Medical Shibir in the Village of Bhimora

The Share and Care organized medical shibir/camp during January 29 through January 31, 2007 was a first step towards complete examination of the 850 children (ranging in age from 6 years through 19 years) in the schools in Bhimora and becomes a model for addressing the needs of other rural children.

The aim of the shibir was the creation and documentation of the youth’s medical records for future reference as well as designing and implementation of corrective actions and measures to prevent the condition from further deterioration.

The team of nine USA-based physicians, two coordinators and one overall lead manager not only dedicated their time and emotion but also fully paid all of their expenses to be in Bhimora to offer their services. Our India-based partner, Sister Nivedita Charitable Trust, Share and Care School-on-Wheels staff, the staff at the schools in Bhimora and a group of local physicians from the nearby city of Rajkot also played a major role in advance preparations to make our first pilot shibir a
grand success.

In addition, the local professionals promised to follow through on all the corrective measures we jointly design and decide to undertake. Without their help, we could not achieve the desired results and spread this activity further to cover millions of rural children in Santosh’s position. Our ultimate aim is to make these children whole and healthy so that they can achieve their full future potential and become fully contributing citizens.

• 10% of the children required eye glasses which were provided on the last day of the Shibir
• A small percentage of children require further medical help which will be scheduled in the hospital in Rajkot
• It is decided that their current diet be examined for proper nutrition content and  be modified appropriately
• Share and Care is considering provision of a glass of milk per day to each student as currently they are not getting any milk
• Also planned will be nutritional supplements to bring the children to their normal growth rate
• To give them childhood back, Share and Care distributed one set of cricket equipment, two volley balls, two soccer balls and twenty tennis balls to each school
• In addition, each child was given a school kit (backpack, a couple of notebooks, pencils, eraser etc) and a hygiene kit (two napkins, tooth brush, tooth paste etc).
• Also distributed were a set of group board games to each school along with some soft toys for younger children
  
  

Next Steps

Our team of physicians in USA, in collaboration with the local team and Share and Care, is now in a process of prioritizing the deficiencies be corrected, designing the action plan and its phased implementation based on the ease. Share and Care is also working out logistics and resource requirements with the local team. Our plan is to start implementation of corrective measure as early as March 2007. We plan to assess our own progress for future report to you, our well-wishers and donors.

Currently, Share and Care estimates that to correct all identified deficiencies and prevent it from recurring, we may require a two-year period of intense follow-up.

In terms of financial resources, we estimate that we will require $50 per student per year to get them all on track within a two-year period and work on prevention. Preventive measure will also require some infrastructure improvements that are being evaluated at this time. As always, we are counting on your generous support in this progra

m to assist these children achieve their full potential in next two years.
We are also developing full documentation of this program for future replication to address the need of as many rural children as possible in next several years!

--- Jayant Shroff & Sally Bair