Class of 2009
Creighton University
School of Medicine
Project C.U.R.A.
India Project 2005-2006
Location: Calcutta, India
Length: 4-5 weeks this summer
Total Cost: Approximately $2000
Immunizations
Hepatitis-A
Hepatitis-B
Typhoid Fever
Malaria
Meningitis
Passports/visa:
If you don’t have a passport, start the process now. It must be valid 6 months before travel
Fundraising
Group vs. Individual Fundraising
Commitment
-Late January due date and deposit ($200)
Spring Semester, 2005:
Meetings will be held every other week to learn about Indian culture, politics, spirituality, economics, etc.
Each person participating will be in charge of presenting a different topic and individual responsibilities
Reflections
Questions?
email Hannah at
Work Sites
Shishu Bavan
Orphanage and Distribution Center
It is a children's home with two sections, one for orphans and one for sick children
Nirmal Hriday, Kalighat
At Kalighat, you work with the sisters and other volunteers feeding, bathing, clothing, administering medicine (8am - 12pm & 3 - 6pm shifts)
Prem Dan Home for the Sick and Mentally Ill
At Prem Dan you work with the sisters and other volunteers to bathe, clothe, feed, dispense medicine and share a lot of love with the patients. Also a great deal of time and energy is put into cleaning the center every day, which includes washing the linens by hand, cleaning the beds, and washing the floors
Titagarh Leprosarium
Gandhi Welfare Center
Welfare center that incorporates a nursery, a medical dispensary, and a food distribution program
Naba Jibon Half-hour bus ride from Howrah Station. On Sundays many volunteers go to Naba Jibon to wash the street children, mend clothing and serve lunch. It's tons of fun but be prepared to get wet!
Institute For Indian Mother and Child
This is a non-governmental voluntary organization, committed to promote child and maternal health by providing the poor with free medical care. Experience has also shown the need for basic education provision.
The I.I.M.C. is basically concerned with mothers and children, but other patients are treated too. Twice a week consultations, free medicines and nursing care are available for outdoor patients in Tegharia, Chakberia and Hogalkuria. About 5000 patients are treated in the 3 centers every month.
The Intensive Care Program (I.C.P) monitors the growth of malnourished children and prepares a high energy, protein-rich food called N.D. (Nutritional Diet) from local ingredients. Mothers are taught about diet and children are examined, compared with their growth chart and given health care.
The indoor centre was opened in late 1995 with 15 beds. Patients are mainly children, malnourished or with severe skin infections and mothers in need of antenatal care. Twice a month a vaccination day is organized as well as a medical camp to a remote village with no doctor.
The medical work is at a very basic level of primary health care and volunteers should not expect too much ! The major area of expansion in the IIMC is the delivery of health education to mothers and children at both the indoor centre and the many outdoor clinics. Those volunteers with health education skills are strongly encouraged to support and assist in the development of this work
The promotion of health is now being developed with the establishment of a Health Education Team working out in the villages as well as in the clinics.
On Work
(An excerpt from "The Prophet" by Kahlil Gibran)
And what is it to work with love?
It is to weave the cloth with threads drawn
from your own heart,
even as if your beloved
were to wear that cloth.
It is to build a house with affection, even as if your beloved
were to dwell in that house.
It is to sow seeds with tenderness and
reap the harvest with joy, even as if your beloved
were to eat the fruit.
It is to charge all things you fashion
with a breath of your own spirit,
And to know that all the blessed dead
are standing about you and watching.
Work is love made visible
And if you cannot work with love but only
with distaste, it is better that you should
leave your work and sit at the gate of the
temple and take alms of those who work with joy..
For if you bake bread with indifference
you bake a bitter bread that feeds but half
man's hunger