DELHI. In a ceremony today at Sharada Dhanvantari Charitable Hospital (SDC) in Karnataka, $250,000 of USAID-provided medical equipment was commissioned and turned over to the hospital. SDC is  the major source of medical care in the Sringeri area of Karnataka. The donation was made to improve healthcare in the region and was the largest donation to a single hospital by USAID/India in recent times.

H.H. Sri Sri Bharathi Teehrtha Mahaswamji presided over the ceremony. Ms. Barbara Brooks-Ndiaye, State Medical, was the chief guest and spoke on behalf of USAID. Ms. Brooks played a key role in providing technical assistance and guidance on the appropriate types of equipment and sources of supply. Also in attendance were Mr. P. Sashidrahan, USAID/India Contracting Office and Mr. Manual Thomas, USAID/India Office of Population, Health, and Nutrition.

The items purchased consisted of two specially-designed mobile medical units complete with portable X-ray machines, generators, ultrasounds, nebulizers, and microscopes, as well as medical instruments, baby cribs and beds, incubators, autoclaves, stretchers, ECG machine optholmoscope, microscopes, neonatal ventilators, blood analysis equipment, laboratory incubators, X-ray machine, ELISA plate reader, chemistry and blood gas analyzers, and a variety of supplies.

 

Speech given by Ms. Barbara Brooks, US Embassy, New Delhi

His Holiness Sri Sri Bharathi Theertha Mahaswamiji, distinguished guests, mothers, children and the people of Sringeri:

I am privileged to be present here among you today and participate in the commissioning ceremony of the equipment and mobile medical units provided with the support of the U.S. Government through the United States Agency for International Development, USAID.

USAID is the primary federal government agency that helps people living in other countries improve their own lives. This assistance goes from meeting humanitarian needs in times of crisis, to providing long term assistance to combat many of the scourges of modern times: poverty, bad governance, illiteracy, disease, overpopulation and environmental degradation.

One of the strategic development goals of USAID is stabilizing the world's population and protecting human health. Two very important interventions under this goal are child survival and maternal health activities.The combined effect of immunization, vitamin A, diarrheal disease control, and other USAID-supported child survival programs has been millions of lives saved. The estimated trends in mortality of children under five in USAID-assisted countries indicate a continuing decrease in mortality.

Child health and family well-being are so directly related to and powerfully dependent on maternal health that USAID has increased its efforts to reduce maternal deaths and disabilities and to protect women during this important time. USAID recently identified a set of feasible, low-cost interventions and best practices that result in the greatest impact in reducing mortality among mothers and newborns. These interventions include improvements in maternal nutrition, birth preparedness, deliveries attended by medically trained personnel, management of complications, and postpartum care.

I am very happy to note that funding for the Sharada Dhanvantari Charitable Hospital for this activity, $250,000, has come from USAID's Child Survival account. This is also USAID/India's largest assistance to a single hospital in recent times.I am sure that the Hospital would make optimum utilization of the equipment and mobile medical units in reaching out to provide health care services to mothers and children in Sringeri and nearby villages. Thus, the primary beneficiaries of this assistance should undoubtedly be mothers and children.

The equipment provided would help early diagnosis and treatment of diseases that are common among mothers and children such as anemia and malnutrition, worm infestation, diarrhea, infectious diseases, vitamin A deficiency, gastro enteritis etc.

The mobile medical units would help medical teams to visit remote villages with medicines and diagnostic equipment. These vehicles are equipped with X-ray unit, microscope, ECG, ventilator, ultrasound, baby incubator, nebulizer, clinical centrifuge and also a generator for power supply.

I see this assistance as a small token of the strong Indo-US relationship… A token of the American generosity in providing assistance to those in need around the world… A token of the coming-closer of the two largest democracies in the world.It is believed that drinking the clear water of the Tunga is comparable to a bath in the Ganga. Today, standing on the banks of Tunga, my happiness has no bounds in commissioning these equipment and vehicles.

I see a new tomorrow for the people of Sringeri. A tomorrow that provides quality healthcare to the people of Sringeri, a tomorrow that brings less sufferings to the mothers and children of Sringeri, a tomorrow that is full of happiness.

I wish you all the very best in the noble work you are doing. Thank you.

Speech given by Mr. Manual Thomas, Project Management Specialist, USAID/New Delhi

His Holiness Sri Sri Bharathi Theertha Mahaswamiji, Mr. Gowri Shankar, Mr. Venkataramanan, Dr. Balakrishnan, Ms. Barbara Brooks, distinguished guests, mothers, children and the people of Sringeri:

I am very happy to be here today and be a part of this momentous day in the history of Sharada Dhanvantari Charitable Hospital.

For nearly 50 years, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has played an important role in India's development successes. As the largest recipient of U.S. economic assistance (after Israel and Egypt), India has benefited from more than $13 billion for food aid, technology and scientific transfer, participant training, health and population programs, and agricultural innovations.Today, USAID's program in India supports enhanced survival rates for children, improved access to reproductive health services, reduced transmission of HIV/AIDS infection and other infectious diseases, empowerment of women to participate in decisions that affect their lives and increased environmental protection in energy, industry, and cities.I am extremely happy to note that the Sharada Dhanvantari Charitable Hospital is actively engaged in improving access to quality healthcare in and around Sringeri. The equipment and mobile medical units provided would enable the hospital to carry on with the selfless services it is doing under the trusteeship of His Holiness.

The state-of-art equipment and customized vehicles would further strengthen the hospital's capability for reaching out to the communities that are in remote and difficult to access villages …. from Gubagodi to Bukkadi Bali, from Holekoppa to Kunchebailu and several others. The mothers and children in these communities would be the primary beneficiaries of our assistance.I am happy that I am associated with USAID - an organization that in its own small ways constantly tries for lessening the agony of human beings, for reducing human sufferings, for protecting human health. And I am very happy that the organization that I represent is now associated with an institution, the Sharada Dhanvantari Hospital, that shares our goals.

According to belief, when Adi Sankaracharya was walking by the Tunga river, he saw a cobra with a raised hood, providing shelter from the hot sun, to a female frog that was about to spawn. Impressed with the sanctity of the spot where even the natural enemy of the frog had turned protector, he decided to found his first math here.

In today's context, who is our enemy? I believe it is poverty, I believe it is hunger and I believe it is disease. Let us all join together in our fight against disease. If we all take up this task earnestly, I see a better future. And let that better future befall in Sringeri.

Thank you.