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My Medical Clinic

All of my trips to India are highlighted with the vibrant atmosphere, savory foods, and fun family reunions. This, unfortunately, is not the case for everyone. While my family and I are privileged enough to enjoy the positives India brings, many of India’s inhabitants are subject to various health issues due to their constant exposure to a polluted environment. This situation only worsens away from the city and into suburban villages, and the elderly are the most at risk to have a major medical issue. While I could have continued to just feel bad for them on my flights back home, I knew that doing so would get nothing done. This realization was the first step to a year long process to setting up an accessible medical clinic which would attempt to help senior citizens in an impoverished village get the medical care they require.

I physically set foot in India during the summer of 2018, but my work for setting this camp started months before this. The first step was to find a time and place. Then to find 8 doctors, all of different specialities, that were available at that time to practice their medicine. Then I had to find a pharmaceutical company that was willing to provide drugs so the doctors could prescribe them to elderly patients. After dozens of calls and even more emails sent across the world, I finally had everything planned out and was ready to launch the clinic when I arrived in the summer.

The results were incredible, helping hundreds of senior patients.

Another aspect of my volunteering in India was to educate younger kids on the prevalent diseases in their area so that they can help their environment while also keeping themselves safe. While I was the one technically teaching, I also learned a lot about the various communities in India during my research as well as how to properly speak from a “teachers” perspective.

While completely unexpected, I also made a quick stop at an orphanage out of curiosity to see the condition of the kids there. I spent time individually talking to the kids there and hearing about their experiences. I learned about the food issue arising in the orphanage and how their lack of funding makes it hard to feed the kids an adequate amount every night. On the day that I was there, I persuaded my family to use our money in order to feed the kids what they wanted that night. After I came back to the States, I stayed in touch with the orphanage and organized a fundraiser from my home that would go directly across the world and feed the kids. This fundraiser would go on to fund plenty of meals on major Indian holidays. Creating this fundraiser touches me personally because even though I am not physically able to be at the foster home, I am still able to give their days some more joy.