North Point taps soccer for health

The mobile clinic service being flagged off from St Joseph's School (North Point) in Darjeeling

Vivek Chhetri, TT,  Sep 04, 2018, Darjeeling: When an ambulance rolled out of St. Joseph's School (North Point) on Sunday morning on its way to a nearby tea garden for a free health check-up, it silenced critics who had questioned of one of Darjeeling's most well-known institutions.

On June 2 this year, the Darjeeling North Point School Alumni Association (DNPSAA) had organised an event to celebrate the Fifa World Cup and had self-christened the event as Darjeeling-The World Cup Town 2018.

The event was a grand success and but critics soon took to social media to accuse the organisers of having political motives. "Many members felt sad, some were angry. People were commenting staying from their homes. We, however, decided to ignore and stuck to our larger goal because we knew our mission, our goal," said Deven Gurung, president, DNPSAA.

The goal was to raise funds and donate an ambulance fitted with equipment that could conduct 42 tests like EGC among others. It was also the students' tribute to their teacher, Fr Gerard Van Wallenghem, a Canadian Jesuit who came to Darjeeling and spent his life serving the people till his death on June 1, 2015.

"We had to raise over Rs 8 lakh for the project. We charged a registration fee of Rs 300 from every student who participated in the World Cup event. We we could collect Rs 4 lakh from that event," said Gurung. The rest of the funds came from alumni members and some corporate sponsors.

"We also had an alumni fund of about Rs 1.5 lakh, which we had collected through fund-raising dinners in the past. We pooled all our resources to get this ambulance," said Gurung.

The project was titled Fr Van Clinic on Wheels. "Fr Van would always tell the alumni to work on health issues of the poor. The school was already helping in education for the needy by holding winter classes in North Point," said Gurung.

"After various alumni meeting it was decided that merely holding a medical camp would not be of much help. We wanted to go to the villagers and conduct medical tests. We had formalised this project almost a year back," Gurung added.

On Sunday, when the Bolero ambulance rolled into Happy Valley tea garden, it catered to 90 residents.

The Clinic on Wheels is a joint venture with Darjeeling Dooars Medical Association (DDMA) Hospital, popularly known as Planter's Nursing Home, in Darjeeling.

Police gesture

A portable cellular broadcast equipment stolen by miscreants from Patlebas in Singamari, Bimal Gurung's former stronghold, during last year's agitation on June 15 was returned to the media house by Darjeeling police on Monday. The device is estimated to cost Rs 40 lakh. The police said it was found in a forest.