Free Dental Camp with JRDT and Banyan Branch 27th April 2006

Dr. Chandra Gupta from Chennai visited one of the villages supported by JRDT today. He screened over 120 children for dental problems. The children were presented with tooth brushes and paste and a full dental report. Advice and instructions on oral hygiene were also given.

We will now have to see how treatment can best be followed up. This will either be in the Dental Department of a Government Hospital, or with a private Dental Practice, depending partly on availability of funding and the transport costs involved.

Many thanks to Dr. Gupta, and also once again to Banyan Branch for co-operation and support.

JRDT with Banyan Branch distributing glasses 24th April 2006

On Monday the 24th of April the glasses which had been prescribed at our recent Eye Camp were distributed. The pictures show Mark King of Banyan Branch ( http://www.banyanbranch.org ) who worked with Raj, JRDT, to organize the camp, and provided sponsorship for the glasses.

JRDT: Giving small food aid to Tribal Family

Our work at JRDT does not only consist of facilitating medical care. Sometimes we can also give a small ammount of food aid. This pic shows a gift of rice to a tribal family. These people are so friendly, but they are not wealthy! They make a living by collecting old plastic bottles for recycling. It can be a hard day's work in the heat for very little money. So its good to be able to give them some rice from time to time as that helps out.

We also managed to help with paying for some repairs to their bicycle.

The house you see in the background took just three days to build. They have lived there for a few years now; but the land is not secure; we hope they won't have to move. No problem so far.

They have two small babies in the family, and have recently held a naming ceremony. We would have liked to help out with the cost of the feast... I don't feel good that our budget would not stretch to this... a few £££s would have helped.. but you can't always say "Yes". Never mind, our friendship with them is strong and we will help again in the future.

Small 'Medical Camp' in Tribal Village. 23rd April 2006

JRDT was busy again today, Sunday. With Dr. Kumar we held a small Medical Camp or Feild Surgary in a Tribal Village near one of the main villages where we work. The people are very glad of this. I am posting some pics to show how it looked.

JRDT INDIA : CONTACT US!

We would really like to hear from people who are interested in our work. It seems that no one can leave a message on this site at the moment, but our email address is jrdt2006@yahoo.co.uk

We also have a web site.. the address is

http://www.jrdt.visit.ws/
Please let us know if you can find the site ok. The site gives a bit more background information about our work, and our plans for the future.

If you like iether this site or the web site do please tell your friends about them. I am hoping to update this site frequently,, almost every day something new is happening in the life of JRDT and in the lifes of the people we work for.

Watch this space.. I hope to tell you lots more as time goes on.

Medical Camp ( Doctor Kumar's visit 9th April )

Raj, Director and Founder of JRDT (in white shirt)






Our budget at JRDT is very small..... we found we were getting through a lot of money each week in transporting people to local Doctors and hospitals. There are several methods of transport. { its too far to walk }. Some times we pay for auto-rickshaws. They are little three-wheel scooter taxis. Its amazing how many people can ssqueeze in.. but still the cost can mount up.

Other times we use busses or hire or borrow a jeep. This is for longer trips to hospitals that are further away, and for patients who are not well enough for public transport. We don't have a jeep of our own at the moment, just a two-wheeler, which is the Indian term for motorbike.

To cut these costs we have started a twice monthly field surgery in one of our villages. We bought a big box of medicines and nutritional suppliments and arranged with one of the local Doctors, to whom we regularly send patients, to come one of the villages where we work and set up a field surgery.

Dr. Kumar gave his services free of charge. This was very generous. Doctors usually charge a consultation fee and make a profit on the medicines. There will be a follow up surgery on Sunday the 22nd of April. We hope this will continue to happen twice monthly.

Recent activities of JRDT

Over the Easter weekend a successful eye-camp was carried out attended by 120 people from rural areas.... 38 people will be recieving free glasses... 7 cateract operations have been carried out... everyone is very happy about this.

JRDT INDIA ( Facilitating medical care )

Most of our work at JRDT involves facilitating medical care. We work in rural areas in Tamil Nadu. A lot of the people from villages here can't afford medical treatment, or the cost of transport to Doctors and hospitals. This is where we step in and try to help.

This pic shows a group of women on the way to one of our recent eye camps. This one was held over the Easter break.

Our main area of work is about 80 kilometers south of Chennai ( Madrass ). Seven of our patients went to Chennai for Cataract operations; one of them missed the transport. She was so upset that our Director kindly took her there by bus. All the operations went well. Glasses were provided for 38 patients.