HOSPITALS and medical centres are urgently needed in Assam, in north-east India, to help tackle a range of health problems in the region.
Thousands die each year from malaria, cholera, TB, dysentery, typhoid and scabies. Infant mortality is also very high.
Salesian Archbishop Thomas Menamparampil (Guwahati) is keen to build three hospitals and community health clinics in Nagaon, Goalpara and Guwahati.
With the help of some donations from abroad, including Australia, work has started on the construction of the Mercy Hospital, Nagaon. The project was blessed on December 12 last year.
‘We have started. We trust in God and our friends to help us to get the funds, about US$100,000 to finish the project,’ Archbishop Menamparampil said.
There are about 6.5 million people in Assam diocese. They are mostly tribal people – the Garos, Rabhas, Tiwas, Karbis, Koch, Bodos, Adibasis, as well as the Assamese and Nepalis.
People live in huts of bamboo and thatch grass. The walls are made of reeds or bamboo splinters plastered with mud.
Most of the tribal people are illiterate and very poor. There are few primary schools provided by the government and there is hardly any public transport to the interior and remote villages.
Though Assam has an oil industry, the majority of the people are subsistence farmers. Paddy is the main crop; the methods of cultivation are very primitive.
While the soil is quite fertile most farmers are limited to just one crop a year because of climatic conditions. A few, however, have a second cash crop of jute, oil seeds etc.
The weather patterns are highly erratic. Monsoons bring rain. Floods often occur resulting in many villages being cut off from outside contact for months. The region also suffers from droughts.
Donations, however small, in support of Archbishop Thomas Menamparampil’s hospitals are welcome. It will be a direct contribution to improving the health of a large number of people.
Donations to the Assam Hospital Appeal are tax deductible. They may be sent to: Salesian Missions Office, PO Box 80, Oakleigh, Vic 3166.
