Rishi Valley Rural Health Center

At the beginning of this week I had the privilege of visiting a boarding school near Bangalore called Rishi Valley School. Imagine USN out in the middle of nowhere with a cricket team instead of ultimate frisbee. With a very open yet difficult curriculum, RSV has produced exceptional professionals for over 65 years. On its vast acreage are many projects of all types: bio pesticide testing, a rural education center, water conservation, alternative energy use, etc. The most interesting of all the projects is the Rishi Valley Rural Health Center that has been opened by two doctors, a husband and wife team, Dr. Kartik Kalyanram (RSV class of '75) and Dr. Kamakshi Kartik, respectively. I had the pleasure of spending most of my trip with them as well as taking a tour of the whole campus and the health center.

One of India's many, many problems is health care, and it is a growing one. Lack of education, government money, qualified doctors and nurses are only the beginning of the problems facing a rural area in the realm of health care. Things like reproductive education and health are essentially non-existent - for example, some girls get married and have children so young, they never get the chance to learn about their bodies or learn the simple lessons, like how to have a healthy pregnancy. A story I heard this week involved a woman who went under anesthetic for a delivery and came out of it without a uterus. The doctors failed to mention they had removed her vital organ, so she arrived at RV Rural Health Center in fits because she couldn't get pregnant. The reason behind her panic, she explained, was that she desperately needed to produce a male heir for her husband or risk being beaten and thrown out of his house.

The very ambitious Rishi Valley Rural Health Center Project has made massive leaps and bounds to combat this problem of the breakdown of information and resources. The center is tiny, with only a few rooms and limited technology, but the three doctors there see almost 200 patients per day and provide free care for the cases of TB, AIDS, hypertension and diabetes, eye care and cataract surgery, pediatric care and essentially anything else that shows up in the waiting room. Each patient pays a one time fee at registration equivalent to about 75 cents, and one or two other fees amounting to $2 or so along the way. Some of them will be patients at the center for a decade. The center has an ambulance which can transport the most serious cases to hospitals closer to the city, but for the most part, they do it all on their own.

I was impressed and deeply touched by the dedication of these two doctors, both of whom are educated and qualified to work in some of the best hospitals in the world. Yet they spend their money, and most importantly their time, working for the betterment and well-being of the world's forgotten people. Most of their patients cannot read, they don't have electricity or water, they are starving and they likely will never have enough money to travel outside their village. But in the middle of the night, when their little baby is running a high fever and won't eat, they have the support of the very capable staff at RVRHC. For a very small amount of money, most of these patients can have their health again, and the generous people at Rishi Valley believe they should.

Please read more about this project on their blogspot: rvrhc.blogspot.com There are pictures and stories about a selection of the patients that will make your heart break. It is comforting to know that this is only the beginning of what is hopefully a nationwide movement to bring health care and education to all of India's people. I am lucky enough to be helping out on the education side, and this health center is certainly an inspiration.