The following Report was published by DAWN in a social networking site.
Reported deaths of workers due to starvation in the tea gardens of Dooars had been bothering many of us this past winter, and it was the death of Sunita Oroan which made us realize that merely writing out our outrage on Facebook and other social media forms is not going to help. That is when a group of us decided to do something to help the starving workers ourselves, instead of waiting for the government to intervene.
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| DAWN ORGANIZES HEALTH CAMP AT RED BANK T.E |
The formation of the Darjeeling and Dooars Tea Workers Relief Organization – DAWN was necessitated due to government inaction, and we are thankful to all of you for your support, encouragement, enthusiasm, ideas and willingness to step-up and help.
People who are from Darjeeling and Dooars region, and those who are associated with our region gradually started to connect with us from across the world, and offered to stand with us in our mission to provide help and relief to our brothers and sisters in the tea gardens who are in need.
With incredible support from our volunteers, our donors, our supporters, local people, and our collaborators – “We With You” and “Kalimpong Deurali Sangh” we were able to organize a medical camp on the 22nd of June, 2014.
Dr. Sharon Foning and Nurse Asmita Chettri from Kalimpong, and Dr. Chaudhari from Siliguri led the medical camp, with the help of around 20 volunteers.
We were able to provide check up for around 250 people, majority of whom were women and children. The locals are suffering from all kinds of ailments related to starvation and malnutrition. Majority of the women are anemic, and almost all the patients had some or other forms of chest ailment. Children are suffering from malnutrition and are severely deficient in vitamin and minerals.
Thankfully, we had enough of basic medication and we could provide antibiotics, vitamins and basic cough syrups to the patients. However, what we have provided is merely temporary relief and we will be working towards providing a long-term and permanent solution, for which we will need all of your help.
We thank Dr. Sharon Foning, Dr. Chaudhari and Nurse Asmita Chettri whose incredible help, commitment to helping the society and love for our community made this medical camp possible… You all cared and stood up, when many others chose not to. On behalf of DAWN and our members, we thank you guys from the core of our hearts and we hope that you will continue supporting our cause.
Team “We With You” and “Deurali Sangh, Kalimpong” were more than partner organizations, they were the force that drove our mission forward. Thank you guys so much for making the camp a success. Thank you for helping us from collecting medications to distributing them. The success of the camp is all due to you. We look forward to more such collaborative partnerships in the future.
We thank Mr. Shakti Thapa of Red Bank Tea Garden who has been our pillar of support in the area from day one. Mr. Shakti has been of tremendous help to us to liaison with the locals appraised us on their real issues and problems facing their community, and helped in setting up the medical camp. This camp would not have been possible without all of your help.
Ms. Sandhya Pradhan from Gorkha Channel has been of incredible help to us, in documenting the Red Bank issue and also the medical camp. Thank you.
We thank all our volunteers from DAWN, “We With You” and “Deurali Sangh” for your kind help and support.
Last but not the least, we thank all the donors who have helped and supported us, what we are doing would not be possible without your generous support. Thank You!!
What started as a small group of people wanting to act, instead of react… led to the formation of the Darjeeling and Dooars Tea Workers Relief Organization – DAWN, and we are hopeful that more people will join our cause.
Source: Darjeeling and Dooars Tea Workers Relief Organization – DAWN
