Hands of Healing Amid Pain, Poverty and Suffering

By Dr. Susana Alvear

Mention India and people think of its beauty -- the palaces, the dreams, the kings, and the elephants.
But when your plane touches down, it´s reality! What we saw was a country of great contrasts and of great poverty. India has the atomic bomb, the world´s most economical car, and customer call centers for many U.S. businesses. But in spite of all this “grandeur”, this stands in contrast to the pain and suffering and poverty of the people. I don´t know if it is only material poverty; I think it is also spiritual poverty.
This had an impact. This was a challenge . . . for all of us on the team, I think.
I think we all endured initial shock of “Where do we begin?” You´d stand at a street corner and you see these rivers of people, rivers of bicycles, rivers of motorcycles . . . along with the animals, above all the cows.
The first day of the caravan, we had 300 to 350 patients, in facilities where there was no water, no electricity, no bathrooms – you´d turn your head to check the line [of people] and there was no end! And all the patients were so sick.
So one asks oneself “What am I doing? Just a little part? Making them depend on Western medicine in an area where there are no doctors?” My first day was frustrating, but after some time -and time spent in prayer – we knew our direction and purpose for travelling to India.
I set in my mind, “Each woman I see is a human being. I don´t need to worry about millions of people because I don´t have that capacity –not even the Indian government does! I´ll treat this person who came to me; treat those we could treat. Even though we couldn´t say “We love you” we did so with gestures and touch, and this changed my stay there.


This worked for me, with each person whom I had the fortune to serve -- women and children, whom I believe are the neediest because in their culture. They don´t have access to anything – even don´t have access to a plate of food, because if there are leftovers, they eat, if not, they don´t eat.

It was very good to treat them, and gripping see them in all the suffering they endure. I believe that we treated them well in that short time, and we hope there is lasting change because if you plant a seed and it grows in a fertile soil, many changes can take place.

(written by Ralph after interviewing Dr. Alvear)

Please also view the YouTube video "Healing India" by pressing play. Leave a comment on the blog if you like. Thank you.