- Palliative Care Dietician Gives Talk at GPH
- Mother Miracle 2015
- Ganga Prem Hospice March 2015
- Ganga Prem Hospice February 2015
Palliative Care Dietician Gives Talk at GPH
INDIA, Rishikesh, April 1st, 2015
Mrs Artika Datta from Cambridge, UK, gave a talk on diet and nutrition in palliative care to the GPH team on the 1st April, 2015. The talk provided much essential information that GPH hopes to incorporate into their palliative care programme.
On Wednesday, the 1st April, the GPH team of staff and volunteers was invited by Rama Foundation to hear a talk by one of their trustees on diet and nutrition. The talk was held at Elbee Ganga View Hotel in Rishikesh. Mrs Artika Datta, a trustee of Rama foundation and specialist dietician from Addenbrookes hospital, Cambridge illustrated her talk with a power point presentation.
Mrs Datta opened her talk by explained what malnutrition is and how it adversely effects people especially patients who are suffering from advanced stage disease. She said that most cancer patients do suffer from malnutrition in the last stages of their illness and therefore nutrition is a very important part of palliative care. She also spoke of the danger of dehydration and mouth sores as well as the difficulties of feeding associated with head and neck cancers.
Mrs Datta emphasised the basic difference in palliative care nutrition and other types of nutritional care in that the palliative care dietician is focusing on improving the quality of patient's life rather than long term nutritional issues. Importance is given to the patient's intake of calories and his food preferences. The use of nutritional supplements and role of fluids in palliative care was also discussed.
After the talk, the Rama Foundation arranged for tea for the GPH team which was served on the roof of the hotel. As the team looked at the beautiful view of the river Ganga and the forests of the Rajaji National Park, an elephant could be seen on the far shore of the river drinking water before he lumbered up the beach and disappeared into the forest.
Mother Miracle 2015
Annual event
On the 4th of April Rama Foundation trustees Balbir and Sunita Datta and Munish and Artika Datta are attending MM's annual function that is likely to have an audience of 1,200, mainly parents and connected families.
School Updates & Achievements
As usual, over the last years, much change and innovation has occurred at Mother Miracle. Thanks to all of you, our school's bakery fundraising was a big success equipment's are paid off, the bakery is in operation and the children are enjoying the occasional fresh yummy Biscuits & Brown Breads. We are still learning how to bake! soon we will start baking cookies & breads daily for the children.
This year for the 3rd time our children win the karate Gold medal of our state. They also entered an arts competition that invites 38 the best private schools, our students won first and second prize also we won 4th, 5th & 8th positions prizes Hooray!!
Each year, near 500 of parents literally beg us to enter their children in our school, and we are only equipped and financed for only 50 of those applicants. It is heartbreaking to refuse our services for such eager and intelligent poor youngsters. This is why we keep expanding to more children every year till we rich class 12th as of April we will open class 7th.
Construction of flood free primary school
With increasing climate change, the Himalayan glaciers are releasing water at a greater rate. As this water surges down the Ganges during monsoon season, Rishikesh is consumed in uncontrolled flooding. These floods are increasingly more frequent and drastic. As the flooding occurs, water seeps up from the ground, sucking sewage from all the local cesspools. Every year, Mother Miracle must endure these disasters and perform massive cleanup afterward.
Mother Miracle has earned a stellar reputation among our poor community. Hundreds of impoverished students request entry into our programs yearly. With the pressures of flooding and increased student demand, we have decided to tear down our aging, original ground-level class rooms and build a 15000 square foot 3 story structure. The old structure is sewage soaked, not waterproofed and unsanitary. The new structure will be elevated four feet from the ground, and will be the same flood proofing of our Computer Institute and the Women's Empowerment Center.
We have also leased a nearby two story building that will house the students from the demolished classrooms, along with fifty new pre-school students. We will also be moving the kitchen and dining hall from the ground floors and installing them on higher ground in the temporary leased building.
Construction of our new school building will take approximately two years with a cost of $232,000 (203,000 Euro).The cost of one class room will be $29,000. This include 2 toilets per class, dining hall and kitchen, library, art and music room, uniform and storage room and a room full of toys for our kindergarten kids whom never had a chance to touch a toy. All the costs divided by 8 classes beside staff and principal room. The new 2 story school consist of 2 kindergarten and class 1 to class 6th.
Ganga Prem Newsletter March 2015
February was another exciting month at Ganga Prem Hospice starting off with a memorable and overwhelmingly successful concert on the 8th with the well known kirtan singer Krishna Das. Medical staff and volunteers went on to arrange two palliative care training sessions whilst later in the month the two GPH doctors attended the annual Indian Association of Palliative Care Conference in Hydrabad and February culminated in two GPH free cancer clinics being held which served a total of 131 patients.
Construction projects also continued to move ahead at a good speed with the first floor roof being put in place at the Hospice site and the foundations being laid at the day care centre in Rishikesh.
Read the rest of the Ganga Prem Newsletter March 2015
Ganga Prem Newsletter February 2015
The year 2015 started off with great positivity at Ganga Prem Hospice. The team commenced the year with an enjoyable 'Ganga Walk' and continued to work together throughout the month as a TEAM ('Together Everyone Achieves More!'), serving patients and providing much needed palliative care training in Uttarakhand.
Construction work on the east wing of the inpatient facility speeded up during January and the team is busy searching for the necessary funding for the top floor and the west wing.