Saturday, February 6, 2010
After a sleepy-eyed breakfast, we had our bags brought down to the lobby and then loaded onto our motor coach - our rolling home-away-from-home for the ensuing days. We boarded the bus and said good-bye to the hotel. The incoming president of the Delhi-Megapolis Rotary Club, Vikram Sahny, had met us in the hotel lobby (as well as the previous night at the airport) and he would be our guide for the day.
He wanted to take us to a project with which his family has been involved since 1996. It was located on the outskirts of Delhi, known as Najafgarh.
The facility served as a home and school for destitute children - those who were the offspring of leprosy sufferers, who were considered unclean or untouchable, although none of them actually suffered from the same disease - tainted by association. The gentleman who is overseeing this particular facility has a dream - to build a hospital facility where everyone, including the poorest of the poor will be able to find care. At present, there is no medical facility of any kind within a twenty-mile radius.
When we arrived, we could see what had grown from one tiny building located on a less than a quarter acre, to several buildings that served as dormitories and classrooms, as well as the beginnings of a hospital facility set apart from the main buildings. We were taken on a tour of this facility, where all construction materials have been donated by one source or another. The structure is three stories, with critical care and medical office to be located on the ground level, and treatment rooms and patient wards on the upper two levels. What is so very special about Rotary is the amazing networking which occurs almost without prompting. Within only a few minutes of beginning our tour of the building shell, two or three members of our ROTARY DREAM TEAM - INDIA 2010 offered suggestions for obtaining perfectly good but used medical equipment which hospitals in the USA are compelled to discard, simply because of age. The founder indicated this would be all well and good, but was concerned because of the different electrical current in the United States and India. Immediate answer from John Steen. "since all such items including EKG, CT Scanners, Ultrasound equipment, etc, use 220 current, there will be no issue." Along with us from the local Rotary Club, in addition to Vikram was another member, who happens to be employed in customs and immigration. We checked with him, and although duty will have to be paid on this equipment, it will be at a low level, since the equipment is used and therefore, diminished in value, at least for taxation purposes.
Following our tour of this dream hospital, we walked across the lot to the school yard where about fifty children and staff members greeted us with wonderful smiles and an enthusiastic "Welcome, suh" to all of us. When each of us entered the school yard through the gate, two girls of about twelve years of age, showered each one with rose and marigold petals. In addition, the men of our group were all garlanded by boy students, while the women received their 
garlands of marigolds, from girls. The master went on to explain that one of the women who works there had been found in a ditch several months, raped and left for dead. Since local police knew of the benevolence of our new friend and head of school, "the police literally dumped her at our gate for us to care for her." After several weeks of loving care, this woman was restored to good health, although permanently scarred from a psychological standpoint, but rather than walking away, she wishes to repay her benefactors by volunteering at the facility. It was also explained to us that several of the children are mentally handicapped, but upon greater observation, we felt that many of them were simply victims of physical and psychological trauma, and were very fortunate to have been brought here.
After a few more minutes, we returned to our bus for a ride of about three hours to Sanjiv's farm near Sohna. There we would once again meet up with the POLIO VISION TEAM, as well as officials from the WHO and local medical facilities and some members of the Rotary Club of Delhi-Megapolis. We would enjoy a wonderful lunch and hear several presentations about current statistics regard
ing polio in India, more specifically in Haryana, as well as a presentation by a member of another Rotary Club from Delhi - Atul Dev, who would inform all of us as to the scope of the water harvesting project where we would be working in Teenchvala for the week following the NID. We learned from Dr. Singh that only a few days ago, perhaps one week, a new case of polio had been confirmed in Bisru, where some of us would administer drops of vaccine the following day. Also joining us at this luncheon was Past Rotary International Director, Sushil Gupta, who had driven all the way from Delhi, just to be with us to not only encourage us in our efforts to END POLIO NOW, but also the share his personal involvement with the water harvesting projects and the foundation which oversees them. We were served a delicious meal, with something for everyone's palat
e. During all of this time, the "money man" came to provide personal currency exchange services to all of us who needed them. A few members of our team also distributed our team shirts to all of the members. This year, our shirts were sponsored by Mikini Embroidery of Sanford, Maine and Club Wizard - a provider of software for Rotary Clubs everywhere, for maintenance of Club and District websites. We are so fortunate to have this support.
Time to depart from the farm and drive to our home for the coming two days - the Hill Fort in Kesroli. That trip requires its very own entry!
After a sleepy-eyed breakfast, we had our bags brought down to the lobby and then loaded onto our motor coach - our rolling home-away-from-home for the ensuing days. We boarded the bus and said good-bye to the hotel. The incoming president of the Delhi-Megapolis Rotary Club, Vikram Sahny, had met us in the hotel lobby (as well as the previous night at the airport) and he would be our guide for the day.
He wanted to take us to a project with which his family has been involved since 1996. It was located on the outskirts of Delhi, known as Najafgarh.
The facility served as a home and school for destitute children - those who were the offspring of leprosy sufferers, who were considered unclean or untouchable, although none of them actually suffered from the same disease - tainted by association. The gentleman who is overseeing this particular facility has a dream - to build a hospital facility where everyone, including the poorest of the poor will be able to find care. At present, there is no medical facility of any kind within a twenty-mile radius.
When we arrived, we could see what had grown from one tiny building located on a less than a quarter acre, to several buildings that served as dormitories and classrooms, as well as the beginnings of a hospital facility set apart from the main buildings. We were taken on a tour of this facility, where all construction materials have been donated by one source or another. The structure is three stories, with critical care and medical office to be located on the ground level, and treatment rooms and patient wards on the upper two levels. What is so very special about Rotary is the amazing networking which occurs almost without prompting. Within only a few minutes of beginning our tour of the building shell, two or three members of our ROTARY DREAM TEAM - INDIA 2010 offered suggestions for obtaining perfectly good but used medical equipment which hospitals in the USA are compelled to discard, simply because of age. The founder indicated this would be all well and good, but was concerned because of the different electrical current in the United States and India. Immediate answer from John Steen. "since all such items including EKG, CT Scanners, Ultrasound equipment, etc, use 220 current, there will be no issue." Along with us from the local Rotary Club, in addition to Vikram was another member, who happens to be employed in customs and immigration. We checked with him, and although duty will have to be paid on this equipment, it will be at a low level, since the equipment is used and therefore, diminished in value, at least for taxation purposes.
Following our tour of this dream hospital, we walked across the lot to the school yard where about fifty children and staff members greeted us with wonderful smiles and an enthusiastic "Welcome, suh" to all of us. When each of us entered the school yard through the gate, two girls of about twelve years of age, showered each one with rose and marigold petals. In addition, the men of our group were all garlanded by boy students, while the women received their 
garlands of marigolds, from girls. The master went on to explain that one of the women who works there had been found in a ditch several months, raped and left for dead. Since local police knew of the benevolence of our new friend and head of school, "the police literally dumped her at our gate for us to care for her." After several weeks of loving care, this woman was restored to good health, although permanently scarred from a psychological standpoint, but rather than walking away, she wishes to repay her benefactors by volunteering at the facility. It was also explained to us that several of the children are mentally handicapped, but upon greater observation, we felt that many of them were simply victims of physical and psychological trauma, and were very fortunate to have been brought here.After a few more minutes, we returned to our bus for a ride of about three hours to Sanjiv's farm near Sohna. There we would once again meet up with the POLIO VISION TEAM, as well as officials from the WHO and local medical facilities and some members of the Rotary Club of Delhi-Megapolis. We would enjoy a wonderful lunch and hear several presentations about current statistics regard
ing polio in India, more specifically in Haryana, as well as a presentation by a member of another Rotary Club from Delhi - Atul Dev, who would inform all of us as to the scope of the water harvesting project where we would be working in Teenchvala for the week following the NID. We learned from Dr. Singh that only a few days ago, perhaps one week, a new case of polio had been confirmed in Bisru, where some of us would administer drops of vaccine the following day. Also joining us at this luncheon was Past Rotary International Director, Sushil Gupta, who had driven all the way from Delhi, just to be with us to not only encourage us in our efforts to END POLIO NOW, but also the share his personal involvement with the water harvesting projects and the foundation which oversees them. We were served a delicious meal, with something for everyone's palat
e. During all of this time, the "money man" came to provide personal currency exchange services to all of us who needed them. A few members of our team also distributed our team shirts to all of the members. This year, our shirts were sponsored by Mikini Embroidery of Sanford, Maine and Club Wizard - a provider of software for Rotary Clubs everywhere, for maintenance of Club and District websites. We are so fortunate to have this support.Time to depart from the farm and drive to our home for the coming two days - the Hill Fort in Kesroli. That trip requires its very own entry!
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