Arrival

Hello! I’ve been in India for over two weeks now. When I first arrived, I spent a day with Ach’s family in a city called Valsaad. I think it’s comparable to a city like Daytona or something like that. It’s not quite a town—definitely a larger city, but definitely more of hick mentality. The next day they dropped me off in Dharampur—a town about 45 minutes away. The doctor I am working with lives in the town, but her office and clinic is 2 kilometers away in a much more rural area on a river. There are villages that surround her clinic and this town, but given their proximity to Dharampur, they don’t quite qualify as rural. If you were plopped right into the middle of the village, you would want to classify them as rural villages, however, these people have easy access to the town resources and are thus classified as “semi-urban” even though there is nothing urban looking about them.

Since the day I arrived, I’ve been working in these villages conducing a Maternal and Child Health survey. The questions are centered around maternal health seeking behavior. In other words, the survey looks at illnesses in the household and where they went for treatment. Aside from illness, we look closely at reproductive issues, including everything from menstruation, to pregnancy, to delivery, to menopause. This is where it becomes evident that these villages are semi-urban. Most households seek medical care for any illness. A good number are even able to afford private health care. Most of the households were poor, but from my perspective, I would say that very few would have qualified as below the global poverty line (below the World Bank’s Dollar a Day standard). Majority of the homes were huts, but most were well equipped with furniture, televisions, farm animals, fans and running water. Honestly, I would prefer them to my cockroach infested NYC apartment!

About half of the people we surveyed had heard of AIDS and knew what it was. I think the number might even be higher but women may have been shy to respond. Still, there is much to be done, but I was pretty satisfied with what I saw. The important thing is that these villages have access.

Once a week we do a mobile clinic. These clinics extend health care to the truly rural areas. The people on these lands are generally oppressed tribal groups that have been pushed off onto unfarmable land, and in many cases, can be geographically isolated. There are villages, for example, that are completely cut off during heavy monsoon due to lack of proper roads and bridges. The difference between the villages I have been surveying, and the one for the mobile clinic is just outstanding. These people are not only poorly educated, but also have little world exposure. Their understanding of their body, health, and therefore healthcare, is extremely limited. One example of what mean by world exposure is that, Daxa Auntie (the doctor I work with) took tribal children on a field trip to the beach. Two boys emptied their water bottles and filled them with seawater. When she asked them what they were doing, they told her they were so amazed that water could taste so salty without needed to put salt in it, that they wanted to take some home to show their families.