In January 2023, another team of 6 medical student volunteers from Perth travelled to India for a 3 week stint at the Institute for Indian Mother & Child (IIMC). They took over suitcases of medical supplies such as blood pressure cuffs and glucose monitors, plus women’s sanitary gift packs.
On a daily basis, they attended the IIMC outdoor rural clinics in the mornings, helping the volunteers to take blood pressures and providing any other assistance as required.
In the afternoons they visited the patients staying at the inpatient clinic and kept them company, playing with the kids and helping the women there practice their english.
They also visited the “disharee” – the disability centre – where they played with all the children and read with them.
Every night for the first 2 weeks, the volunteers had dance classes with the children from the disharee, where they trained for a performance in front of 1000 people at the IIMC annual children’s festival.
The volunteers delivered a presentation about basic hygiene and skincare during the winter months to around 100 Indian volunteers who were the “healthcare workers” for their villages, for them to in turn teach the other people in their villages.
The team also took part in IIMC’s sponsorship programme, where they each visited the homes and met the families of the sponsor children, and travelled rurally to areas around Dhaki where they visited schools and clinics.