The world of Tzu Chi December 2023 (Vol.148)

TZU CHI 148 31 supplement her nutrition. Kamlesh Kumar and his family members also faced a similar issue of low body weights and nutritional deficiency. Heeding Ah Yok’s advice, Kamlesh expressed the intention to have his mother prepare a sufficient amount of food cooked with less oil, salt, and sugar. “Because this diet style is beneficial to our health,” he said. Although Ah Yok was aware of the low likelihood of changing the villagers’ lifestyle habits successfully, she was persistent in her effort to educate. She said, “The villagers generally lack hygiene and health knowledge. They don’t realise if something is wrong with their physical health, thinking that as long as there is no bleeding, stroke, or pain, they are healthy. Therefore, we have to spend a lot of time educating them. Even if they may not fully grasp it at first, they will, eventually, if we keep repeating.” While community health checks may not be difficult, they do require an investment of time, love, and patience to educate the villagers. This is precisely the mission of Tzu Chi volunteers at the Buddha’s birthplace – to transform the lives of the local community. Kamlesh (in pink) and his family faced low body weights. He expressed his willingness to adopt a healthy diet style as suggested by nurse Chong Ah Yok. [Photo by Beh Chun How] acting as an interpreter. He believes that Tzu Chi will continue to care for the villagers in the long term and bring them hope. Door-to-door health checks Ganga Bigha Village is home to about 180 households. Volunteers conducted health checks door-to-door with the hope of improving the villagers’ health and subsequently enhancing their quality of life. Whenever nurse Chong Ah Yok went through the health reports and detected high blood pressure readings, she delved into understanding lifestyle habits of the villagers concerned. Often, she discovered that the contributing factors were habits like alcoholism, betel nut chewing, and smoking. In the worse cases, some people even lost their jobs as a result. Arun Paswan is one such example. He not only lost his job as a serviceman due to alcoholism, but also suffers from hypertension. Besides advising him to seek medical attention at the community health centre, Ah Yok also emphasised the importance of adopting a healthy diet and reducing the harmful habits of drinking and betel nut chewing. Another villager, Unay Paswan, also had a drinking habit. Learning that he had temporarily stopped drinking during his recovery from an arm injury, Ah Yok seized the opportunity to encourage him, “Since you have already stopped drinking, don’t resume drinking.” Unay readily agreed. Another common health issue among the villagers was a low Body Mass Index (BMI). Take Manju Devi for instance. She weighed only 35 kg and had a BMI of 15, an indication that she was moderately underweight. Manju revealed that her husband is a daily wage labourer with an unstable income, leading to inadequate meals at times. Ah Yok suggested that she consume more milk and lentil soup to