Relief man grateful
An eight-week “thank you” tour of Australia and New Zealand by the director of the Raphael Centre for the relief of Suffering, at Dehra Dun, India, will end on Sunday. Major-General Ranbir Bakhshi undertook the trip to thank the centres support groups in Australia and New Zealand for their assistance, and to create interest in the centre.
The centre, which caters for five different groups needing medical help, was founded in 1958 by Group Captain Leonard Cheshire, V.C. Funding was provided bv Cheshire volunteer groups in various parts of the world.
Since 1964 the centre has been supported entirely by Australia and New Zealand, with Australian Cheshire organisations raising money for nine months of the year and New Zealand groups for the other three months.
It cost 11 rupees (SNZI.4O) a day for each person at the centre, said General Bakhshi in Christchurch this week.
The Raphael Centre had five wings, each accommodating people with a different disease. A leprosy colony proviaed homes and work within the centre for lepers, and the children of lepers were housed and educated in a separate hostel. “Some are trained as teachers, nurses, or technical
workers to work in factories in Delhi,” said General Bakhshi.
“One of our most important achievements is breaking the stigma of being the child of leper parents. We have been able to convince people that leprosy is. not hereditary.” The centre also runs a hospital for tuberculosis patients and carries out an immunisation programme for children in the villages in the Himalayan area. The centre itself is at the foot of the Himalayan range. Health facilities in these villages were . non-existent,
said Gdfieral Bakhshi. "ine people seem to live on love, fresh air. and will-power,” Care and rehabilitation training for mentally handicapped adults were provided at another hostel, and there was a separate ward for chronically ill patients. The Raphael Centre, which had room for 300 patients and pupils, was the only one of its kind in the world.
“We are trying to be selfsufficient in everv way possible,” said General Bakhshi, who became the director in 1975 after 30 years in the Indian Army.
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Press, 26 November 1981, Page 22
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359Relief man grateful Press, 26 November 1981, Page 22
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