TRAVELS AROUND THE WORLD
Medical Mission Trips
by ASHIMA K . GUPTA , MD
My first medical mission was not a medical mission at all .
It was the summer of 1992 , and I was 19 years old . A small group of us , including my brother Rishi Kumar , had become friends at summer camp , and we had all read The City of Joy by Dominique Lapierre . It is a story about a doctor ’ s journey to Calcutta and his work to serve the poorest of the poor . The book was truly inspirational to all of us , and we wanted to experience the labor of love for ourselves . On the inside back cover of the book was the address of Mother Teresa ’ s Mission of Charities , where they accepted volunteers . We wrote letters upon letters requesting to volunteer , but no one ever wrote us back . We decided to go anyway .
Five teenagers met at JFK airport in New York City . After very long flights with connections and layovers , we made it to Calcutta , India . The next day we took a very cramped old bus to Mother Teresa ’ s Center for the Dying and Destitute and presented ourselves to serve . Rishi and our other friend stayed at the Center for the Dying and Destitute , while the rest of us were placed in Shishoo Bavan , the orphanage where only women were permitted to volunteer . We spent six weeks volunteering and had many adventures . Thankfully , the locals took care of us and always made sure nothing bad happened . Also , our youthful ignorance gave us that extra false sense of security we needed to navigate the streets of Calcutta by ourselves .
The Center for the Dying and Destitute helped people who ’ d been close to dying on the street , offering comfort and dignity in our compound instead . We bathed , fed and cared for them until the end . At Shishoo Bavan there was a medical wing , including an entire room filled with cribs bedding children , not just babies , who were born due to unsuccessful abortions . These children were treated with love rather than what the ( unthinkable ) alternative could have been . The medical wing also treated many poor children with tuberculosis who would have gone untreated otherwise .
As young volunteers , we mostly played and took care of the orphans . During that time , we didn ’ t do anything medically but felt so much joy being there . These less fortunate children and dying adults gave us so much more than we felt we did for them . Each of us gained a new perspective on life and became more motivated than ever to help others . Four of us became medical doctors , and the other earned her PhD in Public Health and directs the Maternal and Child Health Program at the George Washington University School of Public Health . We were lucky to have met Mother Teresa while there . She may have been short in stature , but her presence was so commanding and captivating . I can still remember the
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