Medical Centre and Mobile Clinic, India
Shechen Medical Centre and Mobile Clinic in Bodhgaya, India, bring health care to the people of the Bihar region, a population made up of Hindus, Buddhists, and the Dalit caste - a very poor segment of the Indian population with little access to medical help. Seventy-five percent of the patients are women and children.
Shechen Medical Centre is an allopathic clinic and dispensary where patients of all ages and castes come to receive care and medications at no charge. The centre's programs include general medical consultations, a DOTS Program for tuberculosis treatment, family planning, and safe motherhood. Services include a pathology laboratory and electrocardiograms.
The medical centre conducts a medical camp for the Dalit people monthly in the heart of the town of Bodhgaya so that this under-served population can finally have access to basic health care and referral services. It serves as a vital home base for the Mobile Clinic and its staff trains and monitors Karuna-Shechen's health education programs.
Shechen Mobile Clinic is an effective outreach program that regularly visits twelve villages located between 12 and 60 km from the medical centre. It offers free health services to the region's population of 100,000. Each village is visited twice a month by the medical mobile team (a doctor, nurse, and pharmacist). It provides the poor and infirm an opportunity to consult a physician, get treatment and advice, and receive medications. Often even the most basic medical help can save lives, especially for young children. Mothers and children represent 81% of the patients.
Village coordinators work in the villages to train groups of villagers to integrate safe water use, sanitation, and good hygiene practices in their lives. This training and the follow-up home visits have resulted in a significant decrease in health problems. Patients from 69 satellite villages also attend these programs.
Karuna-Shechen has installed a series of deep tube wells in many of the villages to avert the spread of water-borne diseases. It is also actively working on finding other ways to provide safe water including rain water harvesting. Recently a program to install solar electricity in the villages has been implemented.
In an average month, 3,000 patients benefit from the combined services of the Shechen Medical Centre and Mobile Clinic. Working through these combined services and health education outreach programs, Karuna-Shechen responds directly and comprehensively to the basic health needs of the surrounding population.
Shechen Rabjam Rinpoche was the original founder of these two major medical programs. Global Healing and our friends at Google have been our partners in constructing the new building for the medical centre. We have partnered with the Barefoot College to install solar electricity and rainwater harvesting in the villages.