Jain Digest 2011 04

Author(s): Federation of JAINA
Publisher: USA Federation of JAINA

Page 4

JAIN DIGEST .. May 2011
to Acharyas", in October 2010. The event has special references to Acharya Mahapragya, who interpreted Bhagwan Mahavir's message of Ahimsa to common masses. The event marked the release of a book entitled Let Us Learn To Live Twelve Golden Principles of Holistic Living written by Acharya Mahashraman and translated by Samani Sanmati Pragya. I had the pleasure of releasing the book. The program featured a plethora of guest speakers including Dr. Dipak Jain, former dean of Kellogg's School of Business, NJ Assemblyman Upendra Chivukula as the chief guest, Woodbridge Mayor John McCormac, myself, and representatives of various Jain organizations from the tri-state area. More than 500 guests attended the event. Record Turnout At Palitana Medical camp: JAINA participated in the Palitana Camp for the disabled. The Camp was inaugurated by the Chief Minister of Gujarat, Shri Narendra Modi and blessed by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. JAINA raised about One Crore Rupees to cover the expenses of the Camp. Total of 28,549 physically handicapped and hearing-impaired individuals of all ages benefitted at the camp. 8341 Calipers were distributed, 664 Jaipur foot were fitted, 3200 crutches were given out to the needy, 671 wheelchairs were given to severely handicapped individuals, 1622 tricycles were given and 11,789 hearing aids were given to hearing-impaired individuals.
Haiti Earthquake Victims: JAINA members contributed over $35,000 towards Haiti relief fund. In May 2010, a group of 13 professionals with various backgrounds embarked on a humanitarian medical mission to help the neediest people in western hemisphere. They were, Lata Champsee, Fery Saremi, RN, Kelly Cornilliac, Nayna Patel, Alexa Reeves, MD, Donna Reeves, MD, Ramesh Shah, Nitin Shah, MD, Sushil Jain, MD, Minaxi Patel, MD, Vasant Bhatt, MD, Tuesday Cook, MD and Prakash Mehta went to Port Au Prince, Haiti from May 6 to 13 on a Medical Mission. The trip was organized under the umbrella of JAINA. We were all housed in a big tent. About 125 people slept on small cots covered with mosquito nets.
During the day, temperature reached up to 125 F and it was humid. We did not have running water that we could use freely. There were 4 cold-water showers that about 200 people shared. This was an eye opening and humbling experience. In spite of such conditions, our team worked 12 hours a day and performed many surgeries. We all could contribute towards the betterment of Haitians! It was very gratifying experience. Bidada Camp: This year JAINA was one of the sponsors of 37th Bidada Medical and Surgical Camp at Kutch, Gujarat. JAINA raised US$50,000 for this purpose. This year's camp started with Urology camp, where over 60 surgeries were successfully performed, followed by ENT camp, which performed surgeries and distributed hearing aids to children. During the general surgery camp 152 surgeries were performed. During the cardiac camp 400 patients were triaged out of which 62 patients including 20 children were sent to Mumbai for cardiac surgery. It was another busy year for eye camp, where 646 cataract surgeries were performed. For the first time during gynecologic camp state of the art cervical cancer screening on 125 women were done. They also performed 31 hysterectomies, in addition to many other procedures. The child health program had another successful year where our volunteers and doctors educated 4000 children and completed 1,200 eye exams of school-aged children. The
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