Free eye and health checkup camp for Wood Craft artisans

Setu Society keeps on organizing health camps and skill development workshops for its partner artisan groups so that they can have access to better health amenities, education prospects and self sustainable employment opportunities.. In the series, a free eye and health checkup camp for our wood carving partner artisan group HSS was organized by SETU on the 4th of March 2015, in a small village called Kajiwala at Bijnor, UP.

The artisans of this village have been associated with SETU for the past many years as part of their sustainable livelihood and market opportunity initiative. Many development projects have been carried for the welfare of these artisans in the past, such as skill up-gradation workshops, quality improvement workshop, free distribution of nose masks, sponsoring water coolers and fans for the schools their kids go to, health camps, free eyeglass distribution, and so on..

Many of the artisans tend to neglect their day to day ailments either due to lack of awareness of the importance of health or due to non-availability of proper medical care. Their craft involves a lot of physical labor and their eye-sight should have good vision to do all the minute detailing and so they need to get regular medical check-ups. This is the 5th health check up camp that SETU has organized for this artisan community. A team of qualified doctors was appointed for the camp, including 1 gynecologist, 1 ophthalmologist and 2 general physicians.

Following health care facilities and guidance was provided in the health camp:

• Free preventive health check-ups for general illness and risk factors.
• Free distribution of medicines specially for common cold, fever and sexually transmitted diseases.
• Free eye check-up
• Free distribution of eye-glasses for vision correction to those detected with poor vision
• Advice & medication for eye ailments
• Awareness on general health & hygiene issues
• Awareness on use of nose masks to avoid inhalation of wood dust and distribution of masks.

In the camp, 355 artisans received free medicines and out of them 260, those who were diagnosed with low vision, were provided with free spectacles for vision correction.