Kothara Leprosy Mission Hospital August- October 2010.

Leprosy was something we knew very little about and India was somewhere we had never been.  We embraced the new experience! We were based at Kothara Leprosy Mission Hospital in the state of Marahastra for a couple of months. It was a very rural part of India situated at the foot of the mountains. We took a 15 hour overnight train to get there, then another few hours by jeep! India is a place of extremes, great wealth and even greater poverty. Hinduism is the main religion 70% followed by Islam. Christianity totals around 5% of the population.

Founded in 1898 Kothara hospital was originally established as a home for leprosy patients but now is a busy leprosy and general hospital. It is a 90 bed hospital providing specialist ophthalmology, Leprosy and dermatology referral services with ongoing general and emergency services. Leprosy patients from far and wide come to Kothara for treatment. Many of the patients could not afford to pay for their treatment. In these cases the Doctors would often kindly pay for them or would draw upon the "Samaritan fund." The hospital is run by 4 Doctors. Each day the waiting room was packed out with patients waiting to be seen, many of whom sat on the floor. We learned a few Hindi phrases to communicate with patients though we soon realised that we were no match for all the different tribal languages!

Each day began with morning worship in the local church. A ward round would then take place. Afterwards we attended clinics with the Doctors, where we saw a real variety of diseases. We also got to assist in theatre. There was a reconstructive surgery camp held one week for the leprosy patients. The 2 surgeons travel all over India to carry out this voluntary work. The main surgery performed was on the hands to restore function by tendon repair. Claw hand was a common deformity amongst the Leprosy patients. Many of whom were young and so this surgery had a great impact on their lives. Surgery in Ophthalmology was a daily occurrence, many operations such as cataract removal was performed.

We built up friendships with many of the staff and in the evening time we played badminton and table tennis. The Indian people were very hospitable and we were often invited round to try many tasty dishes!

One of the most memorable and humbling experiences was a trip into the mountains to do check ups on the tribal village children. We drove through plenty of rocky terrain to get there! Horseshoe bends galore! The children are sponsored by the organisation of World Vision. We stopped at around 6 different villages. It was a real eye opener to poverty. Many of the children were malnourished and dirty. Lots of the children had huge bellies but stick arms and legs due to tapeworms and protein deficiency. I was saddened when we ran out of medication for the children, a harsh reality for many of the Indian people. We are so blessed in the UK with abundant resources. We will not take this for granted in future.

Rhoda Kelso and Karen Bell