Annelies Herikhuisen, The Netherlands - 6th November to 5th December 2015

My name is Annelies Herikhuisen from the Netherlands.

I am studying skin therapy at the Hague University of professional education. The passion for my profession wanted to make me do something good for the international health care. This is my dream. Doing an internship in Asia. Why just stay in The Netherlands? I feel blessed to do it here in Bangalore with AarogyaSeva. During a period of 4 weeks I will volunteer in the Dermatology wards, burns and plastic surgery wards. During my stay I want to experience the India healthcare system, the Indian skin types and the Indian skin diseases.

In addition to my experience in the hospital, I will go to the international conference in Mysore. I will give here a presentation about the profession of skin therapy and what it can bring to the international healthcare. I will also help with the project India Inclusion Summit in Bangalore. It is very special for me that my internship is so versatile. So I get to experience most of the Indian culture and the healthcare organization. I hope I can contribute as much as I can during my stay here. This internship is a perfect combination between the practical side of the profession, see the health care system and to let the world hear what the skin therapists are!My profession is still very unknown around the world, I hope that my profession will develop further in India and elsewhere, so that in the future I can offer the best in the international healthcare. Everyone deserves the best health, because health is the best thing you can have in life.

Soujanya B

Soujanya B is pursuing final year BE from BMS College of Engineering. As a student who  started her college career with no specific objective, she now feels a strong urge to indulge in social work, joining an organisation which works for others. She is happy to have found an opportunity to intern at ArogyaSeva and looks forward to undertake projects for a good cause.

Since early schooling days, she gravitated towards math and computers. She likes computing and frequents tech blogs. She is an avid reader and loves fiction. She fantasizes about studying at hogwarts and playing quidditch! Poetry and music are her other interests.

She is working on customization of OpenEMR for usage in India. She hopes to make the best of this internship, learning new things, interacting with different people and understanding the various arenas of social service.

Shabnam Taj

Shabnam Taj is a 4^th year Engineering student of BMS College of Engineering. She loves Biomedical Science and aspires to pursue a career in Healthcare. She feels AarogyaSeva is a perfect platform to strengthen her career credentials and to work in close association with the doctors. She is working on customization of OpenEMR for usage in India.

She is a peoples person and has hoards of friends. She loves adventure and enjoys traveling, meeting different people and doing new things, thus awakening the explorer in her. She is also fond of poetry. She is training in classical music and dance. She teaches freestyle to school children in her free time. New innovations in Medical technology excite her.

Mitchell Hooyer

My name is Mitchell Hooyer and I’m a 4^th year pre-medical student at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. I am currently undergoing a clinical-access internship at Kanti Children’s Hospital in Kathmandu, Nepal that will last a total of two months. 

I have experience as an EMT in rural Iowa, a Free Health Clinic assistant, and an American Red Cross First Aid Volunteer and enjoy flying a Piper Warrior and trekking in what spare time I have. 

My current collaboration with AarogyaSeva in Nepal has me involved in a refresher training course for local ambulance stations, a pilot program with taxi drivers on First Aid and RTA, and various outreach activities in remote areas around Nepal.

Creative Therapy and Aarogya Seva

Namaskar,

        For two weeks, I get the pleasure of spending it with the medical NGO Aarogya Seva. Aarogya Seva is based in Bangalore and advocates for the medical needs of those living in the city and the surrounding area. I’ve been volunteering with Aarogya Seva for a week and it’s been a great experience to see who they help, what they’re doing, how they’re organized, and learn what experiences I can take back to the States with me to provide better patient care! 

      While this week has been amazing and the different experiences of visiting local hospitals, attending the inauguration of a rural clinic, and visiting local doctors; the moment that I want to talk about now is what we did on Sunday morning! Yesterday, Sunday, we attended a creative movement therapy workshop. It’s part of the Art for Aarogya Festival this week and one of the many workshops, plays, and dances that the organization is putting on to raise funds for their medical projects this year. 

      

     The workshop focused on free style movements to help us learn to better communicate with one another and express ourselves. We went through a ton of fun exercises, including closing our eyes and using our whole bodies to paint a canvas we were ‘enclosed in’. Have you tried to ‘paint’ with your elbows, knees, or nose? Try it, it’s quiet fun! We were also paired up into twos and had to follow the pointer finger of our partner, wherever it led. Needless to say, some of us were jumping into the air and several others found themselves wiggling on the floor, like a caterpillar. Much fun! For the final project, we had to vocally tell our partners what we were doing with our body as we were moving. We had to explain to them, “I am putting my left and right hand on my hips”, “I am placing my right hand on my head and scratching it”, “I am touching my toes with both hands” as we did those motions. 

       The workshop enlightened us that while we think we are fully self aware of our bodies, we hardly are. Throughout the session, we had to be reminded to quit ‘painting’ in front of us and to remember to use our peripheral field and paint all around us, even behind us! Likewise, when we were talking about our body movements in the final session, the instructor pointed out that most of us chose to vocalize the movement of only our hands. What about the movements of our elbows, shoulders, or nose?

       The creative therapy workshop was a great way to start off the week and reinforced the idea that I must look beyond the conventional boundaries of life. A lesson that I easily forget much of the time. The instructor uses the techniques to often work with children with ADD, ADHD, and autism. However, by all means, it certainly doesn’t need to be confined to that. Workplace difficulties, marriage difficulties, scheduled time to hang out with friends, family reunions? We’re always looking for ways to make memories with one another and have fun in the process. Next time you’re stressed, hanging out with friends, or at a family function. Gather a group around you, ask everyone to close their eyes, and paint with your nose!

         

Toby Lamp

Toby Lamp is a Registered Nurse from Fort Wayne, Indiana, USA. Having worked as an ER Trauma Tech, Medical Support Assistant and LPN, Toby has over 4 years of hands on experience. Taking time off to explore the world and different cultures Toby found us on Workaway.com to intern for 4 weeks in Bangalore.

Sneha G Bapat

Sneha G Bapat is a standard 12 student from Pune, Maharashtra. She has decided to dedicate her summer holidays to do what her heart tells her and volunteer with AarogyaSeva in Bangalore for 4 weeks. At 16 she is our youngest intern and has already participated in the TCS Majja Run to support the cause of rape and abuse in India. She is going to spend her time learning, participating in seva activities and helping us with various tasks. Here is what she has to say:

"All our lives, we negotiate about what we want, what we like and what the world wants and likes… We keep on thinking whether to stick to our own choices or to go with the world (flow)(other people’s opinion). There is this conflict between our mind and out heart, where generally the mind wins and we end up putting our choices aside, end up giving up on our dreams. We just tend to go with the world. Follow the Trend! Follow, like Sheep…! We walk the same trodden path rather than making our own trail.

We keep on running round the clock , don’t even have time for our own thoughts forget the others.

We don’t LIVE, we just “E-X-I-S-T”, in a false world, go round in an illusion. Believe and conquer lies. We don’t even know when the day starts and when it ends. So busy with our so called “MODERNESS” , we don’t even breathe leisurely. We follow the same routine everyday, which has somehow become the part of our lives. Everything is so fast-paced that everything else around us is a blur…! We don’t have life in us, we are machines which have been set to do work. We breathe for working, for toiling, for spending our lives in boring and bare office rooms, tying and clicking our soul (life) away.

When we live life happy, sad happy- sad, little do we know what lies ahead or what life has in store for us. It is so true when it is said “ Time is money” people run around the clock doing so many things (chores), laboring themselves till they are all weak and grey and then sit and remember all the days behind and repent and regret and think/imagine how nice it would be if they could just go back and change things, so they could have a cup of tea now with a smile on their lips whenever they think of their past."