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Women’s Camp with CanSTOP, Ramavaram, September 21, 2008

Wednesday, September 24th, 2008

The Women’s Camp was held on Sunday, September 21st, and was quite successful. The camp began from 10 and lasted till about 1 in the afternoon.

We were honored that the CAN-STOP Organization joined us in conducting this camp. This organization, run by Sundaram Medical Foundation, focuses on cancer screening camps as well as general medical camps for underprivileged populations in Chennai. We would like to thank Arjun Rangarajan, an intern at Sri Ramachandra University, for his immense help in arranging this project.

CAN-STOP’s gynecologist, Dr. Sunantha came for the camp. She was a very kind and understanding doctor who treated not only a variety of gynecological complaints but also general medical complaints for the women who came to the camp. In addition, she also screened the women for cervical cancer via a Papanicolaou (PAP) smear. Accompanying her was a nurse, Sister Jeevitha. We were also glad to have with us doctors from Sri Ramachandra University – Dr. Shihas Salim, Dr. Prabhu, Dr. Ashmitha, and Dr. Arjun Rangarajan who saw cases as well.

In addition to the medical work, we also provided reproductive health education to each of the camp visitors. Lalita and CAN-STOP’s social worker, Ms. Sujatha, instructed a group of female volunteers on teaching points for sexual and reproductive hygiene which included important topics such as breast self exam, menstrual hygiene and sex education. These lessons were given individually to the women who utilized the camp.

We arranged the camp tent this time in a way to create a fully enclosed area to guarantee the highest amount of privacy to the women being examined. In addition, we insisted that the male volunteers coming wear lab coats and that no cameras be used during the camp time, to guarantee privacy with the women, establish a professional atmosphere, and build trust.

Our main problem was with camp attendance. Though we anticipated this and tried to improve the attendance by publicizing it for it twice and distributing a flyer, we were able to treat about 20-30 people. This forces us to confront some of the difficult cultural realities of the camp – that women are undervalued members of their societies, that they will not take the opportunity to serve themselves without having finished their duties of cleaning, cooking, and laundry work, and that women are scared of coming to see a doctor for a gynecological exam though they are aware of the health benefits. These are all aspects of culture that, despite the difficulties, will have to be confronted head on. Despite this, we consider the camp to be a success because we did treat a significant number of people and we were able to learn more about the community from it.

Due to our rule regarding photographs, there are few pictures from this event, which are included below:

Sriram, Nivedita and Sivaprakash stand with visiting Drs. Arjun, Ashmitha, Shihas, and Prabhu

Group photo of the Sangam India and CanSTOP volunteers

Thanks to everyone who came out and volunteered! We saw a lot of new faces, including Nimeshika, Vaishnavi, Swetha, Sivaprakash, Priya, Mulatu, Kivina, Nandini, Ritika, Jaba, and Varna. We were also excited to have a guest from England, Gautam Bagga. Lalita, who organized this camp, did an excellent job in terms of research and with the immense practical work involved in running a camp.

For more information on CAN-STOP, please visit their website at http://www.canstop.org/ and their blog at http://can-stop.blogspot.com/.

Posted by sriram in Healthcare, Women's Issues, camp, events, hygiene, photos | 3 Comments »

ENT and Ophthalmology Camp

Wednesday, August 20th, 2008

This Sunday we are going to be running our first ENT and Ophthal Camp at the Ramavaram slum. It is being coordinated by Aslesha and Mounica, two very capable Sangam India Members. We are excited to announce that doctors from Sri Ramachandra Medical University will be coming out for this event to treat the residents at Ramavaram.

The camp begins at 8AM and will finish by 1PM.

All are welcome! Please let us know if you will be able to come.

Attached are two flyers – one in English and one in Tamil advertising the camp.
ENTOphthalAug2408_English.pdf
ENTOphthalAug2408_Tamil.pdf

The publicize for the camp, groups of Sangam India members will be heading out to Ramavaram on Thursday and on Saturday to inform the residents and hand out flyers.

Posted by The Sangam India Team in Healthcare, camp, events | No Comments »

Dental Camp

Sunday, August 10th, 2008

The Dental camp was a huge success and a phenomenal experience. The camp started at 12pm and it consisted of three main stations. One of the stations included the Registration area. Here, the residents were asked their name, age and their chief complaints after which they were sent to the screening station. At the screening station, the children were monitored for any dental caries and toothaches that were bothering them. If any of the children required further treatment, they were sent to the final station where a dental chair was set up to do some minor tooth cleaning. After the children rotated through each station, they were each given toothbrushes and toothpastes so that they could understand the importance of proper oral hygiene and help maintain it as well.

All in all the process went smoothly thanks to the fact that the dentists were well organized and the ushers who helped accompany the children from one station to the other. I would like to personally thank both of them for maintaining order within the camp and helping us make this project a successful one. I would also like to thank Dr. Shivakumar for not only displaying his strong leadership skills, but providing quality service to the people of the community. I look forward to conducting our next medical camp in the near future and seeing more new faces come out to help the people of Ramavaram. Until then, keep up of the good work folks!

Posted by ahrar in Healthcare, camp, events, perspectives | 1 Comment »

Dental Camp, August 9th

Saturday, August 9th, 2008

Today we held our first dental camp at the Ramavaram community. The event began at 12PM and lasted till approximately 2:00PM.

The event went very well. In the morning, I (Sriram) went to the Community Dentistry department to meet the professors and finalize some last details. Ritin, Nivedita, Tushar, Veena, and Deepthi went to the camp early to help set up the tent and to do some preliminary setup. Lalita met the new recruits at the bus-stand.

There were many things going on in the morning but it all came together nicely. I went with the dentists to the camp, while the others had set up the camp. We had to do some rearrangements but the camp began on time. About 50-60 patients were seen today, of all ages. After registration, they went in for a dental screening, managed by a number of interns from the department. If treatment was required, the patients went in for treatment.

A variety of conditions were treated. While a few patients had the happy diagnosis of “Good Oral Hygiene,” most of the cases required scraping or restoration. Many children required followup for more complex restoration work or for tooth extractions that could not be performed at the camp site.

People of all ages were treated, and after their treatment finished, each patient was given a toothbrush. One tooth-powder was given per house. Aslesha, Benedicta and Nivedita gave lectures in toothbrushing and in maintenance in good oral hygiene to each of the patients. As the patients were leaving, Lalita and Rifa wrote down the cases and documented those that required follow-up.

This event took a lot of work from everybody involved and it was exciting to see so many new faces. From the MBBS III batch, we had Yogesh, Shivam, Raghavendran, Srikanth on board, who did a great job of managing the crowd. From the MBBS II ‘Zephyrs’ batch, we had Sandesh, who was a great help with the patients. Newcomers from the MBBS II ‘Warriors’ batch included Safwan, Tattagath, Aadhar, and Sindhura who did a variety of work. In addition I would like to thank Bharathi, from Dallas, Texas, for taking some time out of her day to help us.

We would sincerely like to thank the Department of Community Dentistry for making this camp a reality. They took time out of their busy schedules to come to visit these children. The Department runs a lot of dental camps to underprivileged areas and they were very kind to add our own place to their list. I would especially like to thank the HOD, Dr. Shivakumar, as well as one of his Assistant Professors, Dr. Mahendravel for coming to treat the cases. In addition, the many interns and BDS III students did a great job of screening the cases.

Finally, I would like to thank Mr. Prem for getting us the permission to use the area on their property. Without their help, this camp could not have happened either.