Medical
centers
Hosptials, clinics and medical camps are run by
Ananda Marga in poor areas, both on a long-term or short-term basis,
depending on the need. The Abha Seva
Sadan Multitherapy Charitable Health Centre in Jharkhand,
India, is one example:
The rural areas of Jharkhand state (formerly Bihar)
in Northeastern India are among the poorest and most neglected parts
of the country. The tribal inhabitants live in primitive conditions
which have hardly improved in the last century. With few schools
of poor quality, their illiteracy rate approaches 80 percent. They
suffer from chronic malnutrition and infectious diseases. Primitive
subsistence agriculture is the main employment available.
There is very poor health infrastructure in Kashijharia.
Easily treatable diseases such as tuberculosis, polio, leprosy,
gastro-enteritis and malaria are widespread. Many women die during
childbirth due to a complete lack of maternity services. Because
of poor or inadequate training, village doctors often fail to recognize
life-threatening complications. The nearest hospital is over 20
km away; it is private and much too expensive for the people to
afford.
The Abha Seva Sadan Multitherapy Charitable Health
Centre (ASSMCH) is designed to provide quality health care and health
education. Its main features include:
Integrated Health Care
No single discipline of healing is appropriate
for all persons and all ailments. Since May 2005 ASSMCH is offering
treatment in allopathy, acupuncture and homeopathy; later ayurveda
and naturopathy will be added. This holistic approach of combining
conventional and alternative treatments allows the physicians and
therapists to provide the most suitable care for each patient.
Training of health care workers
Another aspect of our work is to train primary
health care workers. This training of local men and women is called
Community Medical Service, a global program of the World Health
Organization. These village medical workers can then begin to earn
a living and contribute to an effective health infrastructure in
the region.
Grassroots work in villages
Our mobile medical team is regularly visiting distant
villages, to give treatment and to raise the consciousness of the
people about nutrition, hygiene and good health practices. This
will in future be combined with cultural and sports activities,
for the all-round physical and mental development of the population.
Through dramas and games, the villagers can more readily accept
and learn about preventive and curative health care for themselves
and their families.
We have acquired a 1-acre plot of land in Kashijharia
which is surrounded by a number of poor villages. It has good access
via a nearby connecting road. We are serving a rural population
of approx. 50,000 that has no access to other adequate affordable
medical facilities.
Construction has begun of a 15-room out-patient
clinic. This will include: consultation rooms for acupuncture, allopathy
and homeopathy/naturopathy, dressing/treatment room, pharmacy, stock
room, registration room, waiting hall, kitchen, accomodation for
staff and volunteers. Due to limited funds,
the construction will take place phase-wise. In this first phase
we are presently building 6 rooms of the out-patient clinic, which
will be shared for several purposes. We
have constructed four temporary clinic rooms in order to serve the
local population immediately through homeopathic, acupuncture and
allopathic therapy. Due to our limited resources, we are not yet
able to employ a doctor in each medical discipline to work every
day. Currently the homeopathic doctor gives consultations 5 days
a week, the acupuncture doctor 3 days a week and the allopathic
doctor one day a week. The mobile medical
team has begun visiting nearby villages in August 2005 and its actvities
are continuing on a regular weekly basis. The first village programmes
have been education on water hygiene, including the disinfection
of all drinking water wells in the village. The current programs
are focusing on nutritional education.
Have you got what it takes?
Email service at anandamarga.org to volunteer.
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