Prayas Farewell 2011

As the T2 batch completes it's journey in the college, we bid them farewell today so that they can move on to bigger and better things in life. We hope that this spirit of kinship will grow stronger with time. We wish that wherever they are, their time with Prayas always stays as a guiding light which gives them the hope and the strength to do good for others even in the darkest times. Goodbye !

Diwali at the observation home

Today we celebrated diwali with the children at the observation home. It's a well managed place in the traditional sense. But you can't call their living conditions ideal, they more of like 'meet the minimum official requirements'. That's not the kind of childhood you would wish for your own kids. Somewhere between neglect of the society and the shortage of such observation homes in India, the condition of the inmates has been deteriorating over the years.

We wanted to take them a gift. They specially asked us for crackers instead of sweets. Every rich 'seth' tries to compensate for his sins at Holi and Diwali by distributing ladoos. Feeding them something nutritious for the rest of the year isn't that glamorous. So crackers it was. They weren't allowed to light those by themselves. Safety reasons I believe. We organized a magic show for them too. Had a good time, sang some songs, made them dance, danced with them. And came back with a heavy heart..

Diwali with a purpose

This year, the diwali celebrations by the Care India Medical Society were held at our own Dhanvantari auditorium. We had a chance to interact with the Congress MP Ms.Priya Dutt. She also announced that the Nargis Dutt Cancer Foundation will support Vishranti Hospital from now on. (click here for the newspaper article). 

It is always an extreme (if not happy) experience to listen to the families of the patients who have either survived or succumbed to cancer. It helps a lot. It's not something a patient will say to you when you are taking his history at the bed-side. It takes lot of courage to cry in front of a hall full of people. It's like laying bare the innermost core of your emotions. No amount of palpation or auscultation can help you elicit it in clinical practice. We are thankful to Care India and Vishranti to make us a part of this experience. We hope that all of our Diwalis have a purpose from now on..

Skit on female foeticide at Sainik Sammelan

Today we had the chance to reach out directly to the jawaans through the sainik sammelan at Dhanvantari Auditorium at AFMC. We presented our skit on female foeticide in front of the audience which was very lively compared to our previous encounters. It is probably the last repeat of this skit as we are working on new stories and means of communication. But we will always remember the months (yes, you heard it.. months!) of hard work put into the making of this 10-minute performance. It gave us experience for the future and the strength to work for our purpose. We hope that the legacy continues forever.

Educational Skit at Wanowrie Bazar

We presented a repeat performance of our skit on female foeticide in front of the residents of Wanowrie Bazar today at an event organized by the PSM dept. AFMC. It was taken with enthusiasm even by the non-hindi speaking people of the community. The event was graced by various dignitaries, notably the Comdt. of Armed Forces Medical College, Air Marshal GS Joneja, VM. We hope that next time we would be able to do some educational event in marathi so that the local population can appreciate it better.

We would like to appreciate the hard work of the participants:

• Prabhjeet Singh Bathla
• Anurag Seth
• Kamesh Gupta
• Shivani Handa
• Juhi Varshney
• Jyotsna Sharma
• Akshay Mishra
• Tooba Mariyam
• Paridhi Gupta
• Prerna

Skit on Female Foeticide

The Gurudwara Sahib, CH(SC) recently celebrated the 407th प्रकाश पूरब of श्री गुरु ग्रन्थ साहिब जी. We made full use of the opportunity to spread our message to the masses by presenting an educational skit in front of the devotees. We would consider this effort to sensitize people against female foeticide successful if it leaves some impact even if small, on the minds and hearts of the audience. You can see the recording here if you have missed the live performance.

We would sincerely like to thank The O i/c Gurudwara Sahib CH(SC), members of the Organising Committee, all the actors, the audience and all those people who contributed even in the smallest manner to make the event possible. We hope that we would get more such chances to reach out to the masses in the future too, so that we can contribute to the dream of building a country that we can be truly proud of. Jai Hind.

Independence day at Mamata Bal Sadan

Today we had the pleasure of visiting a wonderful organization ममता बाल सदन, located in Pune. It is run under the flag of 'सप्तसिंधु महिला आधार बालसंगोपन एवं शिक्षण संस्था ' founded by 'Mai' Mrs. Sindhutai Sapakal. Her life and struggles have already inspired numerous people. She was refused shelter at her husband's home after she had a clash with some landlords over women's right to wages. She left the home and gave birth to a daughter at midnight all alone. This situation brought the turning point in her life. She now gives her own surname to every orphan that comes to her organization.

The organisation tries to fulfill all the needs of orphan children including education and emotional support. It was an awe inspiring experience to see the social structure of the place. Instead of an over-disciplined or over-controlled formal institution, the place struck us more as a closely knit extended family. The elder children took active part in the care for the young ones, just like a family. We had a good time listening to their poems and jokes (though we needed lots of translation to understand the marathi ones). They were very enthusiastic about the cricket kit that we brought them. So we ended up in their little playground. We played with them, shared jokes, and well.. some people were even able to find their younger selves in these kids. The picture given below is dedicated to all those 'Judwaa' moments that we encountered during the day...

The day came to an end with a special lunch which we had sponsored for them on the occasion of Independence Day. Some people out of us had a little trouble eating without spoons though.. but the small papad chips make quite a substitute for spoons in times of needs.

We bid farewell to them in late afternoon in the hope of meeting our newfound friends again..

You can support this organization and know more about it by visiting www.mysaptsindhu.org . Mai now spends most of her time travelling to all the corners of the state and motivating people. In words of 'Mai' herself...

देवा ... आम्हाला हसायला शिकाव ...

परन्तु... आम्ही कधी रडलो होतो...

याचा विसर पडू देवू नकोस..

God ! Teach us to smile..

But let us not forget,

we had cried some day.. !

Symposium on addictive substances

Today we conducted a small educational lecture in front of the children of a nearby school. The symposium was meant to spread awareness about addictive substances among the school children and encourage them to stop the use of such substances if they are already involved with them. This was based on various reports which indicated that the use of such substances has been on a rise among the students. The topics discussed included alcohol, tobacco, cigarettes and inhalants like correction fluid, etc. We hope that in the future we get more such opportunities to spread awareness in the community. (And ofcourse, to interact more with children. I guess, Prayas club just loves children... that's why most of our activities mainly revolve around the young-ones !) 

It was a very intense experience for all of us. We entered the school in the middle of the lunch break, with the heavy projection equipment and a white bedsheet in place of a screen. The audience were getting more and more impatient as the teachers tried to control their hue and cry. And thanks heavens, for the first time in a very long time, everything worked as it was supposed to work... but trust me, after this day i have abandoned all hope of becoming a school teacher. Now i have decided to be a college professor, they are paid much more for much less trouble...  :) 

Place: Mhadaji Shinde High School, Wanowrie

Time: between 2:30 pm to 3:30 pm on 3^rd of August, 2011

Audience: School children of ages between 14 years to 18 years and the teachers.

Participants: Medical cadets Aanchal Singhal (V2), Souvik Nandy (U2), Avijit Singh Chauhan (U2), Om Panda (V2), Tanuj Madan (U2)

Special guest: Air Cmdr. Ajoy Mahen (HOD,  Dept. of PSM, AFMC)

Patient helped

This month, we were not able to do much in terms of routine activities due to examination season.. but in our spare time we managed to help a few people.

Mr. Vishwanath Kshirsagar has been an employee of AFMC's tailor shop for a long time. He complained of hearing difficulties, for which we took him for a checkup at CH. He was found to have severe to profound hearing loss in both ears. He could not afford a hearing aid at his present salary. So, with the help of Ayodhya Charitable Trust we were able to provide him a set of hearing aids free of cost. His condition is now better than before and he can carry out his day to day work with more ease.

We would like to thank Col. S. Patyal (Dept. of Ophthalmology) for referring the patient to us and Col. S.Girish (Dept. of Otorhinolaryngology) for his warm support during the work-up. We would like to thank Mrs. M. Kumkar for her time and care, and Cdt. Souvik Nandy and Cdt. Omveer singh chahar for their huge efforts during the whole procedure. And we would also like to congratulate Ayodhya Charitable Trust for the wonderful way they are running there organization. You can contact them on the address give below. We hope that more such organizations come up in future for community service.


Ayodhya Charitable Trust,  Near SRP, Gate No. 2, Vikas Nagar, Wanawadi Village, Pune-411 040 Ph: 020-26874460  Fax: 26856809 E-mail: ayodhyatrust@yahoo.in

A visit to Manavya

This sunday our group of 15 cadets visited Manavya: Gokul. It is a home for HIV afflicted children. It was started by Late Smt. Vijaytai Lawate in 1997. It provides housing, nutrition, education, medical care and treatment to numerous such children. Their current strength is of 52 children of all ages between 4 years to 18 years. They run a school upto 8th Standard, after which the student appear for exams through National Open School. Manavya's staff is caring and loving and encourages them to live a normal life. We played with the children, heard them sing, and saw their classrooms and hostel. The children were looking mostly healthy and playful. We wish, that this exemplary institution continues it's work with such grace and perfection for a long time. You can learn more about them here

Silhouettes 2011

Silhouettes and AIIMBT is the name of our annual cultural and sports festival which takes place in February. Representatives of various colleges from all over India come to attend it. Prayas Club also has it's share of activities during the fest this year...
 

1.A blood donation camp was held on 15^th and 17^th of Feb, during which 32 cadets from AFMC donated blood at our blood bank. Caps carrying the symbol of AFMC blood bank were distributed to the blood donors later on. The camp was handled by Med Cadets Sowmya sethumadhavan (v2), Anurag seth (w2), Ravi N. Hota(t2) and Souvik Nandi (u2).

  2.The dramatics this year featured four events on 15^th and 17^th of Feb. During each of the four events, a special certificate and a cash prize was given from the behalf of our club for “The best socially related theme”. We thank Med Cadets Om panda (v2) and Preeti negi (v2) for their co-operation.

3. The hobbies club event “T-Shirt making” was sponsored by us on 17^th Feb. The topics given were..

a)   Is the patient only a malfunctioning machine for a doctor ?

b)  Medicine is the most successful business of modern times.

The t-shirts which were thus made were kept for sale to collect funds for the club. The remaining had been stored with us for display. We appreciate the efforts of Med Cadet Anukriti (v2), Nidheesh (v2) and Dipurajan M.D. (v2) for helping us organize the event.

4.   A special promotional video-clip was screened at Dhanvantari on 15^th Feb. It emphasized on the need of organizations like Prayas Club and urged the delegates from various colleges to create similar organisations. Med Cadet Arun Parashar (t2) was responsible for the direction and narration of the clip.

Along with this we would also like to appreciate the contribution of Med Cadet Adil Nishad (w2), Gaurav Agrawal (v2), Lalit K. Tripathi (v2), Prateek Kaushik (v2) who helped us from time to time during the events.

Silhouettes can prove to be a very useful social event for our club. Some more ideas were there, which were not executed this year due to lack of previous planning. We hope to develop it further as a platform to spread the message of medico-social work to students coming from the outside colleges in the coming years. 

The gift of vision

We recently had the pleasure of having some guests from Khor village. These were some very kind hearted elderly people who came to our hospital for treatment. The Ophthalmology department had done a wonderful job by holding an eye camp in their village which is near Kasurdi. The poor, uneducated patients were  brought to Pune and operated for Cataract in the Command Hospital (SC). We tried our best to look after them during their stay at the wards and during the pre-operative check-up. The department held a small ceremony for observing the World Glaucoma Day after all the patients were treated. They left for their home soon after that with smiling faces and a new sight. 

We would like to congratulate the Ophtalmology department for their successful endeavour. We would also like to thank Mrs. M. Kumkar for her inspiring hardwork and Cadets Dipurajan (V2), Divya Kochar (V2), Sowmya (V2), Deepak Kumar (U2), Mayank Jhanwar(U2) and Souvik Nandi (U2) for contributing their valuable time and labour. We hope that we continue to recieve such chances again in the future.

Screening Camp for Prostate disorders

This screening camp for screening of prostate disorders in elderly population was organized under the aegis of Care India Medical society. It is a unique public charitable trust incorporated in Pune in Feb 1993 with the objects of bringing Public Awareness on Cancer, Cancer Early Detection and providing Palliative Care to the advanced stage cancer patients at home. You can know more about them here

08 Medical cadets from Prayas Club participated in the event. They helped the elderly patients while various tests and procedures were being carried out and helped in the smooth running and organization of the camp.

You can read the story published about us by The Sakal Times.. click here

Republic Day celebrations 2011

A total of 43 Prayas club members celebrated 26th Jan 2011 with the children at SOS Village Balagram. This institution is looking after 200 children who are either orphans or homeless. The purpose of this visit was to inculcate in the children values of nationalism and pride of being an Indian. Prayas Club members had collected money and bought Flags, balloons, chocolates and distributed them amongst the children at SOS Balagram.

The Prayas club also organized a motivational and entertaining slide show which was enjoyed by the children. The Prayas Club members spent time and played with these children to make them feel special.

Pulse Polio Day 2011

The volunteers of Prayas Club, 17 of them participated in the conduct of Pulse Polio organized under the aegis of SHO Pune. The activity was carried out through the day from 8 AM to 5 PM. The Prayas members were placed at two booths, Civil OPD and MI Room AFMC. The students learnt the nuances of organizing a Pulse Polio drive and importance of cold chain. The students immunized 246 children at the two booths.We would like to thank the Station Health Officer for her support and enthusiasm..

Diwali celebration with leprosy patients

We visited Bhandorwala Leprasorium at Kondhwa today.  A team of about 26 members along with the OIC Prayas Club. Laddus were distributed in the wards where we went to meet them personally. We later had lunch with them in their small community dining room.

The nearly 200 patients there have formed a small community within themselves. You could have called it a small village if it were a little larger.

Introduction

The medical profession has undergone immense change with rapid advances that has been made in diagnostics and therapeutics. While this has helped in better management of patients, it has also made some adverse impact on the clinical medicine and the art of medicine has taken a beating. The changing socio-economic environment has placed money above the noble principals of medicine, thus compensating the values of this noble profession. There is a pressing need for including and inculcating the humane values and qualities of empathy and compassion in the doctors of 21st century.


Keeping these things in view, was born The Prayas Club, Armed Forces Medical College (pune). It is an initiative of the medical students toward medico-social work...

Our Mission

To equip budding doctors with humane values of medical care.

Our Vision

To inculcate values of compassion, empathy and care in them.

Our Motto

Service to mankind is service to God.