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NOTES FROM THE FIELD
Kenya's Doctors Without Inhibitions
Nairobi's top doctors serve 3,500 patients in a rural town free of charge
By VISHAL SHAH
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| A crowd of 3,500 gather for the free medical camp organized by the Hindu Council of Kenya in March, 2003. |
COMPLETE PHOTO GALLERY: Thumbnails | Slideshow
Organized by Mr. Shantilal P Shah, this medical took place in Kitui, a small town of 30,000 people in the semi-arid region of the Eastern Province of Kenya in March 2003. Kenya's Minister of Health, Charity Ngilu, born and raised in Kitui, came to grace the occasion.
There were 50 professionals involved--about 40 doctors--and 100 other volunteers and well-wishers. The day involved an early start with a 3 hour bus journey from Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, not to mention the time it took to get ahead of the crowd which was already a quite big by early morning.
All the patients had to get registered first; they were then directed to different departments based on their ailments--general problems, eyes, ENT (Ear Nose Throat) and Dental.
There was also a surgery where small operations were carried out.
About 3,500 patients were treated and dispensed medicine. It was a long day for them and the volunteers, but both parties persevered with a smile. The children of the town also got free worm medicine and mosquito nets (donated by the Jain Bhavan, which is a small community of Jains). This was a big hit given the persistent malaria problem in the area. The townsfolk all received packets of cornmeal, cooking fat and salt too.
The amount of effort that goes on behind the scenes in these camps is phenomenal. All the volunteers had to be fed and kept hydrated. This was all done by an efficient support team.
At the end of the day everyone returned with a great sense of accomplishment at affecting the few lives that they did.
These camps serve as a great model for the delivery of health services to rural areas where the government machinery has broken down, and development experts can take a lesson from the way these camps are done when designing projects for the delivery of health care in developing countries. It allows for cheap, flexible delivery to targeted areas--and if done with consistency, it can even replace the need for having expensive but ineffective dispensaries run by the government. The government should design such camps that allow doctors to operate in forgotten areas and deliver services at regular intervals.
Camp Organizer: Shantilal P Shah has been organizing such camps for the last decade under the aegis of the Hindu Council of Kenya which is the umbrella body for the Hindu organizations in Kenya. He is a 68 year old philanthropist with the energy of a 25 year old. Mr. Shah usually averages a 2-3 camps a year, in a variety of locations. Though he is not a doctor, he has had great support from local Hindu doctors, as well as the Hindu entrepreneurs who sponsor his camps. The camps are done from a purely humanitarian point of view and there is no proselytizing involved.
The legwork for the camps includes getting in touch with the local government of the area involved and liaising with them on the arrangements, publicity in that area, getting donations of medicines from locals pharmaceutical companies, finding sponsors to fund the logistics of the camp (the doctors give their services for free), and finally the immense logistics of nitty-gritty tasks like organizing the pharmacy and the food.
This camp was paid for by Shantilal P Shah in honor of the memory of his wife and mother.
For more information about this medical camp or future camps, please contact:
Shruti Shah or Vishal Shah, Diamond Technology Partners
Submit your NOTES FROM THE FIELD to webmaster@foreignaid.com.
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Copyright
© 2003 Foreign Aid Ratings |
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