American good Samaritans help rural India with medical equipment
During the Covid pandemic, the Rotary Club of Silicon Valley for Global Impact and Indian Covid SOS, a voluntary organisation in the US comprising scientists, clinicians, engineers, policy makers, etc, came together to collect money and send medical equipment known as BiPAP/CPAP, a kind of a simple ventilator, for use by primary health centres in remote and rural parts of India.
RID 2981 IPDG Balaji Babu explained that each of these machines costs around ₹70,000 and comes in two parts, which are detachable. This machine is also a kind of non-invasive, and a more basic form of a ventilator, and has been donated by the Rotarians and other philantrophists in the US, with the objective of bringing relief to patients in remote and rural PHCs, which lack adequate medical equipment.
This medical equipment has been donated by the Rotarians and other philanthropists in the US, with the objective of bringing relief to patients in remote and rural PHCs in India, which lack adequate facilities.
According to information available on the Net, BiPAP is primarily used to treat heart, lung and neurological disorders that require structured airway support during sleep. Both CPAP and BiPAP machines are available with a range of accessories. “It was decided to give these machines to rural areas where they are required not only for Covid-related but other ailments as well, particularly suffered by children,” says Balaji.
It’s an ongoing project and already 126 machines have been received and donated to rural areas. He adds that PDG Ramesh Hariharan, from RC Silicon Valley Global Impact, who had earlier worked with him for doing a project in Karaikal, and hails from Palakkad in Kerala, got in touch with him through a zoom meeting. He had coordinated the raising of funds, getting the machines and sending them to India, through a joint initiative titled Volunteers from United States of America and India (VUAI). While some machines have been given to rural areas near Chandigarh, Bengaluru and Hyderabad, three machines have been given to GH, Mayiladuthrai, Tamil Nadu, in July 2021, and others have been given to several remote PHCs in RID 2981, including the hilly areas close to Kodaikanal, Ootacamund, etc.
