A Christmas Message From Dr. Jack Preger, Mbe, Street Doctor Of Kolkata, India

Living on an income of one dollar a day in India's slums is horrific enough. But if you have drug-resistant TB/HIV, it is basically a death sentence - except for those fortunate enough to get help from this compassionate 77-year old British doctor. End Quote

(1888PressRelease) December 22, 2007 - I have the privilege of greeting you this Christmas with a message of thanks for all you have made possible in our work this year. Our clinics and schools continue to serve the needy, out-reach programmes get to parts others don’t, arsenic filtration work has been maintained in Malda District and vocational training centres and the handicraft workshop produce items for patients, our schoolchildren and our Fairtrade exports.

One September morning I was out with Street Medicine. While the mothers and children from the pavements in Central Kolkata were being given basic, but vital, health education – vital for the survival of both adults and children – I went to see their ‘living’ conditions. A woman was cooking on the pavement over a small fire built with bricks.

Her home was adjacent – a piece of plastic hanging from a wall, with a few scattered items consisting of her entire possessions.

A television camera focused on the woman, excluding the roaring traffic and hordes of passers-by would have produced a film comparable to Darfur. Except the huts in the Darfur camps are superior!

There are more than one billion people living in India and a third live below the poverty line of 50 pence (approx US$1) daily income. That is the extent to which the Boom of Booming India has reached the ears of our stakeholders.

Calcutta Rescue promotes family planning since the birth rate of 2.26 per cent and the net growth rate of 1.606 percent will lead to economic collapse.

But our efforts are also to improve the quality of life in those in our care to the extent our resources make this possible. This will help to encourage the planning of smaller families.

Among all the needs there is one aspect of our medical care which makes Calcutta rescue unique in Bengal. We are the only source of free drugs for resistant cases of HIV/AIDS in the state, and we also see patients who come to us from neighbouring states.

Our funds are nearing exhaustion and the personal friends and contacts that have helped me finance this programme to date are also nearing exhaustion.

One of our Calcutta Rescue founders, Frances Meigh, has produced and exhibitioned an icon depicting an AIDS patients being held in the arms of Christ.

“Go thou and do likewise” is my appeal to you this Christmas, echoing Christ’s parable of the Good Samaritan.

We are turning away HIV positive patients in need of second line drugs, because we do not have the funds. Please mark your donation for our HIV project.

I thank you for your generous support. I assure you we in Kolkata will do our utmost to be worthy of this help. And I wish you all a Happy Christmas and a Happy New Year

Jack Preger

http://www.calcuttarescue.org/
http://www.calcuttarescue.org.uk/

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