Woman bedridden, waiting for heart surgery

Pictured above is Kamlis. This is how she spends her days because two of the valves in her heart are not functioning. She can hardly breathe and cannot walk at all. Doctors say that he valves have become thickened due to an infection.

Kamilis is from Sakaraya village and her husband, Yadram, works on casual construction work jobs. She has two sons, one 10 years old, one 12. Last week, Yadram came to FFLV begging us to save his wife who is around 45 years old and has been bedridden for the last 7 months. She is taking medicine from a reputed hospital, but it is not enough. Her doctors say she needs 'valvuloplastey' surgery to fix the valves in her heart.

Yadram says that if we can pay for the operation, he will find some way to pay for the medicine. We have a quote from the hospital saying that the operation cost will be US$2500. It is a fair amount of money, but we are hoping that you can help give this woman's life back.

If you can help us with some of the cost of this operation, please contact me immediately at rupa@fflvrindavan.org because we need to send her to have this operation as as soon possible. Thank you.

Helping the Helper

Many times volunteers, staff members and myself get frustrated when we try to help people. We wonder why people do not appreciate our help, why they try to cheat us even when we are trying to help them, why they do not do something to help themselves. When we start feeling like this, it is important to remind ourselves that a person's entire life experience dictates how they act towards others. Receiving kindness is a small part of these people's life experience, so it is no wonder that they do not instantly change their behavior. People often find it hard to believe that someone wants to help them with no strings attached, and they have learnt the hard way not to believe kind words.

Those of us who are interested in helping need to remember that poverty, is not just about lack of money, there are so many other effects, such as lack of self worth and lack of education and lack of cultured company. It is no wonder that people often do not act to help themselves. We have to remember that our work is like the waves of the ocean, the waves can wear away the rocks on the cliff face but they cannot do so immediately; only by perseverance.

Thankyou

Our sincere thanks to both donors who came forward for this case. We have accepted the donation of US$150 from Danielle Marcos for this case and our other kind donor, Luke, is waiting to see the next needy case that comes up. It is great to know that we have your support, we have quite a few cases coming up that we will post as soon as we have finalized the financial details.

Mithun is doing well, recovering nicely from the operation at home. Luckily it is summer break so he is not missing too much school work. He should be back to school when the academic session starts on 1st July.

To the donors,

Two kind blog viewers have come forward to rescue this boy. Both simultaneously the entire cost, so, if one of you is willing to put the money toward the next case (pictured above) or one of the cases that are waiting to get onto this blog, please email me at rupa@fflvrindavan and I will give you details of all the cases that we desperately need sponsors for. Thankyou. Your servant, Rupa Ragunath das.

School Boy in Hospital

One of our children, Mithun, is in Ram Krishna mission hospital after an appendix operation. He came to school complaining of abdominal pain and went to our school doctor who found that his stomach had become very hard, so she sent him straight to hospital. Unfortunately, before the hospital could operate, his appendix burst. He has been in hospital for two weeks but is doing well and has started eating normally. He will be discharged tomorrow.

His father is a rickshaw driver and his mother does not work so they cannot help out with any expenses and we do not like to ask them because they really have no money that they can spare. Ram Krishna mission is a charity hospital, so the bill is not too much, just US$150 will pay for Mithun's surgery. You will also be helping FFLV in our efforts to provide emergency medical care and other much needed medical procedures to our students and to the residents of Vrindavan. What do you think? Can you spare a few dollars?

News Update

India suffers epidemic of stunted kids - researchers
Tue May 13, 2008 11:56pm IST
By Bappa Majumdar
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Malnutrition rates among Indian children are among the world's highest and cause stunted growth in about half of children under five years, researchers quoting their study in the Lancet medical journal said on Tuesday.
These children account for one-third of the global population of stunted children, Robert Black, the lead author of a series of papers published in the Lancet this year, said in New Delhi on Tuesday.
"Undernourished children are more likely to become short adults and to give birth to smaller babies," Black, who is from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said.
"Stunting in the first two years leads to irreversible damage into adult life," he said.
There is much debate in India over the country's level of poverty, with many critics saying that indices like malnutrition remained far too high for a trillion-dollar economy that has been booming in recent years.
Undernourished children also face developmental problems that will deter them socially and economically as they grow older, the researchers said.
They said proper breastfeeding for the first two years of a child's life and adequate vitamin supplements in food could help in reversing the problem.
And from another source:
The report has revealed that every year 2.1 million children in India do not survive to celebrate their fifth birthday.
Of all the children who die, 19 per cent die due to pneumonia, 17 per cent due to diarrhea, eight per cent due to malaria, four per cent due to measles and three per cent each due to AIDS and injuries.

Who says India is a poor Country?

Subject: Black Money In Swiss Bank ~ Swiss Banking Association report 2006

Black Money In Swiss Bank ~ Swiss Banking Association report 2006
Deposits in Banks located in the territory of Switzerland by nationals of following countries
Top 5
India---- $1456 billion
Russia----- $470 billion
UK-------- $390 billion
Ukraine $100 billion
China------ $96 billion
Now do the math India with $1456 billion or $1.4 trillion has more money in Swiss banks than rest of the world COMBINED. Public loot since 1947: It is one of the biggest loots witnessed by mankind -- the loot of the aam aadmi (common man) since 1947 by his brethren occupying public office.
It has been orchestrated by politicians, bureaucrats and some businessmen. The list is almost all-encompassing. No wonder, everyone in India loots with impunity and without any fear.

Bharatji ki jai!

Thank you to our kind supporter Bharatji who is helping Bhagavati to go to school next year. We are very excited to tell her. She will be very happy as she desperately wants to attend school despite how difficult it is for her to walk around. It will be difficult for her to get to school and move around once at school, but she is ready to face these difficulties in order to get an education.

Bhagavati is ready for school!

Last month we posted the story of Bhagavati, and our kind donors helped her get an expensive but necessary surgery on her leg. Now she is doing well and will be ready to start school when the new session begins after summer holidays (July 1st). Unfortunately, she has one problem....and this problem is the same reason that no one took her to hospital when she broke her leg four times...that problem is....she is a girl. This means that her family will not give money to send her to school. The only option she has left is our kind blog viewers....can you help? In order to attend her village school, she needs money for enrollment fees, a small monthly fee and some money for stationary. In total, for her to complete year 11 it will cost US$90.