DOCTOR COUPLE WHO ESTABLISHED A HOSPITAL FOR TRIBALS
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Regi George and
Lalitha, Tribal
Health Initiative, Sittilingi, Dharmapuri
District, Tamil Nadu
www.tribalhealth.org |
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Tribal Health Initiative, a medical programme established by the doctor couple Regi George and Lalitha at a remote village Sittilingi in Dharmapuri District, Tamil Nadu, in 1993 now covers about 10,000 people in 21 villages and treats about 1000 people every month.
Regi George, who grew up in a well-to-do Christian family, was troubled by the plight of the poor even as a boy. After reading the biography of Dr.Albert Schweitzer, he knew what he was going to be. Lalitha, his wife, whom he met during their MBBS years at Alappuzha Medical College, was inspired by Vivekananda’s statement that “The greatest act is doing good to others.”
After working in Kasturba Hospital in rural Tamil Nadu for a while, Regi hitchhiked all over the country looking for remote areas where their services would be of use. Finally they decided to establish their project at Sittilingi where no doctors lived and the telephone was 88 km away.
Their first few months were disheartening, as no one seemed to trust them. But one day, as a last resort, a tribal man requested Lalitha’s help to save his wife from dehydration.
That was the turning point. From a mud-and-brick shack the THI has now grown into a 10-bed hospital with operation theatre. They have trained about 19 women to act as nurses and an additional 25 to provide basic medical treatment to their fellow villagers.
To a question whether it has been worth it, Regi replies pointing to a smiling old man whom they brought back on his feet after paralysis: “Look at Ponnan. What greater reward can there be than his smile?”
The hospital
Courtesy: Mohan Sivanand, Reader’s Digest, September 2001
Contributed by: Administrator
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