Tags
Doctor, donation, free, Oral Health, practice, preventive therapy, support
I always had high regards to doctors. They save lives most of the time irrespective of the hardships they have to go through. They will be hailed as Gods when they successfully complete a surgery, or will be trashed to earth when they fail to do so. That is one profession you cant afford to take chances. I know a plastic surgeon, when he cut his chin while shaving was afraid to treat patients because he deals with children. That is the importance they give to their patients.
Irrespective of the line of practice they always have a serving mind. How can we negotiate with a person who is saving, reconstructing faces and lives day in and day out? But we still complain about the costs and the way they earn money.
I have this friend in Madurai who is a dentist. He was working as a safety scientist with Accenture. He gave up his job and left to Madurai to pursue his dream in dental medicine. He has recently set up his own practice with lot of difficulties thanks to the set up fees for a dental practice. He was earning handsome here. He wanted his service to reach more people.
One day when a 8 year old boy with poor oral condition came to him, he was shocked to know that he hadn’t been to a dentist at any point of time in his life. Whenever he complained about pain, he was treated with pain killers. He wanted to help him by doing the correct procedures. But the financial condition of the family and our loan struck doctor did not allow them to do it.
Knowing someone is in trouble and be helpless is the worst thing a man, let alone a doctor can face. The locality the poor boy lives doesn’t have many good dentists around and the government school he is studying doesn’t know anything about routine medical check ups for students. Thanks to a like minded ENT doctor, who agreed to provide space for practice, the dentist came up with a plan.
The plan is this. To create a free preventive dental therapy for kids which will also cater adults in a subsidised cost. The furniture and other things were sourced from different sources like Free cycle groups, Second to none groups etc. However setting up a dental practice is not a small task. A basic set up will cost around 1 Lakh. My friend with his savings and remaining loan amount can ready a 22 thousand rupees. We are still 77 thousand rupees short to create this dream come true.
When he told this to me I was amazed. He just relocated to a town which is surrounded by villages. He will not get money to live luxurious life there, it will help him to sail through. That is all. So why is he doing it? He said he wanted to give back to the society, the place in which he grew up. And he cant bear the oral health negligence these people practice. I asked him again, what will the people who donate will get out of this, since this is free treatment and he has to appoint a fresh graduate? He is ready to provide life long free dental treatment for the people who donate. They can even pass the coupon to their relatives in Madurai and get 50% discount in total consultation charges.
All because he wants to give back to the society.
When I wake up, even I cant bear the smell of my mouth. When an infant or elderly salivates very less people offer to clean it up if they are not directly related. But these guys do it day in and day out. All these days, I thought its their job and it is for money. But I am proud of this young doctor who wants to give back to the society.
So that is it, We need 70 thousand more to establish. However, with available funds we have tentatively planned to start this free service by end of June. We are looking for donations, however small it might be. Trust me, it is in safe hands and you can check in with the concerned person any time of the day. He is the one who is offering 24/7 phone and Skype support for his patients for free in Madurai.
Small or Big, I am going to donate my part and I wanted this to reach more people. If you can donate, you can contact the person. If you feel, this as a worthy cause you can share it in twitter, Facebook Pintrest or even forward the link to someone whom you think he may help.
The person to be contacted is Rajanna Venkatraman. He blogs here, here and here. You can Skype him at rajannadr or add him in Facebook.
How many times have you seen a worthy cause dropped because of less funding? How many times have you seen a able youngster working towards something useful and beaten down? If you can, donate a small amount that you can afford or forward it to someone who can.
Please help him and put healthy smiles on thousands of kids.
Image Courtesy – http://www.guardian.co.uk