A 13-member mobile medical unit from Taiwan left New Delhi, India, yesterday to provide free treatment to poor inhabitants of Darjeeling and Sikkim.
The team of doctors and other healthcare staff was assembled by the International Cooperation and Development Fund (ICDF), the government’s overseas aid arm.
The mission, headed by ICDF senior project manager Chen Chih-fu (陳志福), conducted a similar operation in the same parts of India in February.
“The previous mission was received enthusiastically, and at the request of the Darjeeling local government and individual citizens there, we have decided to offer free treatment in the region again,” said Chen, a dentist who has led many medical missions around the world in the past.
“This time around, we will visit remote tribal settlements and villages that we did not stop at in February,” Chen said at a dinner on Sunday hosted by Taiwan’s Representative to India Philip Ong (翁文祺) in honor of the team.
Located at an elevation of 2,200m, Darjeeling is a noted summer resort with a population of about 300,000. But Darjeeling and neighboring Sikkim are spread over large mountainous areas where there are many hard-to-reach villages that have limited medical and healthcare resources.
Chen said the medical group is carrying enough medical supplies and equipment to treat 3,000 people during its two-week mission.
“We will donate unused pharmaceuticals and other medical supplies to local Indian healthcare institutions at the end of our mission,” Chen said.
In addition to treating patients, he said, the training of local healthcare staff is also part of the mission.
“We will help them develop a healthcare service network to make up for the shortage of medical professionals in remote villages,” Chen said.
The ICDF team is composed of six doctors in internal medicine, family medicine, gynecology, dentistry and surgery, as well as two nurses, one pharmacist, a public health administrator and three volunteers, including former Department of Health minister Lee Ming-liang (李明亮).
The group is scheduled to wrap up its mission and return to New Delhi on Dec. 6.
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