Vivekananda Mission Hospital
As the country moves to becoming an industrialized economy, the advances in healthcare and education are accessible to people in the urban sprawl. The social and economic conditions of the people left behind in the rural areas have not kept up with the times. Lack of core infrastructure, in form of roads, electricity, healthcare, hygiene and good educational facilities to the rural folks are putting them in an unenvious situation. Corruption and lack of vision in the bureaucratic circles and absence of empathy amongst the intelligentsia has led to a multitude of problems amongst the rural folks.
Swami Praveenananda started the initiative of bringing the youths together for the welfare of the human society irrespective of caste, creed and colour. Vivekananda Mission Medical Institute (VMMI), a registered charitable organization was established approx. 40 kms from Varanasi, one of the holiest cities in India.
VMMI aims to address the health and hygiene needs of approx. 100 villages in the surrounding area with a target population of approx. 80,000 people. VMMI is also unique compared to the regular Hospitals, Health Centers and Nursing Homes. Generally in these places there is no contact between the hospital and the patient after he/she is discharged from the hospital.
At VMMI, the hospital becomes the responsible guardian of the patient and does all the follow up after he/she is discharged from the hospital. The hospital undertakes efforts to provide further treatments in better health care places to deserving cases, if necessary. VMMI currently provides the following facilities to the target population.
Eye Camps
Free Eye relief camps for operation of Cataracts.
Every year there are on an average 10 camps
run by VMMI with an average of 300-400 Cataracts
operations conducted during the camps.
Statistics for the last three years are as follows:
Some of them are involved in other jobs that
require minimal skills.
The average annual income may not exceed
US$120 per family.
The root cause of the poverty for these people
is illiteracy amongst the tribal people -
caught in a hopeless situation of having to fend
for themselves on a daily basis with no
hope for doing anything to make themselves part
of a different future.
Health Camps
Free health checkup camps are provided as part of health camps approx. 10 times a year. These camps provide the rural folks with specialist attention to address their healthcare needs. Specialist doctors with specific skills in Orthopedic, Gynecology, Pediatrics, Cardio, Medicine, Dental and other specialties provide their time at no charge to see these patients. At these camps people are also provided free medicine and X-Ray facilities at a heavily subsidized rate of Rs. 60 (US $1.3) per report.
Child Welfare
While it is very moralistic and economically possible for the
western world to condemn child labor,
for some of the families living in rural areas every child is
a person with a pair of hands to do
some work and assist in the very survival of the family.
For VMMI it is very difficult to eliminate
child labor due to its practical and real-world considerations,
hence they adopt a different
approach. VMMI tries to provide alternatives to the children in
form of free supplementary school
and also enhance their appreciation of proper hygiene.
The children are provided free books and supplies for the
education process with the hope that
education will allow the children an opportunity to break
the cycle of poverty. The supplementary
school has 188 students, approx. 30 of them coming from the
carpet industry. The goal is to have
a fully functional school with full-time teaching staff in
the next two years.
The Inspiration
Swami Vivekananda passed away in the year 1902, but
his ideas and thoughts have attracted the
attention of people all over the world.
The universal
popularity which he enjoyed during his life
time is well understood by the fact that even now he
is being hailed as a lover of poor and
downtrodden population of our country.
In all his
writings and speeches he emphasized the
upliftment of the poor people of the rural areas.
He preached that unless and until we serve our
own men who are poor, downtrodden and starving with
the same kind of love, respect and dignity
that we offer to God there is no use of practicing
great religious austerities.
He expected great
many things from the youth of our country and suggested
that education at all levels for boys and
girls should reach all corners of our country.
He said "First of all, our young men must be strong,
religion will come afterwards. Be strong, my
friends; that is my advice to you.
You will be nearer
to heaven through football than through the
study of Gita." He believed that service of human soul
is the best way of worshiping the god we
ever think of. Through this worship the God in human
body and soul one can attain his goal of
life.
Facilities and Staffing
The VMMI facility is a complex of one two storied
building of approx. 7,500 sq.ft and a hospital
complex building of approx. 6,500 sq. ft.
Even though
it is small in size, it stands tall as a
culmination of selflessness and humility of the
volunteers that make it happen.
The main building houses the following:
1) Living quarters for the 10 volunteers
who work selflessly
2) Residence for Doctor
The hospital building has the following:
1) One mini-operating theater
2) Dressing Room
3) X-Ray room
4) 20 Beds for in-patient services
5) Consultation room for Resident doctor
6) 2 Consultation Rooms for visiting doctors.
The mission is staffed by the following staff:
1) 10 volunteers
2) 1 full time & 2 part time Doctors
3) Doctor’s assistant (compounder)
4) Nurse
5) Pathologist
6) X-ray technician
7) Ambulance Driver
8) Eye Repressionist
How you can Help !!!
Your financial support can have a significant difference in the lives of the rural folks of India. We at Karna are targeting to collect approx. $20,000 of funding every year to channel to VMMI for them to provide them with financial support to continue conducting medical camps as well as providing funding for managing day-to-day operations. You may provide financial support as you choose or may elect to sponsor in one of the following ways:
- Pay for one medical camp cost approx. : US $500
- Pay for one Eye camp cost approx. : US $600
- Pay for sustenance of volunteers (food/clothing) :US $250/month
- Pay for yearly cost of supplementary schooling US $1,000