Angel's Medical Camp...

There is a youth group in Hyderabad who sets free medical camps for Hepatitis B & C patients in Mori Mangar, Tando Hyder - a small village outside Hyderabad, every three months. This youth group has started organising medical camps after they attended Active Citizens Workshop back in January 2010 and are proving themselves to be Active Citizens!!

But why are they doing this?

Because every year numerous precious lives get wasted due to these killer diseases, and the locals aren't much aware about the causes and prevention of these diseases, let alone seeking remedies.



The village is located near an industrial area. This is the very place where red bricks are baked and are supplied to the entire country for various construction purposes. The poor village men and women work day and night diligently to bake as many bricks as they can to earn more money, as they get paid for every brick they bake. Unluckily, these innocent creatures aren't informed that the chemicals they use in baking bricks can and does cause skin cancer.


Hence, the free medical camp provides skin check-ups and prescribes patients free medicines too. The preparation for each medical camp begins at least a month before it's execution date.

The young people working on this project calls themselves "Angels Youth Group". The angels begin their work by looking for funding. It isn't an easy task to generate funds since not many corporate organisations are willing to work in this part of the village. The group goes from door to door, asking for funds and liaises with pharmaceuticals for medicines and vaccines.


"It has always been a task to obtain sufficient funding for this sort of medical camp, where we need at least 300-400 Hep B & C vaccines and three skin doctors to examine all the attending patients. The doctors work with us on voluntarily basis hence reducing costs slightly, but we purchase the medicines," said Murtaza Shaikh explaining about funding.



Once, the funding has been attained, the next phase commences, where the youth group looks for a place to set the camp. They bear in mind that the camp should be accessible to every one and should be organised on a holiday such as Sunday so that maximum number of people can benefit from this benevolent act.

This task is a tad easier than the previous, however requires a lot of communication. The best and easiest communication method these days is the "cell phone", however the numerous, ever-increasing bills are paid by the group itself.


"It takes a lot of money to communicate over cell phones. One of our members goes to the city to purchase medicines and vaccines. He stays in touch with the rest constantly. Secondly, one of us co-ordinates with the local authorities for camp's place and logistics that are required. Thirdly, one of us becomes in charge of Marketing the Camp and any issues are communicated via phone. So you see, phones are the prime way of staying in touch," justifies Adeel Shah giving us an overview of how they get things working- the team working is absolutely superb!


Once the camp commences, managing it becomes a priority for all the members. They look after all the patients visiting their camp, allotting them token numbers to keep law and order in place. The doctors and volunteers are provided free refreshments and lunches during the medical camp.


The medical camps are Angels Youth Group's way of working for humanity and reducing their problems. Through these camps they have managed to treat many patients who were suffering from Hep B & C silently, and saved precious lives of those who could have been potential targets of killer diseases.

So far more, they've organised two medical camps, and more than 1000 patients have received treatments. Angel Youth Group is aiming to have another medical camp next month, through which they believe they will save more lives.