The parents of our pupils are often less informed of their children’s health. We thought it imperative to hold a medical camp of sorts to have our children’s general health evaluated. The school has been associated with Ramdev Rao memorial hospital who have held medical camps in the past and this year they did graciously as well.
The camp was held on a regular school day where children were screened class wise with their class teachers present during their check up. The children’s height, weight and body temperature were recorded in their school diaries by a team of nurses before they were to be screened by one of two general practitioners waiting inside in a make shift dispensary. Children needing further analysis were referred to pediatricians in the main hospital which was free of cost. All 156 children were screened by the end of the day. Medicines which were prescribed were to be distributed to the parents in the following days.
The general consensus was that our children were malnourished owing to bad dietary practices. Almost all children were prescribed multi-vitamin supplements. But medicating them is never the answer so we made a trip to the National Institute of Nutrition in Hyderabad to get some more insight. We procured booklets on Low-cost Nutritional diets suited for the people of our region. The book called for including more wheat, pulses and fruit instead of a rice heavy diet. Parents were counseled on the day when medicines were distributed by their teachers and made aware of our findings.
Patashala School 