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Medical Camp at Jhilling
Sunday, 26 November 2006

Fr. Vattamattam with a child
Fr. Vattamattam with a child
Jhilling is small village in Purulia District of West Bengal, about 85 km drive from Jamshedpur. Jhilling, like our other medical camp destinations, is marked by poverty and inaccessibility to modern medical services. We have been visiting them once each year now for many years; maybe not be enough, but some thing is better than nothing.

We started at 7 am, the roads were bad and it took us 3 hours to reach there. We were 11 doctors and 7 volunteers including Fr. AugustineVattamattam. We travelled in 4 Sumos and stopped once en route to have packed breakfast, since the route is devoid of any reasonable dhabas or eateries.

The patients que at Jhilling
The patients que at Jhilling
The camp is organised at the Loyola School there, who are familiar with our requirements from our previous visits. When we arrived, about 500 patients were already waiting. More poured in after our arrival. By the end of the day, we had seen through 940 patients and the pharmacists had distributed the prescribed medicines to all. Some could not come since it was the harvesting season.

The villagers use a local pond for their washing and bathing requirements. Such stagnant water sources often infect the surrounding population with contagious skin and stomach ailments. We saw a high incidence of such diseases among our patients.

We also found a few hydrocele cases, who we did not treat in the absence of basic OT facility and post operative care. At the moment we do not have the financial resources to house, feed and care for such patients after the operation till stitches are removed.

The LAA team at Jhilling
The LAA team at Jhilling
The Principal of Loyola Jhilling, Fr. Sushil and Fr. Charlie Pareira along with few teachers treated us to a simple but fine lunch. We left Jhilling at about 3.30 pm, stopped en route at Barabazar Haat to buy vegetables, which were fresher and cheaper than those available in Jamshedpur, and were back at Loyola Jamshedpur by 6:30 pm.

LAA is looking for sponsors for its 4-6 medical camps that we organise each year. If you would like to sponsor in part or in full, please contact us.
 
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