Oprah Winfrey has rightly quoted "Helping others is the way we help ourselves". This camp not only let us help people but also proved to be a great source of learning.
Switch India, in collaboration with the Robinhood Army, arranged a paediatric camp in Ambedkar basti at Wadgaon Sheri, Pune on 1-09-19.
We, a batch of 6 medical students, walked through the meandering lanes of the basti only to reach a house and witness more than 50 children smiling and welcoming us.
As the camp commenced, we catered to 65 children and 9 adults. Each child had to undergo a small anthropometric examination before we actually examined them.
Most of the children were well nourished, barring a few. Deworming was done for each and every child. We learnt that a lot of the children had dental caries and bone pain when they were thoroughly examined. Quite a few children had swollen tonsils. Thus, we referred them to doctors accordingly.
The camp was then concluded by a talk on menstrual hygiene and practices that they should follow. We, volunteers, had a conversation with every girl above the age of 10 years regarding this and made sure that they were no longer shy about it and were well equipped to face their first period!
All in all, these three hours spent with the children, trying to help them and make them aware, were indeed golden for me. Thank you, Switch India for this opportunity. I went home with not only a wonderful experience but also the widest of all smiles.
