Arrivee en Inde

Salut tout le monde,

Je suis arrivee en Inde hier soir (2 Juin). The flight was uneventful. Stopped in Brussels, but didn't get chocolate :( I met Leah at the airport in New Delhi and we headed to the EHA volunteer orientator's home. Her name is Kara. She is herself a volunteer from Australia who lives in New Delhi (has been for 10 yrs) and helps foreign volunteers get organised before they leave to their assigned hospital.

EHA has 20 hospitals in India. The nurses and doctors (that aren't foreign) get paid minimally as they are Christian/charity hospitals. The patients do have to pay a small sum of money for treatment/care. Women in labour have to pay 200 rupees (about 5$ Canadian). Complication rates are high. Maternal death rates are 700 per 100 000 live births in India. In the northern part of India, the mortality rate is higher. I will learn more about the stats at Duncan hospital tomorrow. I do know that about 5-10% in the state of Bihar deliver at a hospital. Most deliver at home (or wherever) unsupervised. Women are supposed to go on with their day when in labour. So the patients that come in at the hospital are usually having problems (long labours, having eclamptic seizures, etc). Medical staff are trying to get women seen at at least 3x during their pregnancy. They are using financial incentives (women can pay 50 rupees when they are seen antenatally, so when in labour they only have to pay the remaining 50 rupees). During those visits, problems such as high blood pressure can be dealt with before eclamptic seizures happen, etc. AND..... nutrition education!! Women here think that having a small baby means having an easier labour and birth (women in Canada do too sometimes). And so women try not to gain weight and are malnourished. A 5 lbs baby is considered a good weight. (in Canada, less than 5lbs 8oz is considered small and often need more care)

Kara was also explaining how women are NOT valued here. Once a woman has delivered her baby, before we give her her baby, the staff shows the father the baby's sex and he has to sign a paper stating he saw their baby's sex. They do not want girls. Girls are expensive. families have to pay a dowry and the wedding which can cost up to 5 yrs salary. it has been reported that some families that cant afford dowries give their girls some kind of maturing hormone so that the girls can be prostitutes and bring back their families money. I want to puke! It is illegal to tell parents their baby's sex, to avoid abortion of baby girls. Gender ratios in some part of the country are crazy! 720 women for 1000 men in some places. And what ends up happening, is that little girls get kidnapped from villages and are forced into early marriage.

What I did today: slept in! Went to Khan market where we got rupees for our money (43 rupees for 1 dollar Cdn), had lunch. If ever you are in India and are craving non-indian food go to the Oz cafe (Australian) (khan market in New Delhi) the food is safe. one can eat dairy, water, vegetables, etc. We also went to another market to get measured for our uniforms and got FRESH LYCHEE!!!

The weather today was 39 degrees C.

Keep on shining y'all