Medical camp and further projects

Sun, Febr. 18, 2018 - 5:21pm

Video of Medical Camp

Dear friends,

the video of the Medical Camp has been completed; you will find it online in the Youtube channel of FriendCircle Worldhelp under the following link:
https://youtu.be/U0GM28YeIyo

Mon, July 10, 2017 - 9:15, written by Alexandra, published by Frank

Report from Bihar

Dear friends,

First, we would like to thank you for yuor patience. Our teams returned already three weeks ago, and this last report of the tour is only now going online. Since all team members are working on a voluntary basis, it takes sometimes a bit longer... ;-)

Starting June 10, Alois, Tobias, Alina and Alexandra visited several more leprosy villages in the state of Bihar in east India.

In the villages often the basic things are missing to make the lives of the anyway marginalized people a bit more tolerable:

Roofs in front of the shabby huts to protect against flooding during the monsoon season and against the blazing sun of hot noon. 

Channels to dry up the disgusting green ponds of the village’s sewage flows.  

Hand pumps to provide fresh drinking water. 

Pumping out of overflowing toilets – the morass otherwise becoming the breeding ground for further illnesses.

Foundation of a new tailoring workshop for disadvantages women.

Continuing school projects in four villages.

Thanks to the tireless support of our Indian helpers all this could meanwhile be completed and the long-term projects are continuing!

Thanks to ALL at home for your donations which are so valuable! Since ALWAYS 100% of ALL donations are used for the projects it is easy to do so much on one tour!

THANKS also to ALL friends who have so far accompanied us on these journeys spending their well-deserved vacation and bearing themselves all expenses incurred!

THANKS also to ALL who are working tirelessly at home by knitting caps, collecting wool, making jams, selling items on flea markets, realizing school projects, informing friends about the projects, maintaining and translating the homepage, creating the calendars and newsletters, holding lectures, storing caps, preparing accounting/activity reports for the tax office, etc., etc.

TOGETHER we can do all this and even more!!!

Wed, June 26, 2017 - 8:30, written by Alexandra, published by Frank

Inauguration of the new women’s project in Rudra Prayag in the Himalayas

This time, on the way back from the medical camp in Badait Dungar, Rudra Prayag, our team visits the workshop initiated by FriendCircle WorldHelp, where incense will be produced. The project will provide work for 75 women, partially in homework. The women also contribute to broaden the work cycle by collecting suitable herbs and woods in the forests.

The families also profit from the working opportunity offered to the women. A salary of about 20 € to 30 € per month helps to pay the necessary bus tickets and / or school materials for the children which are the prerequisites for attending school.

Since the visit of Katrin and Ludmila in April 2017 much has happened. The workshop has been completed and furnished. Work can now begin. We could even take along some of the finished bins of smoke cones as a "sample".

When they have produced a sufficiently large quantity, the completely natural herbs along with purely biological, essential essences will be sold by some of the women on the market. Since incense cones and sticks are used for religious purposes almost everywhere in India, the project will be successful and, after some time, more women will be involved.

THANKS to ALL our friends at home! Your donations allow these women and their families a better life.

Fri, June 23, 2017 - 5:05pm, written by Michael and Alexandra, published by Frank

750 patients within three days

Meanwhile, the second part of our team has safely returned to Germany. During the three-days' "Medical Camp" of FriendCircle WorldHelp in Uttarakhand, Himalaya, North India, a total of 750 patients were treated. (The previously established patient list included about “600” people.)

Years ago, in the mountain ridges below the famous Kedarnath temple, severe flooding caused widespread destruction, with more than 10,000 people losing their lives. This region is still suffering from the economic consequences of the disaster.

Months before the planned Medical Camp, our Indian friends traveled on foot to a total of 23 mountain villages to personally inform all people in the region about the upcoming, free medical care by a German team. In addition, the event was broadcast several times over a local radio station and the local newspapers. 

In the past few years, Michael has compiled medical equipment especially suitable for the purpose of FriendCircle WorldHelp, part of it was partly brought along from Germany. Many devices were generously donated by companies. Other necessary medical devices, such as examination beds, a sterilization device, suckers, oxygen, etc., were purchased in India. Medicines for the establishment of a pharmacy for immediate drug administration were compiled in sufficient quantities.

The purpose of the Medical Camp of FriendCircle WorldHelp is to provide medicine to affected persons according to their needs and illness, for two to twelve months.

People in these remote regions are, on the one hand, very poor and cannot afford the smallest additional expenditure. On the other hand, it is especially difficult for them to get any medicine, in view of the fact that most villages are many hours' walk away from the nearest city.

A special challenge of the camp this time was the handling of power failures and insufficient lighting in the interior spaces as well as outside. Cables, lamps, an emergency power set, etc., which were purchased or rented in advance, helped to master the partly demanding working conditions.

On June 2, 2017, the FriendCircle WorldHelp team, after completing the preparations in Delhi, tackles with two vehicles the approximately 400-kilometer drive to the partly impassable streets of the mountains. After a total of 15 hours’ drive by car / truck through the night, the camp can be set up in the evening of June 3 and in the morning of June 4 in front of a school building made available to us.

Different stations are set up:

• A registration office where patients receive a number and a card.
• A tent providing shade and protection for the first examination of the patients.
• A station for necessary laboratory tests (hemoglobin, leukocytes, CRP, liver and kidney values, blood glucose, blood fats, etc.).
• An ECG room
• An examination and intervention room for ultrasound examinations, infusion treatments and minor surgical interventions under local or regional anesthesia
• A pharmacy to dispense prescribed medicine.

During the camp, about 35 out of the 750 patients are placed on a list and taken to the nearest hospitals with which cooperation has already been agreed. After the camp, the patients will continue to be taken care of, hospitalized and / or treated in outpatient treatments for eye operations, hearing aid supply, and kidney and gallbladder surgery as well as for orthopedic restoration of mis-healed joint fractures. The travel expenses and the food allowance for the patients, which are taken over by FriendCircle WorldHelp, are one of the basic prerequisites for these people to receive treatment at all. Fortunately, the cooperating hospitals promise a quick, uncomplicated and partly free additional care, which is not self-evident at all.        
    
The majority of patients could be medically treated within the scope of the medical camp and some surgical procedures could also be carried out successfully.

For example, a total of about 18,000 tablets with various analgesic agents, 600 ointments, about 3,000 tablets with antibiotic active ingredients were administered for partly severe chronic infections and also large amounts of antihypertensives, stomach pills, vitamin, protein, and mineral preparations.

There were cases of severe chronic pain, asthma symptoms, as well as undiscovered diabetics and hypertension patients. In addition, many patients with skin diseases or hemorrhoids showed up. The haemorrhoidal treatment was performed on site by means of surgery or rubber band ligation.

For skin diseases there were many different ointments with different active ingredients available.

In addition to the medical treatment, the waiting patients having come from far away and on foot, were given food and tea, so that almost no impatience or restlessness arose and a relaxed atmosphere prevailed at summary high-humidly 36-38 degrees.

Short but powerful rainstorms on the 2nd and 3rd day brought a welcome cooling down to about 32 degrees, though this made the tent collapse and the electrical supply cut temporarily ...

The patients’ examination was therefore quickly transferred under the school's roof, which was not a problem for the team and the patients, even though the "order" was lost for a short time.

Battery powered headlights and other devices helped to bridge the time of the power failure and find orientation inside the quite dark schoolrooms.

At the end of this three-day’s "Medical Camp", all helpers were relieved and satisfied that all patients were well cared for and all challenges could be mastered.

From the hospitals we already received the feedback that almost all medical cases were successfully completed (except for a few more complicated cases) and people have already returned home to their families.

THANKS to ALL friends at home and abroad who have contributed to the great success of the Medical Camp, so that such a large number of patients could be provided with medical care in a short time!

THANKS to ALL friends at home who make the "Medical Camps" of FriendCircle WorldHelp possible!

Your donations cannot be enough appreciated!

Sun, June 11, 2017 - 8:30am, written by Alexandra, published by Frank

Team arrived in Bihar whereas a part of it is back home

Yesterday, Alexandra, Alina, Alois and Tobias together with Venu traveled from Delhi to Patna where they will visit and continue the school projects. Michael and Jürgen returned to Germany, and arrived last night.
The medical camp was a complete success!
Photos and report will follow shortly. Selecting photos and writing reports besides the regular work is sometimes difficult and will therefore still take some time.

Sat, June 10, 2017 -5:30am, written by Alexandra, published by Frank

Latest report – team meanwhile back in Delhi and close to travel to Bihar

For years, Sunny has been helping with the projects of FriendCircle WorldHelp. He himself had been a street child for many years. Drugs and alcohol were on his daily agenda and he and his friends had no perspective in life, did not believe in a better future without drugs and had lost all hope. 

In 2011, our team got to know Sunny. At that time he had just undergone a withdrawal treatment. Based on his strong will, his belief in something higher and inspired by the work of FriendCircle WorldHelp he founded an organization three years ago that began on a small scale but meanwhile has become very successful.

He now offers people how like him years ago have slipped into dependency due to worries and problems, the opportunity to withdraw in rented rooms and to reorganize and discipline their lives through a tight daily schedule. 

The daily agenda consists of discussions, joint cooking, yoga, singing and dancing. After a few months or one year people are helped to return to their normal lives after Sunny has found with them a job and involved their families in the discussions.

Today, 20 to 40 men (there is a come and go) find a place in the extremely Spartan furnished rooms (there is one larger room with a shower, operated by a hand pump), one toilet, a tiny kitchen and a room to receive new people or talk to relatives.

Sunny, 33 years old, spends 24 hours of the day together with these people who look up to him as their „big brother“.

Since the roofs of the very simple, partly garage-like furnishing had holes, FriendCircle WorldHelp bought new roofs. Originally, they had not all day long electricity and fresh water. FriendCircle WorldHelp bought solar panels as well as cooling devices and fans against the summer heat.

Before, to withstand the summer heat, people sat crowded at 40°C in the smaller room which has thicker walls and where the temperature is one or two degrees cooler than in the big room. Most of them are not allowed to leave the rooms as long as they are not really clean having understood that a life without drugs means a better future for them and their family.

Today, Sunny has a lot of moving stories to tell, e.g. about young people who have not seen their homes for years and now dare to contact again their parents with the message: „I have become a different person.” Some of them have resumed work and are supporting their family, others are newly married ;-)

On this tour, Michael provides for the second time medical treatment to the people of Sunny’s facility. FriendCircle WorldHelp gives medications, necessary examinations and small devices such as e.g. a blood glucose meter. In winter time the men get sweaters and blankets.  

Since only about half of the relatives of these men can give money to Sunny for food and accommodation, at the end of the month food sometimes becomes scares. Then FriendCircle WorldHelp buys rice, lentils and oil for a month or two.

THANKS to ALL friends at home who also have a heart for people „at the very bottom“ who cannot imagine a better future. Each one who has made it will make the world a little better!

Fri, June 2nd, 2017 - 5:30pm, written by Alexandra, published by Frank

Impressions of the soup kitchen for street children and needy persons in Delhi …

India has an estimated 11-18 million children who spend their lives on the street with their parents or alone with friends.
When the friends of FriendCircle WorldHelp arrive by taxi and wave out of the windows, crowds of children start running across the street shouting to others that there will be once more free food!

Some of them come running with bouquets of red roses that they try hard to sell in the hot, dusty and smog-laden traffic by knocking on the windows of slow-moving cars or waiting at the traffic light to turn red. 

All children and other needy people line up sitting on a wall in front of the small street stall. This time we count some 80 persons.

Each one gets a large plate of rice with beans, biscuits and a large fresh fruit juice. .

In the children’s eyes we see their relief to rest for a short time and be served delicious and nutritious food -  and we feel it as well.
And while our team is distributing the „gifts“ of our friends at home we feel as if it were given to ourselves!…

THANKS to ALL who make these small-big moments of life possible! 

Photos:

With joyful enthusiasm the children run to the place of the soup kitchen...

Thur, June 1st, 2017 - 4:45pm, written by Alexandra, published by Frank

Well arrived - first impressions

On May 29 our team of six persons from Germany starts at 11:00am from Nuremberg. Arrival 4:35am in New Delhi. At this time, the temperature is still tolerable, while during daytime you often run against a „wall of heat“ as soon as the doors of the air-conditioned shops and the hotel in which our team lodges open to the street.

With two taxis and 16 luggage items, Alina, Alois and Tobias get a first foretaste of the Indian traffic, which is still decent for local conditions.

They get milk and bread for breakfast and then have a few hours‘ nap…

After this short physical regeneration, the usual necessary errands are carried out and sim cards for the mobile phones are bought, so everyone can keep in contact with home, and families and friends need not unnecessarily worry.

Alina looks for a fabric for her „Indian costume“. Wherever our errands leads us, the friends of FriendCircle WorldHelp are welcomed in a friendly way.  

After all, they have been regular customers for many years ;-)

On request of Michael, two owners of a medical shop come in the afternoon into the hotel in order to go with him through a long list of urgently needed medicines for the medical camp. 

In the evening there is a medical workshop for the team members to enable them to be useful in the medical camp with blood pressure measurements, medical assistance and analyses.

While Alois, Tobias and Alexandra fall asleep immediately after 10pm, Jürgen, Michael and Alina are still awake for a while due to the time lag (3.5 hours) …

THANKS to ALL friends at home for sharing and keeping their fingers crosses ;-)

A photo gallery with captions will follow soon.