23 Oct 2008, Supaul
After arriving in Supaul the medical team started visiting one camp after another in Tribeni Ganj area of Supaul district. Along the narrow banks of the Kosi River there were thousands of small temporary huts which housed many thousands of flood affected families. Since there was no place yet to set up regular camps, the doctors moved from hut to hut seeing and treating patients.

Soon after the Lahraniya relief camp was inaugurated the medical team also set up an out patient clinic in the Durga Madhya Vidyalaya, opposite the camp. Since the newspapers have been writing about us and highlighting our services, especially the medical, i.e. medical expertise of our doctors, ambulances, hospital, and the opportunity to get consultancy from experts from AIMS, etc, hundreds of patients from far and wide have started flocking here to avail treatment. Ten days ago the inpatient facility also commenced operations with eight beds, with the option to increase it to twelve beds on need basis. Patients from 80 to 100 kms away have started visiting the camp to get medical service as they have a heard a lot of good about the doctors from Kerala. Every day a minimum of 400 patients avail treatment at our outpatient clinic. Patients start queuing up from 4 AM in the morning to meet the doctors first when the clinic opens at 9 AM. To avoid rushing and pushing by patients a token system has to be started for the patients on a first come first serve basis. There too some SPECIAL tokens have to be given. The doctors provide treatment form 9 a.m to 6.30 p.m everyday with a lunch break in between. A doctor and nurse are on call 24hrs of the day at the inpatient hospital. Even for the inpatient hospital, patients are waiting in queue for admission. Admissions are given depending on the urgency of their disease or sickness.

The other day a pregnant woman gave birth to a baby boy inside our ambulance, while she was being taken to the local hospital. Seeing this Dr Raman from the local Civil hospital at Tribeni Ganj has requested our doctors to handle pregnancies also and thus help in reducing their load, as they are not equipped to handle so many cases.

Two schools have also started functioning at our camp, one for children from the age of 3 to 6 and other from 7 to 15. Teachers from the local school, devotees and Ashramites take classes for these children. They are taught values, the significance of service, and other man making tips along with normal educational subjects.

Many dignitaries from other international organizations visit us, after having heard about our activities and have a first hand experience of the service being done there by the Math. They very much applaud the qualitative service being provided. They feel that many organizations offer relief material to the needy and leave but there are every few who stay and work with a sense of purpose at the ground level.

Amma’s grace is felt abundantly by all who come, as they remain impressed with our wide spectrum of activities under Amma’s divine guidance.

– Sadasiva Chaitanya