LHC Activity Day at AIIMS Shelter Home

It has been 40 years of the declaration of Alma Ata, that health is a fundamental human right and the attainment of the highest possible level of health is the most important worldwide social goal. But still, it is clearly evident that poor health condition is one of the most deteriorating things experienced by a patient and their family.

Saturday, June 8, I along with Love Heals Cancer(LHC) team of volunteers had an intense visit to AIIMS shelter home and experienced the same. The visit was a bittersweet experience. It was immense joyous but simultaneously there was some ache.

AIIMS(All India Institute of Medical Sciences) provides a wide range of super specialty care services. And patients are queued for a year or so for free/cheap treatment. AIIMS shelter home provides the facility to live for patients and their families at a highly subsidized price of Rs 10/20/30 per day. But the shelter homes are space crunched and there are chances of nosocomial i.e. hospital-acquired infections. The scenario of the living condition of patients and their families hits hard emotionally, but after interacting with them there comes out many brave stories of different heroes, struggling for a fundamental right.

There are courage, positivity, and love in them even in this extreme situation. So much love that even a single interaction with them left us awestruck and zoned us out of all the materialism and our tiny problems. While interacting we got to know, what we are living, is a dream for most. And it questioned really hard my contentment from life.

There were diversity, peace, love, pain, hope and so many other strong emotions in that single room. People are living in grievance away from their home fighting health, economic and social issues. And a single visit from any random person makes them full of the joys of spring. They no longer remain a sad story. They become alive, at the moment, in the activities, in the conversations.

Darpan Bajaj — Playing guitar for the kids and elders

We had a music and drawing session with the kids and elders, and it was the most soulful, most connecting activity I ever had. It wasn’t like things were better now for them or for us. Our problems were still the same and were still there. But, we all were lost in the moment. It was bigger than those sorrows, issues. The experience was really content. It was infinite. 💛

I was never a much fan of going school daily as a kid. But knowing that most of the kids are attending a nearby school made me feel overwhelmed. They were active and confident. And way better in drawing/painting if you compare my skills even now.

They didn’t have the power to choose what they are into but those smiles proved, they certainly do have the power to fight against it, to stand strong, to support themselves and their loved ones.

The shelter home is not merely a subsidized place to live for patients, it is a home full of alive stories. Stories which are heroic, which tell about resilience.

See more pictures from our visit in this gallery — https://imgur.com/gallery/hZnnk1L

A selfie of our team of lovely volunteers -

Gautam(Myself), Mamtha, Neha, Shweta, Darshana, Darpan, Nikhil, and the lovely kid Shani from the shelter home itself(Left-to-Right)

Credits

Co-author — Arpita Dadhich

Editor — Gautam Prajapati