Foreign Tourists Set Up Medical Camp in Ladakh, India
- 14 years ago
Foreign tourists staying in Ladakh, have been shaken by flash floods and mudslides. But now they have set up a medical camp to help the survivors of flooding that has killed more than 150 people in the region.
At least 300 people are still missing from last week's floods triggered by heavy rains. Homes have been destroyed, telephone polls uprooted, and there are boulders and mud deposits 15 feet high on highways, cutting road links with the rest of India.
At a time when many tourists were fleeing the region, a group of professors and students from a medical school in Taiwan have set up the medical camp in the Leh region.
Medical camp director Wei-Shone Chen says the group includes five doctors, ten medical students and other foreign volunteers.
[Wei-Shone Chen, Medical Camp Director]:
"Originally, we planned to come here for some humanitarian program and especially for health education. And it happened – the floods happened. And so, we change our plan. I think because many medical workers are in our group, so we set up this medical camp. And after we set up this medical camp, all the people from foreign countries, form France, from Israel, from Switzerland, from Germany, from everywhere, they want to help."
The volunteers say that even though the situation is improving, it will take more time to help all the people in remote villages, both medically and psychologically.
The volunteers say they feel it’s their moral duty to help the survivors.
[Motan Golan, Volunteer from Israel]:
"We came as tourists and I think it was expected from us to stay here. I think everyone would do this, this was our education. Nobody would come here and see all this disaster and say, I am not connected to it and go back."
"People are afraid but if we won't help here, sometimes a friend of yours is in trouble and you help him and next time when you are in trouble they come and help you. This is how it works."
At least 300 people are still missing from last week's floods triggered by heavy rains. Homes have been destroyed, telephone polls uprooted, and there are boulders and mud deposits 15 feet high on highways, cutting road links with the rest of India.
At a time when many tourists were fleeing the region, a group of professors and students from a medical school in Taiwan have set up the medical camp in the Leh region.
Medical camp director Wei-Shone Chen says the group includes five doctors, ten medical students and other foreign volunteers.
[Wei-Shone Chen, Medical Camp Director]:
"Originally, we planned to come here for some humanitarian program and especially for health education. And it happened – the floods happened. And so, we change our plan. I think because many medical workers are in our group, so we set up this medical camp. And after we set up this medical camp, all the people from foreign countries, form France, from Israel, from Switzerland, from Germany, from everywhere, they want to help."
The volunteers say that even though the situation is improving, it will take more time to help all the people in remote villages, both medically and psychologically.
The volunteers say they feel it’s their moral duty to help the survivors.
[Motan Golan, Volunteer from Israel]:
"We came as tourists and I think it was expected from us to stay here. I think everyone would do this, this was our education. Nobody would come here and see all this disaster and say, I am not connected to it and go back."
"People are afraid but if we won't help here, sometimes a friend of yours is in trouble and you help him and next time when you are in trouble they come and help you. This is how it works."