to the other areas.

After the introduction, back to the van for all us, and off to the site in East Andheri. Before take off, we all recieved matching AmeriCare India hats - just incase we would get lost on site. Bellow is a picture of our TA Megan Landry and two of our classmates, Nitasha Chowdry and Angela Rojas.

We arrived to one of the Slums in East Andheri and that is when it hit me. I was in India, a developing country with poverty and never ending problems (hopefully this is not true one day). We stepped out of the bus to be standing next to the main waste dumping grounds in Mumbai, and where all of Mumbai's trash is dumped. Obviously it smelled great. Some of us covered our noses while the locals giggled and stared. Filled with "rag-pickers" and mounds of trash, we observed, and walked on to a small street where the AmeriCares India van was waiting for our arrival.

As soon as we arrived, a crowd of women began to line up for their medicines/medical support. The van arrives in the same area every 10 days, and women are notified via text (thats technology for you) of its whereabouts. I was amazed by the fact that although it was pouring and crowded by unknown Americans, these women were in line for services for some longer than an hour. This to me showed the desparity of health care among poor individuals and that anything they can get is worth the wait. Due to the rain AmeriCares India improvised by setting up shop in a small dark garage and then began taking height, weight, age and symptoms which then the doctor spent 3-5 minutes with each patient distributing medicaiton.

Due to the large size of the group and small space it was difficult to be helpful to our full potential, but observing how AmeriCares India take action, changing their initial plans and followin their overall objective of providing care to their potential was facinating.

Coming from an Indian background, my family and I have visited India multiple times over the past 23 years. I have done the whole schmeal of riding the elephant, admiring the Taj Mahal, eating street food, shopping till my suitcase bursts, and of course visiting my grandparents, but I have NEVER had the opportunity to be so close and personable with the poverty and issues India faces. I feel as if my past summers in India were overly sheltered and that I have been missing out on the real India. By coming to India with our group, and not being surrounded by family this experience as allowed me to finally look beyond this wall and face the realities of this country. I keep asking myself what I can do to help? After finishing my MPH , what can I do to help, where do you start? How many challenges did AmeriCares India face to get to where they are now? As these questions begin to fill my head, it is now finally time to get some rest and start a new day of adventures tomorrow.

Goodnight everyone, and thank you for reading! Tomorrow we will be visiting Astha Parivar and providing sex workers training in menstration, breast cancer and menopause. I am excited to see our plan in action.

- Rashi