DFS is a platform for volunteers from the medical and non-medical professions to help the needy
December 26 2004, tsunami struck the southern coast. Dr Dayaprasad G. Kulkarni was an intern at a hospital in Kolar. He raised about Rs 2 lakhs and went with a couple of his doctor friends to Nagapattinam to help with the relief work. After which he “knew I had to do something more.”Armed with a MBBS degree from the Devaraj Urs Medical College, Kolar, he did a stint with Doctors Without Borders in Chattisgarh treating villagers who were affected by the Naxal presence there. “I realized that there were international doctors working these areas, but our own Indian doctors were absent,” says Dayaprasad. “In fact, there are so many international organizations like Red Cross and iVolunteers but specifically for the medical fraternity, there isn’t anything on a national scale.”
After a master’s degree in clinical research from UK, Dayaprasad returned to India and started an organization for the children and people from the marginalized society – Madhyama Prasaran and Scientific Research Foundation. Dayaprasad met with Venkatesh Murthy, founder of the Youth For Seva, and was soon associated with Doctors For Seva (DFS). He speaks of DFS: “Doctors For Seva was created in 2010 to change the mindset of how healthcare is perceived. Years back, doctors were respected for the services rendered. Today, it is about which hospitals they are associated with. Plus, in healthcare significant amount of money is spent in tertiary care (terminal days) rather than primary and preventive healthcare. The main ideology behind DFS is to create a platform wherein doctors, nurses and anyone in the medical or the non-medical fraternity can volunteer to help provide better healthcare. This also includes homeopathy and Ayurvedic practitioners as well.”
DFS identifies areas needing healthcare, arranges for resources and creates a database of volunteers. It also interacts with the government for facilities and infrastructure. “The idea is to involve the neighborhoods as far as possible,” says Dayaprasad. He is excited about their flagship project Doctor At School that started off in Bangalore last year. He explains: “Doctor at School involves identifying a government school in the neighbourhood and finding volunteers – doctors, hospitals and pharmacies to serve here.” The project has one general pracitioner or pediatrician assigned to a school. He/she along with other volunteers conduct general health checkups for the children at the school during the first three months. Volunteers will hold year round general health awareness programmes every weekend at the school. The following three months will see follow-ups with elective procedures (like deformity correction) taken up. Malnourished children are given supplements. Another three months,, children come up with skits and plays that are related to health care topics. The last three months being school holidays are used for maintaining records and other administration work. “As far as possible, we try to keep things absolutely free for the patients. Neighbourhood hospitals are requested to lend their facilities for free. The best part is that after a year, we now can scale it up anywhere in India. Those interested can use our handbooks detailing the processes involved,” says Dayaprasad. Today the project covers 100 schools.
Dayaprasad has consciously taken the path of community service. “I live with my parents so food and boarding is taken care of. An honorarium comes from my work at Jagruthi Trust, a home for HIV children, and Youth for Seva. I really don’t need much to live,” he says. A theater enthusiast, he has done several plays on the healthcare theme and short films on child abuse and homosexuality. His aim for DFS is simple: Get people involved for something as basic and important as primary healthcare.
If you want to know more about Doctors for Seva contact 9632306256 or send an email to info@doctorsforseva.org. They are also on Facebook.
source: http://www.bangaloremirror.com / Home> Sunday Read> City> Special / Bangalore Mirror / by Jayanthi Madhukar / Sunday, May 27th, 2012