Organization Info [Edit]
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Network [Add] · [List] · [Visualize]
Connected with 5 organizations
Connected with 2 people
  |
Connected with 0 resources
Connected with 0 solutions
Connected with 0 jobs
Connected with 0 events
Connected with 0 wikipages
Areas of Focus [Edit]
About [Edit]
The Bhopal Medical Appeal was launched in 1994, when a man from Bhopal came to Britain to tell whoever would listen about the calamitous condition of the still suffering victims of the Union Carbide gas disaster. Those who met him learned that after ten years, the survivors had received no meaningful medical help. [Unless one is prepared to accept that aspirin is a cure-all for the dreadful illnesses visited on them.]
The survivors realised that they must help themselves, because nobody else would. They wanted to open their own free clinic for gas victims. They were joined in the UK by a few individuals who put the mechanics of the Appeal together. They were in turn joined in this effort by other like minded people.
Our newsletter is called 777. The name arose from an attempt to capture the spirit of the Appeal. Someone suggested, "saat, saat, saat", which in Hindi means"together, together, together", but with a slight twist of the tongue could also mean "seven, seven, seven."
"We" means all of us, all together.
Our beginnings
Our first appeal, which appeared in The Guardian and The Observer on the 10th anniversary, in December 1994, produced a massively generous response. The task of administering this fund was taken on by the Pesticides Action Network UK [PAN-UK], which also adopted the Appeal as a project, in order that our work could benefit from its charity status, and which has generously given time and loyalty.
Our first project was to open the clinic in Bhopal. To this end, the Sambhavna Trust was formed in India to run the clinic. Working together, we were able to buy a building, recruit doctors and staff. The preliminary work, including finding the building and negotiating its sale, and training staff took just over a year to complete and Sambhavna opened its doors in 1996.
Sambhavna Clinic achievements
To date our Sambhavna Clinic has treated more than 20,000 people. We employ more than forty staff, roughly half of whom are themselves gas survivors. We carry out valuable studies, which are published in journals like The Lancet and the Journal of the Americal Medical Association]. We inform, educate and train people in gas-affected communities to monitor their health. Working to a principle of "first do no harm" we have pioneered new treatments combining modern medicine with traditional ayurvedic herbal medicine and yoga. Our work has won a string of humanitarian awards.
Funding
We have never accepted funding from companies or governments. Companies and governments are directly responsible for the suffering of the Bhopal survivors. Always, they want something in return for their money. We will not deal with them. All the funds we have ever collected have come from our own pockets.
In 2005 thanks to the continuing generosity of our supporters around the world, and a grant from the Pro Victimis Foundation of Geneva, we opened a new, larger clinic which will enable us to treat three times as many people.
Our philosophy
The Sambhavna Clinic and all it has learned about treating chemically induced illness have come out of the vision of the survivors, allied to sympathetic people around the world. The awful suffering inflicted on this poorest of communities has produced a remarkable flowering of medicine, science, art, music and writing. In the Bhopal Medical Appeal our aim is to keep as close to the ground, and to the survivors as possible. "We" don't ask "you" to help "us" help "them". We're all in it together, those of us who are survivors, those of us who run the Clinic and the Appeal and those of us who support the effort with our money and by volunteering our skills or just our enthusiasm. We are all together and equal in an unbroken chain of friendship between supporters at one end and gas survivors at the other.
Sincere thanks to all who have been part of it. Let's carry on the good work we've begun together.
The survivors realised that they must help themselves, because nobody else would. They wanted to open their own free clinic for gas victims. They were joined in the UK by a few individuals who put the mechanics of the Appeal together. They were in turn joined in this effort by other like minded people.
Our newsletter is called 777. The name arose from an attempt to capture the spirit of the Appeal. Someone suggested, "saat, saat, saat", which in Hindi means"together, together, together", but with a slight twist of the tongue could also mean "seven, seven, seven."
"We" means all of us, all together.
Our beginnings
Our first appeal, which appeared in The Guardian and The Observer on the 10th anniversary, in December 1994, produced a massively generous response. The task of administering this fund was taken on by the Pesticides Action Network UK [PAN-UK], which also adopted the Appeal as a project, in order that our work could benefit from its charity status, and which has generously given time and loyalty.
Our first project was to open the clinic in Bhopal. To this end, the Sambhavna Trust was formed in India to run the clinic. Working together, we were able to buy a building, recruit doctors and staff. The preliminary work, including finding the building and negotiating its sale, and training staff took just over a year to complete and Sambhavna opened its doors in 1996.
Sambhavna Clinic achievements
To date our Sambhavna Clinic has treated more than 20,000 people. We employ more than forty staff, roughly half of whom are themselves gas survivors. We carry out valuable studies, which are published in journals like The Lancet and the Journal of the Americal Medical Association]. We inform, educate and train people in gas-affected communities to monitor their health. Working to a principle of "first do no harm" we have pioneered new treatments combining modern medicine with traditional ayurvedic herbal medicine and yoga. Our work has won a string of humanitarian awards.
Funding
We have never accepted funding from companies or governments. Companies and governments are directly responsible for the suffering of the Bhopal survivors. Always, they want something in return for their money. We will not deal with them. All the funds we have ever collected have come from our own pockets.
In 2005 thanks to the continuing generosity of our supporters around the world, and a grant from the Pro Victimis Foundation of Geneva, we opened a new, larger clinic which will enable us to treat three times as many people.
Our philosophy
The Sambhavna Clinic and all it has learned about treating chemically induced illness have come out of the vision of the survivors, allied to sympathetic people around the world. The awful suffering inflicted on this poorest of communities has produced a remarkable flowering of medicine, science, art, music and writing. In the Bhopal Medical Appeal our aim is to keep as close to the ground, and to the survivors as possible. "We" don't ask "you" to help "us" help "them". We're all in it together, those of us who are survivors, those of us who run the Clinic and the Appeal and those of us who support the effort with our money and by volunteering our skills or just our enthusiasm. We are all together and equal in an unbroken chain of friendship between supporters at one end and gas survivors at the other.
Sincere thanks to all who have been part of it. Let's carry on the good work we've begun together.