by Claudia M.Chang, CARE press officer

CARE is no stranger to India, and vice versa. This largest country in Asia has been a major focus for the international relief and development organization since 1950, when the first food and health projects began. In the following decades, CARE programming expanded into a wide range of services including: nutrition, girls' education, urban development and emergency response. However, with the recent devastating earthquake on January 26 that rocked the western state of Gujarat, CARE staff in India took a new step in their programming: bringing emergency medical care directly to patients in the most remote areas of the field.

In the wake of the earthquake, CARE became concerned about people in the more isolated rural communities located far from the epicenter of large scale relief operations receiving medical care. Many survivors in such communities were left with no access to medical care, and were stranded by blocked and destroyed roads. So, funded by a grant from U.S. computer company Microsoft, the organization deployed two medical relief teams to remote villages in Anjar and Bhachau blocks outside the central quake zone town of Bhuj. Each team consisted of three medical doctors and three other staff designated to provide basic medical relief for survivors.

Set up in two main base camps in the village centers to treat patients, the teams also traveled out to surrounding areas to reach people unable to come to the camps. By providing basic and essential medical care such as suturing and mending minor cuts and injuries, staff at the camps enabled other medical specialists to directly attend to the most urgent cases.

There were plenty of people who needed medical attention. Sleeping outdoors in near freezing weather, many people suffered from exposure to the cold as well as upper respiratory infections due to the huge amounts of rubble dust blowing about in the aftermath of the quake. This was in addition to injuries directly related to the earthquake.

In the month that the clinics were in operation, more than 1,200 people received medical care. Thousands more received trauma counseling.

Now, with CARE programs in the earthquake zone transitioning into long term rehabilitation, the mobile clinics have completed their work. Leaving remaining medical supplies with villagers trained to administer follow up care such as changing bandages and cleaning topical wounds, CARE staff packed their bags, took down their tents, and folded up patient cots. "We head out in the morning." one doctor said. "Our work with these clinics, helping people far away in these remote areas, is done."

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