Report compiled and presented by Alagappan. Thanks dude!

About the Location:

 

Location: Annai Sathya Nagar, Chepauk, Chennai

Date: 26 March 2011

 

The area is located opposite to Island Grounds and Old Secretariat and between Marina beach and Port Trust. Around 200 families are residing in this area and most of the people are coolies. To say in a line this area is a pakka slum (no drainage facilities, small small huts, solid wastes and garbage's dumped near their huts). All are living in a very unhygienic condition. We are surprised/shocked to see this area in the center of city that too opposite to old Secretariat.

 

Overview about the camp:

 

The motto of this camp was to distribute the PBS ID card and to screen/check up the children health in Annai Sathya Nagar. This area was already surveyed by Disha/Ekam volunteers and the children details are collected and included in the PBS scheme. Also the plan was to enroll new children who were not in the list and give them the ID booklet.

 

Volunteers are asked to assemble directly at the camp site at 8.45 am. Raman reached the place well in advance at 8.00 am itself. He came without having his breakfast thinking of having at the camp site (since camp is in city limit). But unfortunately there was no hotels around this area. So he filled his stomach with snacks pocket and tender coconut. At once he reached the site, he met local coordinators there and confirmed a room for conducting the camp. Between 8.45 am – 9.30 am, all the volunteers have who have registered in the site, reached the place one by one. And few volunteers (Naren, Jothi...) also didn't have their breakfast. Krishnamoorthy along with a doctor reached around 10.15am to the camp. Around 11.30 am, a lady doctor also joined the camp.

 

Everyone got assembled in a room provided by the local coordinators. That room is used for conducting tutions to the children residing there. Though a tubelight and a fan is available in that room, the room looked dark and we asked for any alternative rooms if available. Then local coordinators suggested an alternative room which is a church. That new room was good enough to conduct the medical camp activities.

 

The camp started with a detailed orientation about PBS scheme from Jothi to the people who gathered in Church. Initially half of the room was occupied by the people and the remaining half we managed for the medical camp activities (Booklet distribution, height/weight checkup, screening with doctors, medicine distribution). As we could not able to control the crowd, we asked all the people to wait outside the room and allowed ten ten people inside.

 

We struggled a lot in the room at the beginning of the camp as there are many confusions (like columns in the excel sheet that has PBS children details got messed up, non coordination of the people...). We resolved the issues one by one and continued the camp.

 

Once children details are verified in our excel list, ID card booklet is distributed and the missing details of the children were collected. Also for new enrollments, PBS unique number is generated and given the ID booklet on the spot. Then the children along with their parents were directed to height, weight and mid-arm checkup and then redirected to any of the doctors. The doctors diagnosed the children and based on the prescription, medicines were distributed. Doctors also referred few children to ICH, Egmore for further diagnosis and treatment. Orientation and the use of the PBS books were explained to the people when they leave the camp.

 

The camp ended around 2 pm and overall the camp was good and we screened around 180 children. At last satisfaction matters, that I hope everyone attained it fully.

 

Volunteer and their Roles:

 

      1. Raman - Coordinator of the camp and organized the overall activities in the camp.

 

      1. Jyothi - Organizer of the camp and given orientation about PBS scheme to all people. Also initially she has taken the work of finding the children PBS booklet that we have matching the children details.

 

      1. Uma – She used to clarify the doubts raised by the volunteers who are entering booklets. She filled the booklets the previous day itself for already enrolled children. And she worked in the overall organization of the camp.

 

      1. Bhooma/Sathish/Shankar – All three had taken the job of finding the children name in the excel sheets and verified & filled the missing details of each children. Also they have split up their works and involved in making new enrollments and distributed the ID booklets to the child's parents. (One more volunteer who joined in between the camp and involved himself in taking photographs of the children who were newly enrolled)

 

      1. Naren – Solely taken the responsibility of checking height, weight and midarm measuremnts for each and every children and redirected them to the doctors.

 

      1. Manoj/Alagappan – Taken care of distribution of medicines and helped in organizing/directing the people from getting ID booklet till orientation.

 

Facts and Figures:

 

Total no of PBS children = 273 (187 + 86 new enrollments)

Total no of children screened: 82+86=168

Cards only issued: 19

Cards yet to be issued: 86 + 11 new enrollments ( cards were not available for them)

No. of referrals - 2

 

Lessons Learnt:

 

      1. Volunteers to be advised to have the break fast before entering the camp site

 

      1. Excel sheet to be double checked that it got printed correctly and if possible letter size can be increased

 

      1. Well planning to be made before allowing the people to enter the room and to predict the space needed for all the medical camp activities.

 

 

Appreciations:

      1. Uma – She reduced lot of work in the camp site by filling all the PBS booklets the previous day for already enrolled children. Hats off to her !!!!!

This was the last medical camp as she is about to leave Chennai. Hope she will get her remark in Service wherever she goes. We all miss such a dedicated person...

 

      1. Jothi – She is known for her voice and the orientation given by her to the crowd and to the individuals are really appreciable !!!!!

 

      1. Raman - He has put lot of efforts in getting the people outside the room and allowing one by one and has done a good job in overall coordination of the camp. Keep Going !!!!!

 

      1. Bhooma/Sathish/Shankar/Naren – No one can find that this is the first/second camp for these volunteers as they all did their jobs very well as experienced persons. Though people fall over to these volunteers (as they are enrolling the details & measuring ht&wt), these volunteers handled the people softly and patiently. Kudos to All !!!!!

 

      1. Krishnamoorthy – We need not to say anything about him as he is doing this as a full time job. Thats really Great !!!!!

 

      1. Alagappan/Manoj – Did a wonderful and a perfect job in distributing medicines and in coordinating the people !!!!!

 

      1. Doctors – Could not find word to appreciate the doctors as they did a very excellent job !!!!!

 

 




From Archana

First I would like to thank GOD for given me a day to spend with Disha and Ekam Foundation( on 12/03/2011 ).

It was really a nice experience to be with u ppl, who dedicated their life to the children and charity.

Every night, when I go to Bed, I will think my whole day. But, I'll conclude myself that nothing I did today. On that day(medical camp @ Vysarpadi ), I really felt, today(12/03) I satisfied God’s will in my life.

Ppl from diff cities, states, places came and v all united and made that day the most colorful day in my life.

As we all love Babies the most , We got a two child Specialist Doctors ( Vindya from Chennai Egmore hospital and Saurov from MCC ).

I got inspired by them, the way they talked with the children and their mom. Free medicines were provided by Ekam Foundation.

We can easily say that I need to help ppl like this like that .. But Disha and Ekam Came forward and they are rocking now..

My hearty wishes for the Both Disha and Ekam to succeed in all their ways and Thanks a lot for making me to feel the presence of God in the Activities you ppl have done

( Helping hands are more powerful than praying lips )



Thanks and Regards,

Archana Ravichandran



From Manoj

Dear Friends That was a long Day,
 
Date : 04/02/2010
 
Location : folowing places near Thirukalukundram  i) Irular Colony ii) anna nagar & MGR nagar ii) Manampathi Rice mills.
 
Action: PBS card distribution & individual photographing for insurance ID card for area's/kids covered by earlier medical camps.
 
Actors: Balaji, Kamesh, Ram, Jyothi, Uma, Krishnamurthy(a)Krish(EKAM) & Manoj(me).
 
Brief: We started for the mission on a white Ambassador Convoyed by Krishnamurthy & Ram and reached the irular colony by 10:45 AM and started distributing the PBS cards.
we formed four teams whereas.
Team 1 : Me & Kamesh  // filling the PBS details & the master sheet
Team 2 : Uma & Ram  // filling the PBS details & the master sheet
Team 3 : Krish & Balaji  // shooting(foto) the kids
Team 4: Jyothi // Making aware by speaking !!
                          with the parents about the uses !!
                         of the PBS & the directions !!
                          to use for the right purpose.
 
Destination Brief Irular Colony:
 We covered around 40 Kids and our local coordinators were helping in arranging the kids & the Parents for the camp. we have finished by 1200hrs & left for a place near anna nagar, a small group of huts. Since the no. of kids is very low,  team 2, 3 & 4 went to action leaving Team 1 were doing moral boost up for other teams.....meanwhile some people were interested in puliyankai(Tamarind)....
 
Destination Brief Anna Nagar & Mgr Nagar:
We had reached the destination around 1330hrs and straight away rushed in for lunch & it was a good one....we learnt that not to estimate one's apetite by their looks once again....
here we started the camp by 1400hrs and finished around 16:20hrs & left for rice mill area. The place around this area was exotic..
 
Destination Brief Manampathi Ricemills:
this was the last place of the day. the same no. of teams were into action once again. The kids & labourers were seem to be more deserving than other areas. we distributed the clothes(brought by Ram) to those people & they were very happy to recieve,,though some kids felt sad as their turn went in vain.......We have named a 1.5 yr old girl in one of the rice mill.....
 
Summary:
Overall we have covered around 170 kids & some parents(clothing) in our mission and obvious I must have to individually praise the following:
 
Balaji: we picked him up on the way at thiruporur & was very active & "kadamai yae kannaai irunthaar..."
 
Kamesh: Inspite of his delay to go his native, he supported till the end without haste.
 
Ram: He both acted in team & organised the crew, a real multi tasker & was very serious in action...
 
Krish: There will be always difference between a professional & a amateur... he showed that he is a professional....in also 
                       climbing tamarind trees.... 
 
Jyothi: She was literally commanding the parents about the hygiene & well making of the kids and she has a sound oppurtunity in  
           Tirukalukkundram Assy seat....:)
 
Uma: Sniffing out her presence is very difficult, a silent killer in both activity & kalaikarathu......A very dedicated person
 
& finally
 Manoj : _______________________________________________________________________ fill up the blanks.
 
Regards,
Manoj Anandhan


Updates from Uma

Simply superb report Manoj :-) But u 've damaged me hear and there ;-(

Manoj - _______Flexible with any work. Even though he hasn't sleep properly at night (gone to mokka tamil cinema ) he was very active (His own comment: "kadamainu vandutta kalathula erangiduvom" ),admired the nature and had cat-nap whenever he got the 'cycle gap' :-)  _____

It's our pleasure to thank him to sponsored the snacks :-)

Unlike other camps Jothi was in relax and enjoyed this as a tour. As Raman has took care of all the coordination she has channelize her full energy into the orientation to the parents.

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" Oh God ! I haven't prepared for the exam.
Even I don't know the syllabus of the exam.
But I have to answer all the questions. I have to get the high score.
Please Help me God ! "

It was the most of our cherished wish in our school and college days.

This is continuing even after enter into the profession , while being a scribe to the students who are living in the world of musics.
we are not preparing anything (of course not preparing the bit papers too) , don't know the syllabus at all  but we are looking for the good marks.

Once we have committed as a scribe, our personal, professional works will feel bit worry because of our least preference. We are betting with traffic jams,some of us are giving up the breakfast, lunch to Chronos (God of time) and meeting the student in the college and starting the exam with a amazing feeling.

It is very splendid to be a eye/ pen to the these students.
We are enjoying the writing even if the student is answering so fast and adjusting our speed accordingly.
We are rejoicing much more than the student at the moment we are hearing their score.

But what is happening on frequently?
Scribes wish to paint the paper by the musics from the students. But as the music is keeping silent they are unable to paint.

Frankly the student is saying, "I'm not prepared well", "get the answer from the other students" , " Just copy the answer from the book".

Where is the fault ? How the students got this mentality ?
Does lack of readers / other resources set this attitude ? or the scribe's sympathy ?? or their laziness ???

some times scribes are in the situation to write by them-self or to copy other material because to satisfy themselves by writing atleast for 1/2 hour as they were  traveled more than an hour to reach the place. They are also forced by the students to do the malpractice. In the exam hall  the sympathy is most of the time winning in a debate with probity.

After finishing the exam also they are getting the unwanted SMS from the students .The scribes will be frustrated and set their mind that all the students are like that only , writing exam to them are simply the waste of time.This will make a difficult situation that students who are really in need would not get the scribes.

Some times the scribes are going back to their resident without writing the exam as the students are not coming for the  exam without intimating to the committed  scribe or the students  will arrange the multiple scribes for a single exam and asking the another  scribe that ," I have a scribe , no need of your help today... ".

Besides scribe the persons who are all arranging the scribes too are facing the difficulties because of the students' irresponsibility. The students are reaching the scribe on the day before  the exam ; they are not telling that they are in need of scribes on the day they are getting their timetable. some times they are missing to inform that if there is any rescheduling of their exam.

Students are not realizing their responsibility and are getting the degree without the basic knowledge in their subjects.What is the different of pursuing the degree and discontinue the studies after schooling? For them Just for saying, " I'm a graduate "
The student might be happy for getting a fish without knowing fishing
but how long he / she going to preserve a single fish ?

To addressing this , we the
individuals and organizations working towards the welfare of the visually challenged students have organized  a orientation session for the visually challenged students at Madras university on 29th Jan 2011.you can get the  details and audio files  at our teamzone (Courtesy: Keerthi )

We are looking for the impact of the session and hope for a positive change in the society of visually challenged !


Regards,
Uma



Gopalakrishnan:

1) I made my first debut with Disha at QMC for the student _______ today

The exam went well

So much for writing the exam.

Well I thought I would share some more on this

 As for the scribe :

 That was nice experience

We were served cool lime juice and even paid a fee of Rs.65/- !!!

The staff was understanding too.

As for the student :

The student did not seem that prepared because at many times, they paused

Further the paper being in English and on English, the student needs ot be translated into tamil

To get them understand it.

As for the exam :


Well it was ok

Fortunately for me, the paper was on English grammar

And since I knew a bit on that, I managed to fill in where the student gave up

So are we, scribes allowed ot help the student  like this ?

Typically I would say that I had helped her to get marks by answering them based on my knowledge !!!

The exam scheduled for 3 hrs, we completed it in 1.30 mins

However the student was a bit worried as, I finished the exam in just 90 mins on just 5 sides and did not take any additional !!!

May be she could be right

But I tried my best to fill and that was all there to answer.- u see my handwriting is very small – I even tried writing big !!!

But I did not wan tto fill up everything least the examiner may smell a rat in this

The exam hall was literally void of breeze despite located close to beach !!


I was almost wet with sweat but I was well prepared for that

Looking forward for my next exam on 23.04.2010

I have asked to “ go through a few notes “ I f I can before I appear for the exam !!

Just joking – I offered to help the student if I needed to learn something

_____________________________________________________________


2) Well today I was a good boy J

Obedient and silent :-p

 Well it seems the candidate’s preparation was not so good this time

I managed to fill in 6 sheets  - that was all coming out of her

I managed to convince her to at least tell in Tamil , so that I can convert in English and write but in vain

This paper seems to have been tough to her compared to the previous one – the questions were a bit technical

 
As usual, waited till my lemonade came, finished it, submitted the answer sheet and left for the day

Well I felt a bored as she was taking a long time ot answer

So I managed to nap in the middle :-p

So much for today’ experience

 

Guess that’s all I can do in the weekdays as of now

Anything for the weekends, let me know

 ********************


N.Alagappa:

Thanks for giving me a wonderful opportunity!
Really it felt good to be a part of a noble cause and I love to involve more in such activities.


********************

Ramkumar :

1) The student ________ and myself did not get a chair to sit and proceed with exam on time. We were waiting for 20 min after the exam had started for others , to get the chair. The school authorities could have been more pro active in ensuring that the student has proper facilities.

2) The person _________ did not know even a single answer for the questions asked and when I asked her why she did not prepare, she replied back saying that she could not find any readers for reading sessions and hence she did not prepare. I felt she was not to be blamed, but I wasn't sure on how to write the exam!!quite a tough situation.


********************

Manian:

1) Completed the scribe for today’s (8/11/10) exam. The student did not know answer for any of the questions and in all probability is bound to fail. Also for the questions he provided answers, my instinct says they are incorrect.

The student was requesting me to write down something. I did not want to submit an empty paper, so made up some answers for the subject that I am not knowledgeable on.

I know this is against the scribing ethics, but could not help.
The experience was good. Even though I knew some of the answers provided by the student were wrong, I could not help because I myself did not know the answer:-)

___________________________________________________________

 
Elakkiya was a nice student and friendly. She could not answer some of the sections, maybe due to lack of preparation.
 
On the exam administration side, the admin staff guided me to a teacher who was supposed to introduce me to the student. She instead asked me to follow some other teacher who was apparently new to the school and did not know the Elakkiya. Finally I took help of another student who brought in the girl and also arranged for seat in the lobby for taking up the exam.
 

********************


Feed back from Neeraja through Kalyan:

Friends, I would like to share the feedback given by one of our scribes, Neeraja.
 
She saw one or two instances of scribes writing the exams with their own knowledge.
 
She feels very bad about this.
 
Lets continue the practice of requesting scribes to discourage malpractices.
 

********************


Naren:

I have been to a scribing session only once at Pachiappas College a couple of months back and don't remember the name of the student for whom I wrote the exam.  I had an embarrassing day as the student for every question just outlined the story he heard from someone and wanted me to write the entire exam in my own words !!! An alarming situation I felt....

I had no idea about the answers and had to struggle and instead of being the helper i desperately wanted to be helped !!!  I feel something should be done to take up the task of reading / mentoring these students in a holistic manner rather than the slipshod system of reading it out alone.  Can someone do something about this ???


********************

Kamesh:

My feedback abt that student, __________ is that he is little bit lack of knowledge in English. He is trying to make a sentence. But it ends with little mistake, grammatically. Among 50marks test, he have attended for only 25 marks. I think there are 2 chapters for this test(1. Grecian Urn and 2. Invocation).  He informed that he didnt get any notes/cassettes(medium of his studies) for the chapter,'Grecian Urn'. He mentioned that staff also didnt teach that chapter. So only he have attended the question, which came from the chapter, invocation. He prepared for the test to some extent only... It may be due to opening of college late, new environment(he completed his schooling in salem and he is new to chennai),... Attitude wise, he is good.

My suggestion is that we(volunteers) can take English grammar also during saturday at that time of reading session. My friend, Indhu from TCS, went for 1 tamil exam in 1st week of August thru DISHA foundation. She also told that the student didnt frame the sentence properly, even in tamil language. So she got info from that student and framed the sentence correctly and then wrote it in paper.

 This type of session will improve the basic knowledge in English/Tamil like framing the sentence with proper tense....
 It would be nice, if DISHA team considers this small suggestion.
 Please let me know if you have anything else...

********************


Anuradha:

I went to scribe for ________ yesterday to quaide milath college
very bad,i am extremely disappointed

it is their model exam..and their university board exam is only 3 weeks away..._________did not know the answer for even one question
not only _________, there were 2 other girls sitting in front of us who dint know anything...their scribes were also disappointed like me
i felt it was big time waste for me...
i am not complaining... i m only giving feedback...
so it will help in the future

********************


Saravanan:

It went well today - for __________'s English exam. But I still feel that more emphasis should be given during the reading. Somehow we should convert the scribe to teacher (reader) as much as we could.

Thanks for the opportunity to help.

********************


Ajith kumar:

The candidate RameshBabu had indeed prepared very well and had answers for all questions asked (The exam took four 4 hours and 10 mins with 35 pages written J) – Apparently he had taken Sociology as the major discipline in both B.A and M.A and therefore was able to be fluent with his answers.

By the way, it seems he has got his HOD approved the G.O – that visually challenged gets an additional 20 minute for a one–hour exam. So 4 hours for a three hour exam. This information may be useful to help other visually challenged students btw.

He fared very well.

********************


Jacob:

Happy to be of service to the unprivileged group of the society .  Hats off to your initiative  for making the world a "Better place to live "


********************


Fermie:


 I had already been to the same school for scribing last year.

Remembered only after I reached. So dint have problems finding the place too. J

Sheela had prepared very well and it was really a good experience to scribe for her. J


From Disha team to Fermi:

Hi Fermie !!

U know what.. Just now student Govindraj called us, for whom you had scribed sometime back..
In the exam that u ve scribed for him, he has scored his highest - 84% !!

He has been wanting to thank you, but for some strange reason, he has not been able to reach u over call...
He conveyed his thanks and wishes :-) and we convey ours too :-)

Best Regards


********************


Balaji:

Im in peak of happiness , to knw that im gonna volunteer for a good cause , im thankful for both of you in deed.
Im Glad and happy for the same.
I deeply respect and proud for the service  you are involved in.
Wishing to join hands with both of you and your foundation in all services wit you as far as possible.


********************


Prabhu:

Is this called going to an exam without notes, preparation and bits of paper and expecting to get a good score! :) It was nice writing the exam for Sai Lakshmi today. Her world was kinder and understanding.

I solely depend on reading to acquire knowledge, and it's really fascinating how these guys manage without vision.

Thank you for the opportunity.
********************

Selvakumar Gopalan


It was a wonderful opportunity given to me to scribe for Ramesh. At the beginning before meeting him I was bit nervous as it was my first time to scribe, once I met him it was cool I had a chat with him before the exam after everything went well between us.

Ramesh was very good in reproducing the things what he has prepared for the exam, and he was very slow and clear.I had a very nice experience spending time with him and scribing for him.Thanks for providing me such an opportunity. I wish to do this continuously whenever I get a chance.


********************

Lokesh

It was a wonderful experience. Raja told everything like how to write, where to end. Even I didn’t feel, I was writing for visually challenged 

No strain at all. He repeated everything twice.  I hope I will continue my help till the end.


********************

Priyanka

I had a very good experience to Scribe for Kalaiarasi  ,She was able to reproduce what she studied and I had no pain to scribe for her,

I feel glad that I had got an opportuntity from u  to Scribe, I will be even more glad if you inform this activity everytime  ,

so that whenever I get time I can spend my time with these visually Challenged people an help them the fullest.

********************


Elaborate feedbacks of  Krithika   Hema Swamy

Tags:



scribe today.. woha!!

  • Jan. 28th, 2011 at 10:47 AM


From Krithika (Scribe)
 
Today was a perfect run around day for me.. i started from IIT at 7.45 and reached central at 8.45 got train to thirunindravur at 9 and the train went went went went went went went..... on and on.. it was 10 when i crossed villivakkam.. and heard there was "lot more" to go.. got tensed called and kept on bugging anu.. (:-( sorry anu.. ) then after getting tensed to the point of getting down and running the train slowly "walked" till avadi.. and then "got tired" (athanga break down... !!) i was trained (not just doomed.. :-) )
the time was 10.10 my pressure was un countable.. god.. in my mind i was asking 100 sorrys to the person for whom i am going to write.. i felt very bad for being irresponsible (have i been like that really??) got out of train.. jumped over the fence in the railway station sprained my leg :-( got into a running auto paid him 170 to go to college..
the driver was whining soooo much to come till there.. then told him the cause and said he will get his share of goodwill for being part of this.. rushed and got dropped half a km before the college.. (such a brat that driver was.. :-( ) then ran to the max possible speed i have ever run in my life with that sparained leg.. (leg got swollen.. :-( )
went rushed it was tamil exam my fav started writing encouraged her to keep telling at her normal talking speed.. (she was stunned at my writing speed .. :-) ) we finished the exam first at 12.45 in the exam hall decorated and gave the paper to the invigilator and walked out proudly..
 
I didn tell her i got hurt in my leg and all.. took her with me got her a juice.. it was damn scroching hot.. and got her into the train.. by that time my leg had swollen like anything.. then got my train came back to central couldn walk at all so again got an auto from there to IIT came went straight to a medical shop got tablets, combiflam cream.. appliedand slept from 2.30 to 6.30.. as good as a dead man.. whoof.. what can we call this day pa??
 
About exam center:
  1. they provided water
  2. there was proper invigilaton
  3. the class room was verrrrrrrrrrrrrrryyyyy bad to sit and write.. it was absolutely hot that ur hands started stickking to paper...
  4. the class room was dirty as usual..
about the student:
 
she did not know a lot of things.. her preparation was weak.. she has come to write B.Ed exam.. but shee did not know to answer questions like ,
" ஒரு சிறந்த பட நூல் எவ்வாறு இருக்க வேண்டும்?
கல்வியின் முக்கியத்துவத்தை விளக்கு?"
i felt very bad because she will be teaching innocent kids soon.. the answers i wrote were shocking..  it was paining a little to see this (not as much as my leg though!)
 
happy to help
kriTHIka


Medical camp at Laborer camp , Chepauk

  • Jan. 27th, 2011 at 9:39 AM

From Uma

O
n last Saturday (22nd Jan 2011) , instead of looking the wealth of our Secretariat building we have a look at the health of the children of construction laborers who has given the real image  from the blue print to the building. After a necessitates from the local NGO co-ordinator Ms.Geetha ma'm we had a medical camp in the laborer camp and it's our first camp which has been conducted in  afternoon  section.
While we the volunteers Sudha (co-ordinator) , Manoj (sub-coordinator) , Alagappan (Experienced volunteer) , kannabiran (new volunteer), myself and krishnamurthy (Ekam - staff) are  reaching the place , the local coordinator Ms.Logitha of Stella marry's college who is doing this as her internship of her MSW degree  &  her team mates have gathered the children. In order to keep the children in the venue they have provide chocolates, biscuits :-)

As the children are hails from different states of India, we heared the symphony of Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, Oriya. Sudha, Alagappa and  Kannabiran revealed their multi-lingual knowledge to get  the informations  from the children..

Manoj has taken his ownership on medicine distribution. Along with Logitha he has conveyed the instructions to the parents / guardians in Hindi, Telugu. While they struck with the child who is from Orissa ,another child who is our beneficiary joining with them. She has translated instructions of krishnamurthy, Logitha into Oriyya in an amazing manner without missing the points :-)

Thank God, we never faced any difficulty because of the language constraints.

Dr.Venkat Subramanian  of Mehta hospital who is the only doctor of this camp too enjoyed and  took each and every child with a special care. Among 32 children most of them have the vitamin /iron deficiencies & we got one hospital referral (Name: Neelaveni, Age: 12 yr, Diagnosis: Murmuring in aorta , Ref. Hospital : ICH ). The doctor gave much important in this case and noted down our contact number to get the follow-up details in future.

Dr. Venkat sir, we are saluting you with heart felt gratitude for your grace and care.

Overall we have enjoyed this short camp with fun filling events !

Voices of volunteers:

Alagappan:

        It is really a nice experience.. Adding few more points to Uma's mail.......

        Kannabiran and Manoj reached the place earlier and was making the arrangements in getting chairs,
        tables and gathering children. Kannabiran have bought large   amount of biscuits and distributed to
        the children in  order to keep them in the venue. Thanks to him.


        Logitha and her team are doing a great work there. Interesting thing is they knew all the children and
        their parents too. Many children have come to the venue with out their parents as their parents all
        went to work. 

        Logitha and team has noted down the medicines given to the children. Hats off to them !!


Sudha:

        Myself and Uma was sitting for entering the students details in case-let book...
        we find it very difficult to understand their language :(
        (those children were multilingual..... :))

        Somehow we learnt to ask their name and parents name in their language.... :)

        Student coordinators were so good and Ms.Logitha controlled the group very well.. hats off to her team....

Kannabiran:

      The medical camp was successful , fun, enjoyable and nice experience for me..
      As i know telugu language ..it  is used for me on the day to talk with children and get to know their health
      problem  .. then i conveyed to doctor ..

Manoj:

    
This is one of the quickest camp and was enjoyable...Some enjoyed along with Good snacks :P


Medical camp - summery

  • Jan. 27th, 2011 at 9:36 AM

 Medical Camp 13

Date & Place:  September 4th @ Pulikaradu, EastTambaram

Volunteers: Sathish, Raman, Mrs.Viji, Lakshmi & her mom , Mohana

Camp in-Charge: Ravindar

Background: Poor children  - non PBS

Referral ORG: Forward

Camp Update:No. of children screened is 108, out of which 6 were identified for OP Care. No child was diagnosed with any major health problem. Medication was provided at the camp for children who are ailed by anemia, iron / vitamin / nutrition deficiency.


See the photos

(Read more from Ravindar's camp report...)



 
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Medical Camp 14 (PBS)

Date & Place:  October 23rd @ Tsunami Kudiyiruppu

Volunteers: Anitha, santosh Roy, Aniruddha, Vishnu priya, Manoj, Suresh

Camp in-Charge: Jothi

Background: Fishermen families

Referral ORG: Arunothaya

Camp Update: No. of children screened is 98, out of which 1 were identified for OP Care. No child was diagnosed with any major health problem. Medication was provided at the camp for children who are ailed by anemia, iron / vitamin / nutrition deficiency.



(Read more from Jothi's camp report...)

 
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Medical Camp 15 (PBS)

Date & Place: November 13th  @ Zoo maidanam

Volunteers: Sudha, Balaji, Aniruddha, Alagappan, Vani

Camp in-Charge: Jothi

Background: children of coolie labors

Referral ORG: Pennurimai iyakkam

Camp Update:No. of children screened is 64, out of which 7 were identified for OP Care. No child was diagnosed with any major health problem. Medication was provided at the camp for children who are ailed by anemia, iron / vitamin / nutrition deficiency.


See the photos

(Read more from Aniruddha''s camp report...)

 
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Medical Camp 16

Date & Place: November 20th  @ pallavaram

Volunteers: Sudha, Porselvi, Vasudevan, Santosh Roy, Alagappan

Camp in-Charge: Jothi

Background: Narikuravas

Referral ORG:  Narikurarar nalvaazhvu iyakam

Camp Update:  No child was diagnosed with any major health problem. Medication was provided at the camp for children who are ailed by anemia, iron / vitamin / nutrition deficiency.


See the photos
 
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Medical Camp 17 (PBS)

Date & Place: December 4th  @ Thalayaripalayam, Gumidipoondi

Volunteers:  Balaji, Manoj, Alagappan, Krishnadasan, Sathish, Santosh Roy, Uma, Jagan parthiban

Camp in-Charge: Jothi

Background: poor children

Referral ORG: Sarpam

Camp Update: No. of children screened is 183, out of which 13 were identified for OP Care. No child was diagnosed with any major health problem. Medication was provided at the camp for children who are ailed by anemia, iron / vitamin / nutrition deficiency.



See the photos
 
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Medical Camp 18

Date & Place: December 18th  @ Pudupet, kannagi nagar

Volunteers: Vadivazhagan, Manoj, saravana selvan, Pragathi, Mallikarjun

Camp in-Charge: Uma & Sudha

Background: Slum area

Referral ORG: Pennurimai Iyakkam

Camp Update: No. of children screened is 97, out of which 2 were identified for OP Care. No child was diagnosed with any major health problem. Medication was provided at the camp for children who are ailed by anemia, iron / vitamin / nutrition deficiency.


See the photos

 
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Medical Camp 19


Date & Place: January 22nd  @ Laborer camp, Near by secretariat

Volunteers: Alagappan, Kannabiran, Uma

Camp in-Charge: Sudha & Manoj

Background: Children of construction laborers

Referral ORG: Tamilnadu Manual workers union  & students of MSW, Stella marry's college

Camp Update: No. of children screened is31, out of which 1  were identified for murmuring in heart. Medication was provided at the camp for children who are ailed by anemia, iron / vitamin / nutrition deficiency.
 
See the photos 

For camp recap click here

********************



 This was my third medical camp and was by no means any different from the previous two except for the fact that the target locality was different. In the previous two occasions we went to localities near the beach areas mainly covering children of fisherman community. This time we went to a locality near the new moor market for about seventy children of coolie laborers.

As usual the response from enthusiastic volunteers to participate in the camp was very encouraging. Though it was a Saturday morning and getting up early in the morning was tough I always have a feeling of contentment whenever I am on my way to participate for such noble cause. This really makes me forget the tiring week that has just passed by. I am quite sure other volunteers also felt the same.

This time there was no common meeting place for the volunteers but some of us met at Park station and then took a bus to the place. Some of the volunteers came on their own to the place. Unfortunately one of the volunteers could not locate the place and dropped out.

After we reached the place we had a little briefing by Jothi as to what were the tasks involved and who will do what. Most of the volunteers were first timers so this briefing was very much required. Except for me probably everyone knew Tamil so it was not much of a problem assigning the tasks. As I was well versed with height and weight check procedures I was willing to take it up but it seemed Jothi was not very keen on assigning me that task. She was saying “ I want you to learn the other tasks”. Anyways I was able to retain my job this time but don’t know for the next time. Jothi may have some other plans. Is that so, Jothi?

We had a small room so there was a bit of space problem. Anyway we arranged everything in such a way that we keep the crowd in check.

While Vadivazhagan verified the PBS details of the children, Balaji and Alagappan were involved in entering the children information in the two booklets. This task has its own share of adventure as some of the children or their parents will not be very sure about the date of birth and some of the other information that are required to be filled in the booklets. You have to ask them quite a few times before entering the details in the booklets. The three young men were very polite and collected the information with utmost patience. If anyone looked at them no will say that they were doing it for the first time. Good job, guys!

After the information was entered it was my turn to take the height & weight measurements of the children. Shanaz was kind enough to assist me on this. She would instruct the children as to how to stand for the height measurement and as I would read out the height and weight she would note it down in the two booklets. Generally children below the age of 5 are a bit difficult to handle. They would refuse to stand and may start crying if you touch them. But it’s fun to handle such small kids as they are very cute. Somehow we managed to get the measurements. Shanaz had another role to play, that of a photographer. At times she would be asked to take the photograph of a child whose photograph was not available in PBS records. Shanaz balanced both the tasks very well.

Next the children would be directed to the doctor for the check up. We had only one doctor in this camp. In spite of the fact that she was on night duty for the previous two nights she volunteered to come to the camp and did a wonderful job. Hats off to her! Later on Dr. Sailakshmi came to give her a break. Dr. Sailakshmi was very swift and worked with remarkable speed. On one occasion I saw her writing down the medical advice on the booklet and I was surprised to see her writing speed. Thanks to Dr. Sailakshmi we were able to proceed very fast and complete all the checkups.

Krishnamoorthy and Sudha were distributing the medicines. Sudha was sitting in one corner of room and it was very hot and stuffy out there. Sudha sat there without any break for the entire period of the camp. She did her job very patiently and was always with a smile. Krishnamoorthy as usual was very swift in distributing the medicines and advising about the dosage. At times I saw him putting in the kid’s mouth some kind of syrup that we all jokingly refer to as “rose water”.

Hold on! It’s not over yet. How can we finish off without speaking more about Jothi. She again did a great job of co-ordination and participated in all the tasks. But her specialty is in controlling the crowd. With the aid of her voice she can easily draw attention and silence a crowd. But this time she didn’t use it much.

The camp went on for almost two hours more than planned. At the end of it we were all tired and hungry. So we went to a hotel and had a good lunch.

As we all started our journey back home we knew that it was a day that was well spent. The little things that we do sometimes for others may not be a big deal for us but might bring a lot of difference to others. In this camp some of the kids were referred for further treatment to hospitals and will receive free treatment. We have helped them to live a healthy tomorrow!



Thanks,

Aniruddha



 



From Jothi



Thank you sooo much for your volunteerism and enthusiastic participation in the Tsunami Kudiyiruppu medical camp. :-) I would just like to recollect those wonderful moments once again...

With a few delays here and there, the team moved towards the camp venue. Luckily (should I say, 'promptly?’ :P), the team reached the place by ten(On time!). The NGO coordinators started gathering the children and the volunteers started arranging for the camp.

Let us now stop for a moment and get to know the names of the volunteers. There were six volunteers excluding myself and Krishnamoorthy. They are:

· Aniruddh (do not know Tamil)

· Vishnu Priya (Tamil korachu ariyum)

· Santhosh Roy (do not know Tamil)

· Anita (knows Tamil)

· Manoj (knows Tamil)

· Suresh (Thoda thoda maalum)

I was happy that all the volunteers were enthusiastic and were seriously ready for the camp. Was the camp satisfied their service appetite? They need to answer me…

When it came to divide responsibilities, I was a little shocked that only two of the volunteers (Anita and Manoj) know Tamil. How are we going to handle the Camp?

Anita and Manoj were part of the data entry work. :P They filled up the Medical Entry Booklet and the Case sheets. They also interacted well with the society. They took ownership and handled the crowd very well. In the midst of the camp, the entrance was over crowded and the mothers with little kids, who were standing out started yelling at each other. Manoj raised his voice and controlled the crowd. At the same time, when the crowd was small, I found Anita playing with the little children and Manoj trying to put nail polish to a child using his ball point pen. Hope they enjoyed the time well with kids.

Aniruddh and Vishnu Priya were the two people, who measured the height and weight of the children. Most of the children were below ten years. The children simply started crying and expressed their refusal in all ways possible, when they were made to stand on the weighing machine. Aniruddh and Vishnu started giving chocolates to the crying babies and this idea really worked well. They also did one other cutest thing. They just took the weight of the mother with the child and then measured the weight of the mother alone. Then, they easily found out the weight of the child by simply subtracting the two measurements. They just had a gala time throughout the camp. (In between, I also witnessed Aniruddh giving his instructions(which are supposed to be for the children ;-)) to Vishnu Priya in English and Vishnu Priya translated it for the child in her own Tamil. J

Let me thank the doctors Raju and Hema here. Both of them really had the patience to handle every case with care. They never took any break in between. At the beginning, they spoke in a low voice… After some time, I found ownership and authority in their tone. They gave specific advices to the mothers. It was also amusing to know that each and every mother complained that the child had cold and the child really did not even have the symptoms of catching cold.

Next comes our great volunteer Suresh, who knew thoda thoda Tamil… ;) He very well helped the doctors; entered the date details in the ID booklets, and guided the parents to the doctors and then to the medicines section. He did such a good job that everything went smooth in that area. Am just wondering how he managed to do all these things, when language could have been a barrier.

Medicine distribution was taken care of by Krishnamoorthy and Santhosh Roy. As we always know, Krishnamoorthy gave training to the new volunteer, Santhosh. Santhoh was ever smiling as his name indicated. He learnt things in the quickest pace. He was able to manage to distribute medicines even when Krishnamoorthy was not around. He just called me when handing over the medicines to the parents, just to orient them about the dosages, as he did not know Tamil. ;-)

Other than the medicine distribution, Krishnamoorhy played a vital role also in arranging the van, doctors and our lunch… J Sincere thanks to him…

Above narrated things were a very short overview of the camp. Hope it expresses the interest and involvement that every volunteer had during the camp. Some of them have also insisted again and again that they should be informed of and invited to the next camps… J

After screening 98 children, the camp was closed by two o’ clock, which is again an ontime closure. J



Referral details:

23-10-2010 >>  Baby Sadhana >> 3 (F) 
Parent: Divya / Suresh >> 9094386583 

Diagnosis: CSOM (for years) 
ICH, Egmore
OP




Thank you soooooo much people for making me soooooooo happy and satisfied about the camp. Thanks a ton! J



Regards,

Jothi