“For he who has health, has hope; and for he who has hope has everything.” -Owen Arthur

Switch India collaborated with ATLAS COLLEGE to organize a free Rural Health Check-up Camp for the underprivileged population residing in Elephanta Islands on 5th May, 2024. 

Elephanta Islands is situated in the Arabian Sea, with almost nil access to healthcare personnel, services and medications. The population residing on the said Island has to travel Atleast an hour by ferry boat to Mumbai or Uran to access any kind of healthcare. Hence, the need to organise a health camp at such a difficult location. But switch volunteers, as always, took up the challenge.

A briefing call was scheduled on the prior evening to orient everyone about the flow of the camp.

We assembled at Gateway of Mumbai at 9.30am from where we took a ferry boat to the Elephanta Island. Upon reaching the island we took a toy train to reach the main market area of the island. From there we had a 15 minute walk (almost a trek) to reach the spot where the Sarpanch of the village picked us up in his truck. He dropped us to the camp site- a school where we conducted the camp. This entire journey took us about 2 and half hours with some snack and masti breaks.

The Sarpanch welcomed us with a bouquet of flowers. We started the camp at 1.15pm. We were 8 medical volunteers. We divided ourselves over 5 tables which were responsible for checking vitals, general health, dental examination, physiotherapy and counselling.Total 16 patients were screened at the camp.

The most common problem that we observed in the population were lack of adequate nutritious diet, low intake of fluids, poor dental hygiene and lower back pain. We made sure to educate them about their situation, prescribed medications and suggested lifestyle modifications. People needing additional care were advised to visit appropriate higher centres. There was also a team of 3 laboratory technicians who collected blood samples for blood glucose and serum cholesterol estimation.

The expected beneficiary count was 100-150 but as the camp timing was the same as that of the business hours of the population, the turnout was lesser than expected.

Post the camp at 4pm, we walked all the way back to the main market. We all were hungry and had maggi at a stall in the market. We shared our experiences, insta handles, laughed and made memories for a lifetime! From there we headed back to our homes.