The food distribution drive was organised by Robinhood Army on 31st of January 2021. SWITCH India was responsible for conducting the medical drive.
Switch India members (Sagar & Vasudha) met at Lonavla station at 9:30 AM on a sunday morning 31st January. Soon after, the Robinhood Army members started assembling. They came in by cars and private transport. There were a lot of food packages that had to be moved, about 100. Each bag weighed about 20-25 kilograms.
The packages contained whole grains, poha, rice and other dried grains. Wafers and biscuits for children along with cooking oil boxes were also provided. A brand called True foods provided granola and muesli for distribution. There were a variety of dry slated seed packets (pumpkin seeds, flax seed etc). Apart form the foodstuffs, daily use items such as soaps, blankets, toys and artist material, and first aid kits were included in the packages that had to be distributed among the families of the village.
The packages were stacked up on the platform of the railway station. The train was supposed to take us from Lonavla station to monkey hill station from where it was a small trail to Umbarvira village.
When the train arrived it was an open deck maintenance train onto which we loaded all the packages. It had only one cabin for the passengers to assembled in. The train being a maintenance train, stopped every 15 minutes so that the railway technicians could work on the electrical lines and other equipment. We reached the drop off point in about 4 and a half of hours and started walking down the trail to Umbarvira village.
The people of the village were ready to offload the packages and welcome us to their village.
There were roughly 60 families living in the village, most of them women, old aged persons and children. The reason for this demographic being – young people from the village migrating to cities in search of jobs.
On speaking with the teacher of the village, we found out that there had not been any visit by the government doctors in their village since the lockdown (March 2020).
First thing we did was to line up boys and girls of the village to distribute deworming medicines (Albendazole tablets). We made sure every kid took the medicine and also provided them with water.
During this deworming drive I noticed a 7 or 8 year old girl who had very rough and scaly skin. The girl’s mother was advised to take her to the nearest government hospital to get the condition checked.
There was a 10 year old boy who had swelling on both sides of his cheeks and his temperature was also elevated. He had difficulty opening his mouth and pain on any movement. We asked his parents about his immunisation and they weren’t sure about him receiving any vaccines in the recent years. We advised the parents to take the child to the government hospital for immediate medical attention.
Meanwhile Vasudha gathered adolescent girls of the village in a group. She asked them about their menstrual history and practices. On finding out about the lack of availability and their poor understanding of using menstrual pads/tampons, she explained to them about various menstrual hygiene practices.
The mothers and older females were waiting to get the packages. We asked them about the food they eat on a daily basis which included – Rotis made of wheat flour, Bhakri made of rice flour, vegetables available in the area, dal and rice. Then they were explained about the benefits of a well balanced diet. We told them to incorporate the foodstuffs RHA had provided in their diets.
We taught them how to use a first aid kit which contained sticking tape, cotton bandages, savlon antiseptic and iodine cream.
After we finished this, we were supposed walk up a trail following the old Mumbai Lonavla railway line to reach Thakurwadi Village Cabin (not a railway station but trains stop there for signal). We reached our pickup point at 5:30pm and got on to the train for Lonavala.
Altogether it was a great experience working with Switch and RHA!
