Reaching out to the Palampur community

COUNTRY: India
PROGRAM: UniBreak
PROJECT: Health Education
WRITTEN BY: Helen Huang

Our final weekend expedition was a three-day trip to Manali. Once we were there, most of us dished out our hard earned rupees to buy clothes, bags and jewellery. Some of us also got braids and henna as momentos of our trip, and will be sporting them upon arrival at the airport. It was also good to get a taste of some meat and some Western food.

It was an amazingly scenic trip - we rode in Gondolas through the forest and the mountains and were in amongst the clouds! Some of us also went zorbing, which was definitely a frightening experience, indicated by the audible screams from the bottom of the hill.

Instead of placement this week, it was health promotion. Armed with soap, toothbrushes, iron and calcium tablets, as well as first aid kits, we travelled to tea plantations and childcare centres to educate young children and their parents about the importance of healthy practices. We rewarded the kids for their eagerness with stickers and small koala toys, for which we were mobbed! For the adults, we conducted general health checks, looking at waist circumference, body mass index and blood pressure. It was amazing to see how keen these communities were to learn from us, and also how happy they were, despite their struggles in life.

We hope that for many of these poverty-stricken and education-lacking communities, we have been able to make a difference. Even though our contribution has been small in the grand scheme of things, it has definitely been mutually beneficial. If we can teach these young children the basic skills that can improve their health, then hopefully they will be able to experience more opportunities in life. We have been able to use our knowledge and skills from university and from the Antips trip in real life practice, which is very rewarding. On a personal level, such interactions have really made us appreciate how lucky we are to have so much, and they will spur us on in our professions so that we can touch more lives in the future.

Thank you Antips! And India, it has been a pleasure! :-)