Calcutta Rescue travels 200 km on average per day to distribute rations and medicines to the beneficiaries. Especially after the brutal attack of the Second Wave the desperation to keep the beneficiaries safe in higher among the CR staff.
And is it the same among the beneficiaries as well. The lockdown meant that trains were not running and therefore CR’s patients were unable to travel from their villages to our clinics for their life-saving medication. Our team prepares each patient’s medication and nutrition bag in advance and they are called the day before and informed of the tentative time and location where to meet our vehicle on delivery day. They dutifully wait for CR team to get their medicines.
One such patient is Achan. He met CR staff near Jaynagar on one of the two arterial roads that lead to the Sunderbans – 70km away from our Tala Park Clinic.
Achan is 13 years old and a happy child. He is small for his age because he has a severe heart defect. Born with a hole in the heart he now has patent ductus arteriosus (PDA), which is an opening between two blood vessels leading from the heart. This causes poor eating, breathlessness and chest pressure. The medication helps to lessen the symptoms and improve the quality of life but due to increasing severity our doctors are now contemplating surgery.
Achan lives 70 km away from Calcutta Rescue Talapark clinic. He was accompanied by his mother and father. Achan‘s father had ridden his cycle van to our meeting point with Achan and Achan‘s mother sat on the back of the van. They had travelled 30km from their village to meet CR team. It had taken them nearly 3 hours. They were drenched – the monsoon rains had been lashing down since the morning. The family were shy and grateful.
The cycle van was their source of income, which Achan‘s father used to carry goods from godowns to shops and retailers. Achan‘s mother told me that the family was earning Rs.250 per day, around Rs.6500 per month before coronavirus. During the pandemic, their income had less than halved. Small businesses had closed in their area and an oversupply of cycle vans meant less work.
She said there were very few income-generating opportunities in existence anymore. Sadly, she also said they weren’t eating quite as well as before. They were eating fewer meals, relying heavily on main rice to fill their bellies, and with Achan requiring good nutrition, this could be a risk to his health.
Achan‘s mother collected the medicines for her son, and his father loaded Calcutta Rescue’s 15kg dry food rations bag onto his van. As they mounted the van the rain suddenly got heavier, and they pulled a plastic sheet over their heads for protection. They looked cold.
We bid them farewell and they then cycled off on their 3-hour journey back home.
