Health

Who has health has hope.

And who has hope has everything.

– Proverb

Health Centres

The “Hariharananda Charitable Health Centres” (HCHC), like all HAND IN HAND projects, are the continuation of what Paramahamsa Hariharananda, out of love and compassion, laid the foundation decades ago. In 1999/2000, with the support of HAND IN HAND, the organisation PRAJNANA MISSION established the first two Health Centres for the provision of free medical care to people living in dire poverty. The first HCHC was established in Cuttack and the second in Puri in Odisha, one of the poorest states in India.

Just four years after the opening of the first two HCHCs, another Health Centre was established in Bhisindipur; and in the same year, in 2004, the first children were admitted to the newly opened Balashram Residential School. Attached to the school, is also a Health Centre, which is one of two “Village Health Projects” (VHP); it is open four days a week for the residents of the surrounding villages. A second Village Health Project was established in Athagarh, in 2012.

The HCHC Health Centres fill the volunteers working there with a lot of commitment, faith, and joy. “The smiles on the faces of the patients who have been helped and their amazement at being cured”, is how one of the doctors described his motivation to volunteer at the Charitable Health Centres. The first Health Centre in the district of Cuttack (in the State of Odisha), in particular, has had an unprecedented development and is now a respected and widely known Day Hospital in the town of Jagatpur.

The number of patients is growing and, thankfully, so do the services on offer. Two Health Centres have become four plus a Day Hospital, and all together, provide a wide range of healthcare services to the underprivileged population of Odisha and West Bengal.

Dr. Ashok Kumar Mohanty, a pioneer of HCHC, and many others offered their services at the first Health Centre in Jagatpur (Cuttack). Balighai (Puri) was particularly busy, says Dr. Mohanty: “All the doctors left Puri early in the morning and returned from Balighai late at night. In just two weeks, we had treated 500 to 600 patients. Many of my doctor friends in Cuttack helped out, and with heart and soul we gave ourselves completely to this work in the HCHCs.”

Dr. Ashok Kumar Mohanty

HCHC Cuttack 1999

HCHC Balighai 2000

HCHC Arua 2008

HCHC Athagarh 2010

HCHC Bhisindipur 2010

HCHC Jagatpur 2014

HCHC Jagatpur

The Jagatpur Health Centre, which was established in 1999, is now a renowned and widely-known Day Hospital offering modern allopathic medicine, physiotherapy, laboratory tests and examinations, as well as an emergency ward. The clinic also offers Mobile Medical and Dental Services during Health Camps, in urban slums and remote rural areas. In addition to the traditional medical treatment of symptoms, they also introduced preventive measures, such as yoga. The idea is to help people who live in poverty, to become familiar with sustainable health measures.

HCHC Balighai

Allopathic, homeopathic and ayurvedic services are offered at the Balighai Health Centre, which opened in early summer 2000. Besides general medical treatments, skin treatments are offered regularly, as well as dental treatment and physiotherapy twice a month.

This Health Centre also develops offers for the promotion of health, among which is yoga.

HCHC Bhisindipur

The Health Centre in Bhisindipur, in the state of West Bengal, offers homeopathic treatment twice a week. Outpatient eye treatments are offered every two months using a mobile ophthalmometer and eye drum.

HCHC in Arua

A small hospital with a focus on allopathy and homeopathy has existed in Arua since summer 2004, within the Balashram Residential School to which it belongs. As a “Village Health Project”, it has been open four days a week since 2010 to treat patients from the surrounding villages. Dental Camps are also held twice a month.

HCHC in Athagarh

The Village Health Project in Athagarh is HAND IN HAND’s smallest VHP focusing on homeopathy. It is open seven days a week. Dental and eye treatments are also offered fortnightly.

Mobile Medical and
Dental Unit (MMDU)

In addition to the Health Centres, the Mobile Medical and Dental Unit (MMDU) has been in operation since 2002, travelling at regular intervals, to rural areas of Odisha that are difficult to access. This allows the population in those areas to receive medical and dental care, as well as to participate in camps held to raise awareness of the value of “health” and how to maintain it.

The MMDU is a complete and air-conditioned vehicle consisting of two separate spaces: one is equipped with a modern dental treatment chair, and the other with a narrow device used for simple operations.

Medical Camps

These are mobilized in urban slums, hard-to-reach rural areas without adequate infrastructure, and during disasters, to provide rapid relief. Twelve such mobile emergency stations were set up in Odisha in 2019, after the enormous destruction caused by the cyclone “Fani”. These Medical Camps also play an important role during major Indian festivities – such as “Ratha Yatra”, the “Festival of Chariots”, at which hundreds of thousands of pilgrims and tourists from all over the world take part.

Usually, the camp team sets up a tent near the processions, where sick or exhausted people can find shelter, receive medical care, and drinking water which is distributed outside the tent.