Sunday, February 8, 2009

Day 1: Bhadrva


The soft drive landed us in front of a secondary school where an eye clinic fair is taking place. The organizer approaches my family, as CBF is the sponsor. I follow as he tells me there are five stations: registration, vision test, eye doctor, laboratory test, and counseling. It looked no different than the pharmacy health fairs I have attended and participated in. What caught me by surprise was the laboratory testing station that conducted three exams: intraocular pressure, blood sugar and blood pressure. Now it was certainly no different than those health fairs.


As I walked around I wondered why there were so many villagers. Here, the elderly population is accompanied by the whole family, but miles away, I rarely get this feeling. The sense of appreciation is not clearly expressed by these patients; it can be seen in their eyes, so a ‘no smile’ is no indication. The impact of this camp began to sink in when I approached the counseling station as a decision by a nurse will dictate which patients will receive free cataract surgeries. The main intent of this work is to provide as many villagers as possible with free cataract surgery. This impact was heightened when I asked the organizer to line up the patients who had been selected so far to stand in front of the bus. This was the mode of transportation that would take the patients to and from the hospital.

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