Some cool photo prints images:
in one of the Calcutta Rescue makeshift clinics : "MBSC", Milk-Biscuits-Soap-Cereals + a piece of cloth to be distributed to each patient at the end of the consultation, with the medicine to be taken
Image by © noborders
(A bad scan from an old print of a slide). The lady in charge of collecting the things that will be given to each patient at the end of the consultation « M,B,C,S » = Milk, Biscuits, Cereals, Soap (that you can see on the plates + sometimes eggs, for the ones suffering of tuberculoses).
Patients get also some bread, banana and milk during their waiting time and clothes at the end of the consultation.
All the system is really ingenious : the foreign volunteers have to gather the various medicines in the pharmacy according to the prescription of the doctors (NB : as most of the patients are illiterate, the pills are placed into envelopes such as this one (a photo that I found on this site : thanks, dalbhat !), reminding when to take one specific pill and in which quantities ;
... then, with the envelopes and the plates that you see here, we are meeting the patient with, if necessary, the help of a local translator. The piece of clothe is also given according to the wish of the patient (colours or other items such as pettycoat etc).
Only if you are interested in the subject, here are other notes : there were (if I remember well), apart from the doctors, about 6 or 7 persons employed on a permanent basis in that clinic (2 other ones at that time), plus around 6 volunteers coming from Europe for a few months. One foreign nurse too, treating patients suffering from leprosy or other wounds.
=>>> More infos with these links : the website of this NGO : "Calcutta Rescue" and Dr Jack Preger, the founder of that charity (NB : his biography is truely amazing !).
(other photos dealing with the same subject here).
... Again, this is only one of the many NGOs in India, and one of the now famous ones in the west, whereas there are so many other ones who work quietly out of the limelight.
in one of the Calcutta Rescue makeshift clinics : preparations of syrups and the pharmacy
Image by © noborders
(A bad scan from an old print of a slide). The various medicines are on shelves dismanteled each day after the end of the consultations.
The passion of this man payed by the charity to do this job was soccer, hence his nickname of "Mr Football".
The volunteer’s job consists of deciphering the hastily written scribbles from the different doctors on the files of the patients (sometimes, various persons of the same family on one single file), try to find in the pharmacy the correct medicine prescribed, count the number of pills necessary and place those pills in small envelopes destined to be « read » by illiterate persons : when to take the pills (sun if during the day, moon if at night, rising sun if in the morning) and the exact dosage –
… if need be, ask to the "bottle man", Mr Football, to prepare a syrup in one of the recycled bottles, preferably not leaking (most of them did), ...
All the system is really ingenious : the foreign volunteers have to gather the various medicines in the pharmacy according to the prescription of the doctors (NB : as most of the patients are illiterate, the pills are placed into envelopes such as this one (a photo that I found on this site : thanks, dalbhat !), reminding when to take one specific pill and in which quantities ;
=>>> More infos with these links : the website of this NGO : "Calcutta Rescue" and Dr Jack Preger, the founder of that charity (NB : his biography is truely amazing !).
(other photos dealing with the same subject here).
... Again, this is only one of the many NGOs in India, and one of the now famous ones in the west, whereas there are so many other ones who work quietly out of the limelight.
