Care with compassion and commitment
The Ananda Hospital at Sirsia village of Kushinagar, eastern Uttar Pradesh, has successfully raised
awareness on public health and hygiene among the people. Supported by the Japan International
Cooperation Agency, the charitable hospital provides efficient primary health care services to therural poor.
“Actions speak louder than words… To say something, it is not necessary to ‘say’ it… What you do,more often than not, conveys the message for you.”
A real life example for this adage is proffered by Mr. Koichi
Otake, Coordinator, India Welfare Village Society (IWVS), whocomes from Japan every year to India, to help the work of theAnanda Hospital located in Sirsia Village in Kushinagar, east
Uttar Pradesh.
Mr. Otake is a pharmacist; he speaks only Japanese and somebroken English, and understands a few Hindi words. Yet one
amazes at how successfully he interacts with the stream oflocal villagers who come to Ananda Hospital for treatment.

Ananda Hospital in Sirsia Village,Kushinagar, UP/ Photo credit: OWSAThe Ananda Hospital is a charity institution built and operated by India Welfare Village Society, aJapanese NGO based in Aichi, Japan and Ananda Mission Charitable Trust (AMCT), with help ofJapanese contributions. It was built in 1998 to provide affordable medical services to the rural poor
in India, and promote health and hygiene to prevent infectious diseases among them.
Koichi Otake has been associated with the hospital since its first brick was laid.

Over the past 12 years, Otake has been coming to Ananda
Hospital every year, at least twice. Each time he is here, hemakes it a point to visit every household in the village to meetthe people and enquire about their well being in his uniquelanguage of Japanese, English, and Hindi words and hand signs.
The villagers also communicate with him and endearingly referto him as ‘Taake Baba’.
Koichi Otake interacts with villagers on one of his
rounds around the village/ Photo credit: OWSA

Otake proves that if the intent is sincere, then language can never be a barrier.
His efforts form the pillar that gives strength to the Ananda Hospital initiative.
Another pillar of strength for the institution is Dr. P.N. Gupta, Medical
Superintendent at the Ananda Hospital who sets an example in altruistic
service. He is among the few doctors we see today, who have consciouslychosen to go for a hardships-laden rural service than enjoying the comforts ofcity life.
Dr. P.N. Gupta,
Medical Suptd, Ananda
Hospital/ Photo credit: OWSADr. Gupta has been with the Ananda Hospital since it started from 2nd November, 1998. That time hestarted practice with nothing, but a table and two chairs. Today the hospital has a pathology lab, Xray machine, facilities for ECG and Ultrasonography and a 7-bedded ward. As he took us around thehospital, we could sense the feeling of pride and contentment he exuded, while he showed us how
the hospital grew equipment by equipment, and facility by facility.
Started in 1997, the hospital was built in a record time of one year, under personal supervision ofKoichi Otake. As per Japanese ethos, the date of completion of any project is decided even prior toinitiation of work on the project. Ananda Hospital was decided for service from 1998 November, andaccordingly as well as incredibly, it was readied for service precisely by the stated date! Otake stayedin India for 200 days, that is more than half a year, working with the construction workers and laying
brick and cement with his own hands, to ensure that the hospital was ready on time. Living in India,
one can only marvel at Japanese discipline, hard work and punctuality!
Till date Ananda Hospital has serviced more than 200,000 patients who come here not only from theneighbouring villages but also from as far as the UP-Bihar border, a couple of kilometers away. Most
disease symptoms are of tropical diseases like amoebic dysentery, Malaria, virus infections,tuberculosis, asthma and parasitic worm infections.
Such infections prevalent in the area can be prevented to a significant extent by proper hygiene andsanitation alone. Ananda Hospital, has now therefore been conducting “The hygiene education tofarm villages, and nurturing of talented people” programme with support from Japan
International Cooperation Agency (JICA). The programme lays much stress on educating the villagers
on basic public health and cleanliness.
More than half the patients who visit Ananda Hospital are
women and a substantial percentage among them are
expectant mothers. Under the JICA supported programme, thehospital arranges for a special class for expectant mothers
every week which is conducted by lady hospital assistants
Suman and Urmila.

A lady hospital assistant with women in thematernal health class at Ananda/
Photo credit: OWSA

The village women find it easier to open up to women
instructors to ask queries and discuss their problems;
moreover the communication is facilitated in the local dialect
so that all women can follow what is being taught in the class.

Nearly 20-30 women attend this class every Friday, where they are provided basic health andhygiene education, including on maternal health, safe pregnancy, delivery, health-care and nutrition,and child care.

Around 80-130 patients come to Ananda Hospital every day;many among them from the poorest economic backgrounds
and the lowest social classes. We spoke to a few villagers, who
had come for treatment, and they were unanimous that thehospital is a big advantage. It could be inferred that the ones
who benefited the most from the Hospital were the mostmarginalised members of neighbouring villages – the Dalit andbackward caste population – who are, even today, far worse
off than the upper caste people of their villages.

Around 80-130 patients come to Ananda
Hospital every day/ Photo credit: OWSA

“It is good that we have a hospital here in the village, else patients would have to run to Gorakhpur
town or other big cities for treatment. People are poor here, and it is not easy to afford such costlytreatment.” says Uma Shankar, a patient from Kurmauta Village.
The first time patients visiting the Hospital mentioned that they came to Ananda Hospital after theylearnt about other people benefiting from the treatment here. Not only this, it also comes to becheaper for them, as the hospital charges only nominal fees for registration, lab tests and medicines.
Ananda hospital also conducts pre-screening for patients who show symptoms of possible HIV
infection. It has a full-fledged facility for HIV screening and conducts the ELISA test at one third of
the normal cost. Till date, near 100 HIV cases have been screened here, which reflects significant
contribution by a primary health centre towards prevention of HIV/AIDS pandemic.
The medicines especially are a main highlight of the Hospital. Ananda Hospital is known in the area
as having a good stock of high quality medicines, which are provided to the patients at fairly
subsidised rates. This is acknowledged not only by patients, but also by doctors in neighbouringhospitals. While interacting with a specialist at the Community Health Centre in Kasia, we werepleasantly surprised when she commended about the availability of good quality medicines inAnanda.

“I had been to the CHC for treatment earlier, and now I have come toAnanda Hospital after I came to know that the medicines given here arevery good, and people have recovered very well,” says Meherunissa, afirst time visitor whom we met at the waiting hall.
“We get first class medicines here,” says Bhikku who has come to thehospital around 3-4 times before. “It is logical that only when medicines
work, will the patients come. Since the medicines give benefits, and they
are also cheaper, therefore people come here,” he adds.

The hospital dispensary provides
medicines at a subsidised cost topatients/ Photo credit: OWSAAnanda Hospital is today a success story scripted by the efforts of an Indo-Japanese team. It can becited as an example of an efficient primary health care service provider in rural India. More such
similar initiatives should be replicated in other parts of the country as well, so we in essence canhave a strong infrastructure set up for rural health care in India.