Across the harsh hilly terrain rife with dangers

Through your giving be an ‘essential extra member’ of a team of health workers now working in an inaccessible district with limited access to healthcare.

It’s hard to imagine not having healthcare nearby, isn’t it? Travelling many miles on a bus while you or your loved one’s condition is constantly deteriorating. It upsets me to even think about it.

But this is what happened to Raj when his four-year-old son Sahil became seriously ill in the remote village they live in. Hoisting Sahil up on his shoulders, he made the trek down the narrow hill path, walking almost 5 miles to get to the nearest road. It took two bus journeys to reach Chinchpada Christian Hospital (CCH), many hours after they left home.

When Sahil arrived he had a fever and looked very pale. His red blood cell count was extremely low. The normal haemoglobin level of children is 12-14gm/dl. Below 6.5gm/dl the child’s life is at risk: Little Sahil’s level was just 3gm/dl! The CCH team has seen too many children like Sahil, so no time was wasted giving the urgent care he needed, saving his life.

Sahil needed several blood transfusions. He gradually got better, and was started on medication that will help prevent future severe anaemia and pain crises.

Bringing care closer to the community

Raj would not have taken his son to the hospital at all if it wasn’t for a CCH community health worker who visited his village. Seeing Sahil before he became seriously ill, they encouraged his father to take him to CCH to start the preventative treatment he needed.

CCH has trained and purposely placed four health workers in this inaccessible district as it has very limited access to healthcare.

These hardy, dedicated souls provide basic healthcare, do palliative care home visits and identify unseen suffering people who need treatment at CCH.

‘Some of the seriously ill request our health workers to accompany them to the hospital, since they had never been to a hospital in their lives,’ says Dr Anna John. ‘So our team members end up accompanying them at unearthly hours at night to our emergency room. The journey across the harsh hilly terrains rife with dangers of wild animals and landslides during rains is not easy to say the least.’

Will you help save more lives like Sahil?

The situation where Raj and Sahil live is dire. For many, making the difficult journey to hospital in this inaccessible area is too hard. ‘When illness strikes, they don’t even bother thinking about healthcare, beyond their local witch doctor and the indigenous healer in the village who is easily accessible,’ explains Dr Ashita Singh. ‘Disease takes its natural course without any medical intervention at all.’ Families have tragically lost young children to diarrhoeal diseases, pneumonias, and snake bites.’

The community health workers are saving lives that in the past would have been lost.

But they can’t do this work without generous supporters like you. Would you consider making a regular gift?

£8 a month could help cover one day’s stipend for a community health worker
£25 a month could help pay for community based palliative care for one patient for a month
£50 a month could help pay for the inpatient costs of a destitute patient unable to pay for their healthcare.

You will be an extra essential member of the team, saving lives like little Sahil and bringing pain relief to cancer patients. It will make such a difference.