MEDICAL CAMP
The last Saturday of the month a team of about 15 volunteers—doctors of several specialities and pharmacists and helpers—drive the 120 kilometers, about 70 miles, from Vishvanagar to Virampur and put on a three hour medical camp for tribal villagers who otherwise can’t afford good medical care. Tribal villagers arrive with their problems and are registered and then assigned to doctors where they stand in a line and are looked at. For any medical problems that can be dealt with immediately they are then given free medicines from a large store of medicines the doctors bring with them. If people have a larger problem such as needing a cataract operation they are later given transportation by the Virampur Ashram to the Eye Hospital in Vishvanagar where they are operated on free of charge. Anyone who can afford to pay for a cataract operation is charged 2500 rupees ($31.25).
The people arrive at the clinic by walking miles or come by overcrowded Jeep taxis that can transport up to 15 people at a time, often 5 or 6 on the roof. They come in their colorful tribal costumes, often confused by the process, but are treated with respect and find their way to the right doctor, are prescribed medicine and given instructions and then walk home. These photographs give you a sense of the tribal people and their costumes and a feeling for the vital work of these volunteer doctors and of the Virampur Ashram.
When the doctors arrive they are treated to a good breakfast by the Ashram before starting their work and then a hearty lunch before driving back to Vishvanagar. The doctors have been doing this, once a month, for twenty years.
BILLYBABA’S WANDERING 