Surgery camp in Dondaicha

This year’s Rotary Day (Feb 23) was a memorable one for the Rotary Club of Dondaicha, RID 3060. The club arranged surgical treatment for 127 individuals, all of them from cash-strapped families and distant villages surrounding this Maharashtrian town in Dhule district.

For over four decades, RC Dondaicha’s annual surgery camp has been a highly anticipated event in the region. “We have so far performed over 8,000 surgeries, addressing a range of medical conditions requiring surgical intervention,” says PDG Shrikant Indani, a member of this club.

Highlighting the camp’s impact, he shares that some people travel over 100km to receive medical treatment that they otherwise cannot afford. “Many come with chronic health issues or ailments that have been left untreated for years due to financial constraints or lack of access to proper medical facilities. The camp offers them a ray of hope, where they can receive treatment from skilled surgeons without paying a single paisa for the operations, medicines or post-operative care.” Many of the beneficiaries are elderly patients whose untreated health conditions have worsened over time. For them, this camp is nothing short of a lifeline.

This year’s camp successfully facilitated 80 minor and 47 major surgeries, all performed at the Sub District Hospital and the Suvidha Hospital — both an integral part of the club’s project over the years.

Indani recalls instances where timely surgical intervention proved lifesaving. “A villager who arrived for a knee surgery was diagnosed with a malignant cyst, saving him from an undetected cancer. Similarly, a woman who came in for a lipoma removal was found to have a malignant tumour. Over the years, we’ve witnessed many such people whose lives were saved through these camps.”

The camp offers a ray of hope, as disadvantaged people can receive treatment from skilled surgeons without paying a single paisa for the surgery or medicines.

The hospitals’ well-equipped facilities ensured patients received high quality care before, during and after surgery. Medical professionals not only performed the procedures, but also helped with the pre-surgical evaluations to ensure patients were fit for surgery. “Our club has built a strong partnership with these surgeons, and a dedicated team of Rotarians works tirelessly to ensure the camp’s success year-after-year,” he adds.

Indani thanks club members Dr B L Jain, Dr Omprakash Agrawal, Dr Kunal Bachchav, and the local surgeons Dr Kulkarni and Darshan Kulkarni, who performed the surgeries. Club president Pankaj Jain, project chair Ankush Agarwal and club secretary Brijesh Agrawal ensured that all aspects of the camp — managing logistics, medical supplies and patient care — ran smoothly. “With continued support from donors such as Shyamlal Agarwal, Aalay Surgical and Gama Surgical, and local leaders, we will be able to carry on this noble tradition for years to come,” he says.

Chartered in 1979 in a dry region with a few scattered industries, RC Dondaicha now has 50 Rotarians. Its permanent projects include an eye hospital, a mobile clinic, a school educating 1,500 students, and a microcredit society that has been supporting small and large businesses for two decades now. Indani shares an interesting note on its genesis. “When we started the eye hospital, funding was a major challenge; most often, we had to dig into our pockets for the hospital’s recurring expenses. That’s when we launched the microcredit society which now has deposits of ₹35 crore.”