The Health Centers

Medical care for people in need

Since the beginning, Hand in Hand has supported, financially, the local aid organization Prajnana Mission, with the establishment and maintenance of four Health Centers - Hariharananda Charitable Health Centers (H.C.H.C.), in the Indian States of Orissa and West Bengal. These Health Care Centers are located in slum areas where the population has no access to free medical care. In the coming years, with our help there will be an additional Health Care Center near the Balashram residential School.

In the Centers, several times during the week, people receive medical check-ups and treatments free of charge and, in case of emergency, patients can be transported to hospital. When necessary, a pharmacist distributes medicines free of charge. The treatments range from simple surgical interventions to acute conditions caused by infectious diseases, as well as long-term problems such as high blood pressure, diabetes or lung diseases. When required, a pathological laboratory test can be performed. One of the Health Centers treats patients with homeopathy only.

Diverse events to promote health awareness (World Health Day, Anti-smoking Day, World Aids Day) seem to create much interest and are organized on the premises of the Health Centers, in schools and universities, as well as in public places.

Between January-December 2007, the four Health Centers together, treated 51,490 patients (dental treatments and laboratory checks excluded). Growth is expected to continue.

Die Gesundheitszentren auf einen Blick

Balighai Heath Center

Since May 2001 our partner organization, Prajnana Mission, manages the one floor 120 m2 Health Center in Balighai, near Cuttack. The Health Care Center comprises a large waiting room, two examination rooms, a small apothecary and a 4-bed ward for emergency cases. A dental clinic will shortly be available on the first floor.

As our biggest Health Center, it is open five days a week from 8am-12pm. One doctor and one pharmacist are employed on a regular basis while all other doctors and helpers work on a voluntary basis, unsalaried. All patients have to be registered before receiving free medical treatment.
Our team also organizes Health Camps in the remote and hard to reach villages of the region. Moreover, programs to raise awareness about health are held at the Health Center.

Jagatpur Health Center

The charitable Jagatpur Health Center in Cuttack treats an increasing number of patients who come from the city’s slums. In 2005 the Center was extended by an annex with two additional treatment rooms. The waiting area in front of the Health Center has been roofed over providing an additional waiting room where patients can watch videos on hygiene, health care and baby care.
The Center is open Mondays to Fridays. Moreover, on every second and fourth Friday of the month it is possible to have a dental examination. The Jagatpur team also organizes Health Camps in remote villages, sometimes in the schools.

Panarath Health Center

The Panarath Health Center in the State of West Bengal, 70 km south west from Calcutta, is manned by a doctor and several voluntary helpers. Patients are treated, free of charge, from Monday to Friday.

Bishindipur Health Center

This Health Center in Bishindipur, West Bengal, offers homeopathic treatment, free of charge. In India homeopathy is considered the pillar of all forms of treatment, alongside ayurvedic and allopathic medicine, and has found large acceptance amongst the population. Here patients receive treatments on Thursdays and Saturdays.

The Health Camps

Medical care where no doctors are available

If the patients cannot come to the doctor, then the doctor goes to the patients.
In order to bring primary health care free of charge to the people, Prajnana Mission with the support of Hand in Hand, organizes Health Camps in remote and hard to reach areas of Orissa, as well as in schools. Furthermore it organizes programs on health care and distributes brochures containing health care information.

Health Camps are held, together with the teams of the Balighai and Cuttack Health Centers, in the rural areas of Orissa where people live far away from state health institutions, and are sometimes cut off from the outside world by frequent storms or by the roads disappearing. With an ambulance - financed by Hand in Hand - doctors, pharmacists and carers are driven to these isolated places.

At the Health Camps, specialists are working alongside general practitioners such as gynecologists, obstetricians, pediatricians and surgeons, and all are tending to the rural population. Pathology laboratory tests are part of the diagnostic equipment. Those patients who need a particular examination are transferred to the nearest hospital. Emergency cases can be taken by ambulance to a clinic, and, wherever necessary, all expenses are covered by Hand in Hand.

Health Camps are also held, at regular intervals, in several schools of the particularly underprivileged district of Kendrapara. School girls and boys receive a health certificate and have to undergo check-ups. They are vaccinated, and can also receive some dental treatment (see MMDU).
Children receive pedagogical instructions on health care with doctors teaching them how to brush their teeth and how to keep ears, nose, mouth, etc. clean. Reading material with colorful pictures and diagrams are also distributed.

In the fishing villages of Konak and Penthakata near Puri, the regular Health Camps have become an institution. These villages situated on the Bay of Bengal are considered to be particularly structurally weak. For this reason the Balighai Health Center organizes a Health Camp every 14 days.

MMDU and Ambulance

Doctors on wheels

he mobile medical and dental unit MMDU - financed by Hand in Hand - is a portable dental medical surgery that operates mainly along the coast of Orissa. It allows a large number of dental and general medical examinations to be carried out, without much effort or investment.
The ambulance, on the other hand, can guarantee the transport of seriously ill patients to remote hospitals.

The converted van of MMDU is equipped with two dentists’ chairs, medical instruments and a small laboratory. It therefore acts as a substitute for the Health Care Centers and clinics that are often more than 100 km away. Depending on requirements, a doctor or a dentist, a pharmacist or an assistant, can take it in turns to work on board the van.
In the course of a Health Camp in schools a health screening is conducted. Among the pupils many oral cavity problems, as well as cankers and dental diseases, are always detected. One week later the MMDU arrives and treats the teeth of the previously screened pupils, and provides them with information on dental prophylaxis. If necessary other medical treatments are also given.

The ambulance carries seriously ill people. It also transports the team who conduct the Health Camps to remote villages and schools. These villages and schools are sometimes hard to reach, especially during the rainy period when a number of already bad roads are washed away.