To Bangalore and Beyond: Day 22 & 23: Health Camp

Saturday

This sunday was a big day, it was Health camp day. This is a day where all the sponsored children in all the villages (sponsored by Australians through an organisation called PIA) came to SEDS to be immunised and have a dental check up. It was expected 200 kid would show up with their parents so approx 400 ppl attending. So on Saturday we helped prepare for the big day.

sunday

Sunday

Today was a jammed packed day, but for a good reason - today was health camp day. What this means is that the children who are sponsored by an organisation in melbourne (PIA) get a free dental check, free immunisation shot, free lunch and reimbursement for the bus ride home. So all in all around 400 ppl rocked up to the SEDS’ farm today (approx 200 kids and 200 parents). The announcement of free lunch seems to get everyone onboard. This was awesome as this is community development - seeing kids come with their parents, and their parents being educated on health and hygiene. Even the male farmers came which is super awesome as it shows they are somewhat taking and interest in their family’s health.

So my role for the day was official photographer. Just my luck as my SD card seems to be broken, so luckily Cait lent me hers, and i took plenty of photos. The first thing i noticed was that all the kids had dressed up quite formally (except for one little boy who wore his onesie….he’s parents probs woke him up and took him straight to SEDS). I believe the mindset is that this is an important event or outing and that families must dress up in their nice clothing. The school was filled with a sea of colours and the jingling of bells as girls wore ankle bracelets or their clothes had bells on the seams. Here in india Sunday is the only day off, yet teachers volunteered their time to come here and organise things as well as 2 doctors and 2 dentists who came to volunteer their time. Amazing stuff. it was such a privilege to be a part of it all. The hundreds of photos i took wont do any justice in capturing the atmosphere of the day.

Funniest (but quite sad) was when i was in the immunisation room. kids would line up at the front with a big smile, only to find out this is where they were getting a needle in their arm. Many teachers were in the room to comfort the child (anywhere from 4-15yo i reckon) as they were oblivious to what was going to happen next. and then the scary doctor (he did kind look a bit scary with his white uniform) would come from behind the curtain and thats when fear seized the child. They would fight and cry and scream so much so that 2 ppl would have to hold the young children. After that they would walk out the room in tears. This pattern just happened all the time lol, a big smile would walk in and then a teary eyed person would walk out. This sent shockwaves throughout the children lining up haha, so no one wanted to enter the room. although their were exceptions for some of the girls.

It was a different case for the boys. They had to show their machoism by being strong haha.

Again the bags of lollies help alot. so much so that the doctors asked me for them. i wasnt to sure if i could hand them out as the dentists were right next door lol. but it was all good, so the kids got sweets as well.

Afterwards i helped prep for cooking. I was able to convince the women to let me help. So i started cutting onions, then corriander and then got to stir the pot. Remember we were feeding around 400 ppl so u need to imagine how much curry and rice and chicken need to be prepped. and then imagine how big the crockery needs to be to mix and cook of this….and then u will see how awesome it was to cook for so many ppl. we used almost something that resembled a tennis racket with a pole as a handle to stir the food. Wot an experience it was to see hundreds of kids and parents sitting on the ground eating chicken curry - no utensils just hands. prior to this, the kids all received a toothbrush and toothpaste too. What a sight, what a day.