Disha opens its doors .....a memorable day!

Disha Hospital has officially opened its doors in Lio ka Guda near Udaipur Rajasthan. On Sunday 31st October, Disha was inaugurated by Maharaj Kunwar Sb. Shri Laksharaj Singh ji Mewar (the Prince of Udaipur, above left with Dr Deepak Babel) and several hundred guests attended the ceremony.

Now we are open, we can provide high standards of medical care to villagers in the area, and we are arranging walk-in clinics staffed by Dr C.S. Babel (below left with the Prince), Dr Deepak Babel and Dr Meetu Mehta.But providing medical care is only the start of our work. The long-term success of this project lies in our ability to educate the people of rural Rajasthan about the value of healthcare at the most basic level, so they will be sufficiently motivated to make decisions for themselves.

The Raven Charitable Trust will be working with other NGOs in the area to enable us to access the rural villages and we have incorporated a conference/teaching room and accommodation for visiting doctors at the hospital.

We are embarking on a Disha Health Literacy programme, involving medical experts and educationalists, who will work together to ensure that the basic healthcare needs of rural communities are met.

By working together, the Disha team can evaluate which medical facilities need to be provided in local communities, and the Health Literacy programme can be developed to meet specific needs.It is already agreed that there are key areas that need specialist input:

• General healthcare and hygiene

• Nutrition

• Women’s healthcare (Gynaecology/Obstetrics)

• Children’s healthcare (Paediatrics)

• Healthcare education

RCT is also committed to setting up a research programme and evaluating the data it collects through interaction with patients and their families. At present there is little or no data available on rural communities in Rajasthan. RCT recognises that reliable statistics and information will form a significant role in bringing change to rural India, particularly when outside support, both in terms of manpower and finance becomes available in the future.

Dr Deepak Babel is heading the innovative part of our programme involving Thalassemia and other children’s blood cancers in Udaipur District.Charlotte Raven, founder of the Trust (above right), is working with Dr Meetu Babel (above left) on a Women’s Healthcare programme to provide better healthcare for women and children in outlying communities.

With construction completed, the first part of the RCT project is finished. Now our real work begins!

On site in Udaipur - work continues despite heavy monsoon rain!

Udaipur, India 4th August 2010

I have just returned from a week in Udaipur and this is how the hospital looks. India is currently in the grip of much-needed monsoon rains, so work on site has been considerably slowed down by the weather. But work continues on the interior.

We have water and electricity and work is now concentrating on the interior, where walls are being plastered and floors laid (above). I spent much of the week on site helping with interior plans and looking at furnishings and the plan is to open the hospital when the monsoon rains are over. We are also deciding how to best use the land adjacent to the building and at the moment the plan is to have a medicinal garden on site.

We said a big welcome to our first "Gap Year" helper, Bertie Hamilton from Canford School in the UK (above). He is helping me to set up a programme for 2011, for students planning to visit India in their year off between school and college. Bertie remains in India looking at the options and we hope to announce an India Gap Year programme later in the year. We are looking at volunteer options in Udaipur, Jaipur and Goa, so that students will be able to combine different work experience options within India. More on this in the next couple of months. If you are interested, please mail me on: charlottesraven@gmail.com.

Onwards and upwards ... work on first floor

Hope that you have all had a peaceful time during the holiday season. As we get to the end of December, you can see that work is progressing really well on the hospital and that construction is no going ahead on the first floor. This is how the building looks right now and Deepak has just sent these photographs from India.

I was there just a month ago (in fact I landed in Delhi on 28th November) and you can see how work has progressed since our last blog entry. We are hoping to have the roof on the first floor by the end of the month and will keep you posted, so do check in again later this week.

We would also like to say a big thank you to all who have donated over the holiday period - every penny counts and we are very grateful to all our benefactors! We are now looking at names for the hospital, and would like to hear from any of you who have suggestions.

Deepak and Charlotte

The beginning....

Every story has a beginning, a middle and an end, but this story is just beginning, and I hope that as more of you follow it, we will begin to progress to the middle.  At the moment, the end is a long way off, but with hope, hard work and determination, we will eventually reach the end!

This story starts a while back, but I won't bore you with all those details - it is the recent history that matters.  In November last year I travelled to India with my husband.  He had never been before and we had a wonderful trip touring Rajasthan, visiting many of the places that I had been to when I was younger and working in India, and some places that were new to both of us. But ten days into our trip, my husband became unwell and was admitted to a hospital in Udaipur, where he was looked after by Dr Deepak Babel - a truly caring and committed doctor, who not only saved his life, but has since become a friend, along with the rest of his family.

It was because of Dr Babel that my husband recovered and we were able to return home to England so that his treatment could be continued there.  Six months later my husband is well again, but our involvement with India, and Udaipur in particular, has led to The Raven Foundation - a charity that will eventually build and operate a hospital outside the city for the village people who are unable to access medical help.