Amazing Anton

We are proud to share that we at Glow have been inspired and humbled by 16 year old Anton Szilasi, who has been in Jharkhand, India recently, building solar panels for a health clinic.  After being told he was too young to volunteer with aid organisations already doing work in India (the minimum age was 18), Anton decided to start his own project to build the much needed solar panels, using the money that he had saved for University.

Anton is out there making a difference, it’s the sort of thing so many people would like to do deep down in our hearts, but never really get around to making that kind of commitment.

Below is Anton's project report from his last trip to India, and what's he's planning on for his next project.  We urge to you read this, and consider contributing, in any small way, to what is a very small, personal project that one young man is tackling - not a huge organisation asking for regular credit card donations.

To contact Anton directly, email: antonszilasi@internode.on.net or to see photos and updates on his personal blog, go to: http://solarmission.blogspot.com/.

Please help us to help Anton. Tell your friends and family,
and let's work together to get the word out.

PROJECT REPORT
Introduction
This report concludes the solar project at the Abha Seva Sadan Health Centre in Jharkhand India.  I would also like to take this opportunity to discuss the needs of the rural population there and to propose a way we, as wealthy Australians; can all make a tangible and lasting difference in this region.

The Solar System
As I have mentioned previously, the reason for this project was that the clinic had a very poor source of electrical power. Although mains power was connected, it operated only for one or two hours a day and in some periods not at all. Even when functioning, the mains was of very low and variable voltage and thus too unreliable to run the equipment that the clinic needs.

The doctors were often unable to run the clinic computer, there were no lights for nighttime programs; there was no cold storage facility for medicines and in general the lack of reliable power made life quite difficult for the doctors and staff. Since the successful installation of the new solar electric system they now have enough power to run their computer, their cold storage, their proposed X-ray machine and of course lights for the evening. This has made a tremendous difference to the functioning of the clinic.

For more information on the installation of the system and my experiences of India as well as pictures, please take a look at.

http://solarmission.blogspot.com/ 

The System Finances
The total amount of funds raised through your generous donations was $ 3,687.  Below I have listed the expenses we incurred in the installation of the system.
 

Total donations Aus$ $3,687.00
Total system expenses $3,245.00
Remainder $ 442.00

The remaining funds will go towards my future project, which I am planning to implement this year. Please read below for details.  Aside from your donations which funded the project; travel and on ground expenses were covered by my parents.

NOTES:
Although solar regulators (necessary for controlling current flow to the storage batteries) were supplied with the solar panels I purchased in India, they were inappropriate for the job and I expect will eventually fail. Therefore I had to buy another solar regulator when I returned to Australia. This is the last expense on the list and is unfortunately a necessary one. We are hoping to find someone traveling to the region to deliver it for us thus saving considerable courier freight costs. Normal post is not safe enough.

So, as you can see the project has been a success. However the two weeks I spent at the clinic has opened my eyes to much larger issues and perhaps an effective way that we can help the many needy people in this region.

The conditions of the area surrounding the clinic
During my time at the clinic I visited a number of the surrounding villages. Compared to the vast city slums we experienced in Mumbai and other places, life is pretty good in the rural areas. In general the villages have a pleasant atmosphere about them, which is in stark contrast to the cities.

However the local inhabitants live in primitive conditions, which have hardly improved in hundreds of years. 6 people may live in a mud room the size of the average Australian bedroom. With few schools, 80 percent of the population is illiterate. They suffer from chronic malnutrition and many infectious diseases.

Primitive subsistence agriculture is the main employment available.  There is very poor health infrastructure in this area. Easily treatable diseases such as tuberculosis, polio, leprosy, gastro-enteritis, cerebral palsy, juvenile arthritis (5% of all children), elephantitis and malaria are widespread (and largely untreated). Many women die during childbirth due to a complete lack of maternity services. Because of poor or inadequate training, village health workers often fail to recognize life threatening complications. The nearest hospital is over 20 km away; it is private and much too expensive for the villagers to afford.

One reason disease is so widespread is because their water supplies are often contaminated with animal and at times, human waste. Cows and other animals are allowed to stand around the wells. Manure, garbage and other waste build up in the surrounds and of course eventually fall or seep into their water supply. Consequently people rarely have clean water. Furthermore they often use the same water which they bath in to brush their teeth and wash their clothes and kitchenware! As you can tell they have no idea about hygiene.

Another problem is that the villagers have a complete lack of understanding about medical issues. They are often sick and see this as simply a normal part of life. One of many examples we saw was a two year old child who came into the clinic after suffering from diarrhoea for 2 weeks. The doctor said she would have died within 48 hours if left untreated. The clinic told the parents that they must get her to a hospital immediately and gave her oral re-hydration to keep her alive in the interim. The parents didn’t show the slightest bit of concern! I asked the doctor whether he had convinced the parents of the urgency. He said he had done his best but was unsure whether they would go to the effort and expense of getting to the hospital. We can only hope that they took the advice but we have no way of knowing if this child survived. This is a perfectly everyday response to life threatening conditions.  Unfortunately the clinic does not at this time have the funds to take these more serious cases as inpatients. It hopes to do so in the future but it all depends on successful fundraising.

Lastly the villagers usually have very poor diets. Their diet consists almost exclusively of rice. They consume nothing else. They eat three times a day and are not calorie deficient but get almost no essential nutrients - usually from before birth. As a result they have suppressed immune systems, which makes them extremely susceptible to diseases and infection. According to Dr Gehrman of the clinic, 80% of the disease that they see is directly attributable to poor nutrition. Improve the villager’s diets and they will shake off many of the diseases that now afflict them.

Apart from increased disease susceptibility, malnutrition also contributes to lowered IQ’s. If the villagers had better diets (fruit and vegetables which they could easily grow) the number of diseases and disorders would decrease dramatically.

More information about the clinic, its work and its goals can be found on its website at: http://www.rural-health-india.org/index.html The lesson I learned from all of this is that the clinic’s most important work is not medical aid but education. This was particularly driven home when we offered to pay for the operation of the boy with a club foot (see the blog for details). This condition was caused by cerebral palsy caused by nerve damage ultimately caused by severe nutritional deficiency prior to and after birth. The operation will cost $300. Dr Gehrman said that while he applauded and supported our offer to fund the operation; he wanted to point out that with $300 he could employ and train a health care worker for 12 months. This one trained worker could prevent dozens or even hundreds of similar cases by educating villagers about nutrition.

Indeed from what I have seen and from what I have heard from other Aid workers this is the situation in most impoverished areas of India and the developing world.

The solution
The only real solution to improve living conditions for impoverished people, not just around the clinic but I would imagine all over India is to educate them about good nutrition and hygiene. It is to this that I would like to turn my attention for my next project.

My next project – December 2007 to January 2008
From what I experienced, I fervently believe that education is the only way forward for the improvised people of India and I imagine that this would be true for the developing world in general.

By providing them with sufficient education about nutrition and hygiene I believe we can make a significant impact in reducing the many diseases and disorders, which make their lives miserable. As you can see from what I said above, the prevention of these diseases would be very simple. Fresh fruit and vegetables daily for everyone, some cheap mosquito nets, improved personal hygiene and preventing waste from entering the water supply.

With the help of the clinic I plan to implement a program to educate the villagers using their local customs and language. Currently the clinic is doing this by touring villages and giving lectures in the local language. This is a slow and laborious process and is severely hampered by lack of educated staff. A trained staff member costs about $300-500 per year to employ and this is simply beyond the clinic’s resources at the moment.

After long consultation with the clinic I have decided to assist by raising funds to hire a local drama group that will perform a series of educational shows in the local language. We will record these performances onto a series of DVD’s. Then using a laptop and projector (with batteries powered by our solar panels!) we will tour villages playing the DVD’s for all to see. This will be done on a regular basis to drive these important messages home.

I trust that this education scheme would have a tremendous impact on the villagers as when I visited I often had a hand held video camera with me. I would commonly have 50 people flocking around me to see it. Dr Gehrman admits that the current lectures they deliver are rather “dry” and agrees that the impact of a large projection screen and an acted drama would draw villagers from miles around. We are also considering some very basic western movies for entertainment while we are set up in a village.  Perhaps silent Laurel and Hardy films. I’m confident that the impact would be huge.

If successful this concept could (with the help of other charitable NGO’s) be expanded outside the immediate region and potentially reach millions of Bengali speaking people.

If I may dream for a moment... I would ultimately like to expand this scheme outside the area in which Bengali is spoken. We could in future take this concept into other parts of India and even Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan. Obviously this would require hiring drama groups to perform in the local languages, film crews and editing and most importantly reputable NGO’s in each area to carry on the work. We will see!

I am currently in discussion with the clinic to work out the details of this project and the funds required to execute it. I believe it will not be overly expensive and will have a much broader impact than my last project.

Another Important way that we can help As with all charitable organizations the clinic is chronically short of funds which limits their ability to do the important work necessary in this community. When I asked Dr Gehrman what his greatest need was, the answer was “more staff”.

These are the key people he is hoping to employ in the future and the monthly costs involved:

I am considering ways that we might be able to implement a “sponsor a staff member” program where donors would commit to a monthly or yearly amount to go towards hiring these critical staff. Anyone that would like to support a staff member (or part of one) or can assist in fundraising in any way is most welcome to contact me!

I will keep all people on my mailing list updated about the progress of the project and its details. If you are not already on my list but would like to join please contact me at antonszilasi@internode.on.net.

Best wishes,

Anton

January 2007

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