Vaccination of backyard chicken

We, at NJH, got onto a new frontier of community development last Saturday. We got into veterinary care in our surrounding villages. This was done on a pilot basis. 

As we met quite a few of our Self Help Groups and discussed on the best possible intervention which could improve their lives . . . what came up was quite surprising. 

As was mentioned in a previous post, the intervention was to look into vaccination of backyard chicken. 

We went ahead with the mass vaccination . . . Snaps from the exercise. 

We had a very enthusiastic group of medical students from the Christian Medical College, Vellore who had come to visit us as part of their Secondary Hospital Posting. They made our work so easy.

For old timers, we did this in Charwadih village. The process was not easy. 

The villagers told us that the best time for us to do the vaccination would be early morning. We reached at around 5 am. However, all the birds had gone out by then. In the villages, they don't have any separate coops for the fowl. They spend the night along with the families in their homes. 

Therefore, as soon as the family woke up and opened the doors in the morning, the chicken were also out and it was difficult to catch them. 

So, we went back in the evening. It was quite late. The reasoning was that we could do the vaccination when the chicken come back to the houses as soon as the sun sets. 

It worked. 

We vaccinated a total of 250 chicken . . . We pray and hope that they are all now protected from Ranikhet disease (Newcastle disease) which is quite rampant during the harsh summer. 

Exposure . . .

I've been at the Christian Medical College, Vellore since the last 2 days. Was part of a process which is unique to CMC, Vellore where medical students visit secondary hospitals such as ours. Similar to last year, a batch of 2nd year medical students will spend one week with us. 

A major learning experience for these budding doctors. And we're excited about it. 

The ultimate outcomes of the program being to encourage these students to be part of institutions such as ours for at least some part of their lives if not the whole part. Only time will tell if this program achieved this outcome. 

Today evening, few of the consultants from the participating hospitals sat discussing about the big need for more people to come over to hospitals such as NJH. The refrain from each one of them was the same . . . of doctors getting exhausted . . . and nobody to share the workload.

We shared stories of our colleagues who had gone off for a break . . . gone off abroad . . . got frustrated . . . left with quite a lot of bitterness . . .  and the work load only increasing. No sign of any respite.

I had just got a phone call from back home at NJH that there were 2 maternal deaths in the last 24 hours.

The need for more people to help us was very much evident. 

I thought of the place where we sat. I wondered if CMC, Vellore has lived up to the expectation of sending more doctors to rural areas of the country.

Nowadays, when we talk to our colleagues on going to poorly served areas of the country, the conversation changes to the problems associated with such a posting. The lack of schooling, poorer salaries, needs of parents, crude living conditions . . . the list goes on and on.

Yeah . . . all of them genuine reasons. And that is when we appreciate the contribution that medical missionaries from abroad has made to the country . . . where they left their homes far far away to serve a land quite alien to them. 

There is a paradigm shift in the approach of healthcare professionals towards sickness and the sick. It has not done good for the poor and the marginalised. 

I hope and pray that as the students from Vellore come to have their one week of posting with us, we would be able to make some amount of impact in their lives and the choices that they make in the future.