Please help Mother Pavitra

Pavitra is pictured here lying on the floor of her single room house. This is where she spends most of her days. Pavitra is the mother of three children. Her oldest daughter is 17 and she has two younger sons. She has been suffering from a blockage in her kidneys, with pain and swelling for the last 6 months.

Doctors say that she urgently needs an operation to remove the stone, otherwise her condition will continue to deteriorate and her kidneys will be further damaged.

Pavitra used to work as a private housecleaner but lost her job as she has been unable to got to work for several weeks. Her husband pulls a cycle rickshaw and earns less than Rs3000 per month (US$67).

Please help Pavitra to get this urgently needed operation. She is booked for surgery at Agra District hospital and can travel there in the Food for Life ambulance, but we need your support.

Her operation and medicines, including transport to Agra will cost Rs21,600 (US$478). If you can help with part of this expense, please contact me immediatly at rupa@fflvrindavan.org

Dont forget baby Varsha!

Please don't forget that we are still trying to raise US$141 for Baby Varsha's treatment. See blog post (September 24). As you can see from this photo, after a few weeks of receiving medical treatment and being cared for in the Sandipani Muni school nursery, she is already looking much better. Please dont forget that none of this is possible without your support.

To die is cheap in India!

About one in 70 women in India die from pregnancy-related complications, compared with one in 7,300 in developed countries, according to the latest international figures.

Human Rights Watch said there was evidence that Indian hospitals regularly turned away poor patients who could not afford to pay for services.

"When we take a woman for delivery to the hospital she will have to pay for her cord to be cut, for medicines, some more money for the cleaning. The staff nurse will also ask for money," said one health worker in Uttar Pradesh state.

The report came days after a study by Save the Children said 400,000 Indian newborns die each year from preventable causes within 24 hours of their birth.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jCcrRUym-oHVvKtTYaBUa7eRv4MA