[edit] Experience at Health Camp for DSS children in Pune

The children started coming in by 8:30 AM in different slots of 20’s and 50’s, assisted by their coordinators as directed by the DSS members. With everything in place, the camp kicked off by 9:00 starting with issuing of Health Cards to each kid. The Vibha team had been allotted three rooms in the school, out of which one room was dedicated to check-up activities and the rest were assigned for creativity activities and games for the kids. Once the health cards were issued, the kids were taken in for Height, Weight and Chest measurements. Then these kids were checked for eye, dental, cardio-vascular, ENT and other related problems. The idea behind the check-ups was to find out if any child needs immediate attention regarding some disorder that might go unnoticed otherwise. Kids who were referred for further check-up will be followed up by Vibha and DSS by involving their parents.

While the check-ups were being done in one of the rooms, the biggest challenge was awaiting the volunteers in the other two rooms. There were other kids waiting for their turn for check-ups. Team Vibha was well equipped and completely prepared for this challenging task right from the beginning and the hot Sunday sun could not roast away their high spirits. There were drawing activities and fun games lined up for the kids which kept them high spirited throughout the day. It was really surprising to find some great artists among these kids and it was a heartening experience for all the team members to spend such great time with those creative and lovely kids.

There were arrangements in place for re-hydration drinks for all the volunteers, doctors and the kids and food was provided too all present on the camp. In the end, it was an exhilarating experience for the team to see the camp ending with big smiles on the faces of all the kids and everyone involved. The team got bear hugs and thanking notes from the kids who were simply delighted to spend a beautiful Sunday with them.

The camp would not have been successful without the constant words of encouragement and guidance from Mrs Rajani Paranjpe & Mrs. Sangeeta Banginwar, from DSS. Special thanks to Dr. Venkatesh, Dr Gayatri Aghashe, Dr. Renuka Surpur and all other physicians and dentists, who took out time from their busy schedules to be a part of this camp and made it a success. All the Vibha volunteers were delighted after another successful camp. Same volunteers conducted similar health-camp for 100 kids in Bahuli village(40 kms from pune) last weekend in collaboration with Rachana group. Team plans to come up with similar activities in future.