December 12, 2005
Christmas Greetings
Dear Friends,
It has been such a busy fall for us, as it has been for you I
am sure. It is a privilege to have a chance to stop for a time
and sort some of it out by sharing it with you.
For example, I (Scott) had a wonderful experience in a Delhi
slum last month. Delhi has “official slums” and “unofficial
slums.” Life is hard in either kind, but it is harder in
the “unofficial slums.” Official slums often have
electricity, water, even drainage channels. The people don’t
own their houses, so there isn’t too much security, but
facilities are at least minimal. Unofficial slums are the “invisible
slums”; officially, they “aren’t there,”
so they get no services. They are the ones under the bridges,
along the railroad tracks, along the drainage ditches, etc. The
slum I am speaking about is an unofficial slum.
Our Emmanuel Health Association community worker, Rajesh, had
been meeting with a committee that he had created to work on health
issues. At one meeting someone casually mentioned that two kids
in the slum had measles. Our Rajesh was shocked and immediately
suggested that they do a quick survey to see if other kids had
measles. Officially, you see, every child in India is immunized
against measles and most other childhood diseases. Not only is
it embarrassing to have children coming down with measles in the
national capital, but measles combined with malnourishment in
children is 90 percent fatal.
They found 25 children with symptoms of measles, then asked a
local doctor to confirm the prevalence. Next, the committee wrote
a letter to the Public Health Department with the children’s
and parent’s names and asked for a nurse to give immunizations.
Rajesh said that upon delivery of the letter to the public health
official, the whole office flew into high gear. He wanted to know
where this slum was, how were these children found, why haven’t
the children been immunized, how could this have happened? He
promised to get a team of health nurses to the slum in three days.
When officials in India say this, it often means, “We will
probably never be there.”
I was there when the health team actually did roll into the slum
(four days later) and set up a three-day immunization camp. It
was so awesome and funny to watch. Kids and their moms came from
everywhere. Normally, an immunization camp is a very noisy affair.
Kids start screaming before they even see the needle and certainly
begin crying when the needle approaches. These kids had no clue.
Kids 5 and 6 years old had no experience with immunizations and
needles.
They would calmly sit there while the nurse prepared the shot.
“What was she doing?” Once it was over, even then
they would look puzzled as they walked away rubbing their leg
where the injection had been given. |
