Bengal Cylone Releif 2009

31st May 2009, Naginabad Village

The first patient arrived at 5AM and we had to gently convey to him that the clinic would not open until 8AM as everything had to be set up. We soon organized the store, the kitchen and the clinic along with the pharmacy. It took more time per patient than it would have normally taken as we needed to use an interpreter between the doctor and the patient, as the local knew no other language leaving Bengali.

On the first day the doctor treated around 200 patients. Many of the elders were suffering gastro enterities as they had not had proper food for many days. They were surviving for several days on puffed rice and other dry rations. The lunch preparation by the devotees on the first day was very much appreciated by the villagers for quality and taste and many of them had several helpings of the same.

The awareness level of the people in general was quite low as they did not have proper education/exposure and there were no means of any information to reach here. In comparison Bihar seemed at least a generation ahead of Bengal in terms of growth and infrastructure, as we had seen Television sets even in remote villages in Bihar, Here there was no power supply also what to talk of television sets. There were no power lines for kms….

– Sadasiva Chaitanya