ENT Camp at Athur Village on 27.10.2013 conducted by Rotary Club of Chennai Kilpauk and Eternity Foundation- Inner Wheel Club of Madras South joins hands of support

"India lives in her villages''  -  Gandhi said this almost several decades back and it still stands true to this day.

As a young orator, I have used this sentence plenty of times... But today once again, it came with a bang to my head with a realization that India is still just a developing  Nation....A bitter truth.   

India cannot be seen just with the growth of its development and infrastructure in its Metros and major cities.  The grassroots of India is still deprived of the basic necessities of life.   

Thankfully bridges, politicians and ration shops reach our villages...But sad fact is that there is lack of adequate basic facilities of health care and nutrition, education and support to farming.

After Eternity foundation made the campaign for free health checkup especially for the hearing camp,  villagers came in a great hope to the camp with tales to share and tears to shed and hands to extend for help and seek the same.

Neela and Uma with Dr Sandhya and Mr Ruben from Eternity Foundation at Athur Village as on 27 Oct 2013

As Neela, our senior member in IWC Madras South and I took the cab to Athur Village, post Karnodai, Kolathur and Red Hills on a Sunday morning, we were sure of the task in hand..but the response was more than we expected. 

Over 150 villagers turned up with most of them having age related hearing loss. But there were quite a few children also whom Neela evaluated

Children aged from 3 years to 18 years came back with issues of hearing and speech defects.   I was shaken to see 3 beautiful girls aged 18, 15 and 13 respectively suffering from birth defects of both hearing and speech, just because their parents had a inter-family marriage....there seemed no hope for the eldest one where as therapy could help the younger ones.   Another 5 year old boy was blind, dumb and deaf and the future of both the mother and child looked bleak.  close to 100+ elderly turned up at the camp asking for help and the hearing loss is due to the ageing.

In midst of the routine pre-med checks I was doing,  a mother came running with her 3 year old saying that a stone went in his ears as he was playing...I had to forget the registration process and send the child for immediate attention...and the child finally stopped crying to our relief after the doc pulled out the tiny bit from the child's right ear....

As I was talking to one lady,her husband whispered in my ears that she tried to commit suicide just a week back... just because she is not able to hear what her children were sharing.... and they called her 'sevudu' - deaf!....I had to hold her hands and hug and tell her that each one of us have some limitations or the other. ..and there is no human being without a issue..be it health,or anything.  Her problem is solvable..and Rotary and Eternity assured to provide her with a free hearing aid...thanks to Divesh and Dr Sandhya Ruben, Gandhi and so many good Samaritans who joined us today.    She finally said, she is feeling better and thanked me alot...making me feel happy that my counselling helped

Another woman showed domestic abuse as she is just not able to hear and not able to work in the factory she did all these years...here I had to counsel her husband and make him understand that is it just a health issue that has to be dealt with proper medical help.

A young advocate came to me telling that he is very shy to go to doctor and tell that he has a hearing problem.   I had to tell him to come out of this feeling and start looking for solution...finally he went inside the room for the audio-gram that Neela and other doctors were checking for other patients.

Close to 120+  audio-gram tests were done and a team of 15+ volunteers supported the cause...Almost months of planning,  weeks of campaigning and a completed weekend of executing the cause and day of actual implementation and probably weeks of followup until all identified to get the hearing aids get them and start using them properly.  

For children, a complete hearing therapy is required along with hearing aids to make them communicative to this world.  Most of them need training both to the children and their mothers so that they can perceive and understand whats happening around in this world. 

A unresponsive child studying in 10th smiled at me and showed me signs that she want to become a doctor....as another boy of 7 years who has a speech defect...told me that he want to become a police...every child had a beautiful smile and a hope in heart ....

I could not stop smiling when few elderly women refused to tell their age..my repeat experience from previous medical camps...women are women!  As everyone thanked us for the support, we could only thank god for this opportunity and wished we had more of support from government and help extended to our rural India so that what ever NGO's do is just an addition..unfortunately the case is vice-versa.

Thanks to Rotary Club of Chennai Kilpauk, Eternity Foundation and Inner Wheel club of Madras South for this wonderful initiative.  

Thanks Neela for the given pictures....a day to remember - 27 Oct 2013 at Athur village..  I will share more of the camp and its a response, volunteers and organizers once I get the snaps from them.

---- Umasree Raghunath

Camp to identify Hearing Impaired - 27th Oct 2013

While the RC Chennai Kilpauk has been providing hearing aids to those with hearing impairment the last few years we made a decision to depart from the usual practice of providing hearing aids to those who were identified and needing hearing aids.

This time our Project Chairman - Rtn Divyesh Palicha decided to hold a large one day camp to identify beneficiaries on the following
1. Many, do not accept that they have a hearing problem and continue to live as they do without seeking help, the elderly believe that it is because of age and the youngsters are shy and do not come forward.
2. If we do not conduct a camp to identify such people they may never seek help and will continue to live in such conditions for a longer time.

Divyesh was informed that if he conducts a camp only for the hearing impaired the response would be poor as people would come and spread the word that the camp was only for the hearing impaired and many would stay away from the camp and not be screeened. Divyesh and his team have planned to also have a GP who will first screen the attendees provide them with medication if any for any ailment they may or believe that they have and then send them through for the audiometry tests.

More than 10 Rotarians and over 20 volunteers participated in this camp. Divyesh has been planning and preparing for this camp the last 3 weeks.

---------------------From Rotary Club of Chennai Kilpauk-  Divesh's update-------------------------
http://rcck.blogspot.in/2013/10/hearing-impaired-screening-camp-mg-with.html

Hearing Impaired Screening Camp - MG with RC of Galesburg - ROTI Project

This matching grant project which is partnered with Rotary Club of Galesburg, Illinois, started yesterday with the first screening camp and had a wonderful response.

Many residents of close to 19 villages  surrounding the camp had come and some of them staying as far as 35 kilometers away on the outskirts of North Chennai.  The campaign for calling people to get checked was extremely effective and from these villages whose population is close to about 4000 numbers, we were able to call about 200 of them to visit in a single day.  The effectiveness of the campaigning done by Dr Sandhya Ruban (of Eternity Foundation)  and her team of volunteers was fantastic, enabling it specifically call for patients with hearing abnormalities.

 

We had team of the following specialists :

 

DR KAMATCHIPANDIAN – DOCTOR ATTACCHED TO E N T DEPARTMENT K M C

MR PRAVESH – AUDIOLOGIST

MR SANDEEP – AUDIOLOGIST

 

We were also honoured to have the presence of Mrs Neela Govindaraj ( Speech Therapist and Language Assessor of specially challenged) who had accompanied with Ms Uma (a social service initiator who also works with IBM).  Both Mrs Neela and Ms Uma sat for a long time and helped in coordinating and handling the visiting patients. They interacted and counseled the visitors on a one to one basis, which was really interesting to see them doing their roles in gathering more insights to the various challenges faced by the villagers.

 

We also witnessed misery at its lowest point  in the case of certain individuals who felt extremely helpless with their lives.  Hence we could sense there was lots to be done in terms of community service to these villages, and there was potential for plenty of them who needed to be living in standard basic amenities.

 

Finally coming back to hearing impairment and hearing aid cases, we have crossed 100 deserving beneficiaries and individuals cases are being discussed in a couple of days with the Doctors, to analyse and shortlist hearing aids beneficiaries.