India’s managing director had been planning for SevaChild founder Rick Carlton to arrive for weeks. With the assistance of his only staff member and more than 20 volunteers, he had arranged for Rick to attend a vitamin A administration event in a remote tribal village in Telagana, and another in the largest slum in Hyderabad.
Nayakuni Thanda
The first function took place in the rural village of Nayakuni Thanda about three hours’ drive from Secunderabad in Telagana State. Accompanied by our event coordinator, a professional photographer and a videographer – each of whom had generously volunteered their time to help SevaChild document the undertaking – the journey took us out of the city and into the increasingly rural and undeveloped Indian outback. Finally arriving at Nayakuni Thanda, we were greeted by village parents and elders, the latter performing a traditional welcome dance. Then it was on to the business at hand: distributing vitamin A and albendazole (an antiparasitic medication) to the village children.
By morning’s end, we had attended to more than 100 village children who would have otherwise remained vulnerable to the ravages of vitamin A deficiency disorders (VADD). And judging by the profuse thanks received from the village elders, the proud expressions on the faces of the mothers and the beaming faces of their children, the villagers of Nayakuni Thanda were very grateful for SevaChild’s intervention.
Gabillalpet
The second affair took place in Gabillalpet, the largest slum complex in Hyderabad, where over 200,000 people live in abject poverty. Its inhabitants make their living scrounging through mountains of trash, then selling huge bags of the garbage to a company that re-sells it to a recycling center many miles away. The parents eke out scarcely enough to survive, and most of their children are hungry, malnourished and uneducated.
We began dispensing the vitamin A early in the morning to allow for parents to escort their children before heading off to work, and we persevered throughout the day as other parents wandered in after work with their children in tow. By the end of the day, hundreds of children had been supplied with life-giving doses of vitamin A and albendazole.
