From Mayukh Goswami
Mangaldai : In this present time of surging Covid positive cases in Darrang district it has become very essential to protect the vulnerable section of citizens in the society including both mentally and physically challenged people from being exposed to infection by the deadly virus . In view of this SATRA (Social Action for Appropriate Transformation and Advancement in Rural Areas ) , a Sipajhar based NGO which has been running a community mental health programme in collaboration with the Azim Premji Philanthropic Initiative for the last seven years has organized a free Covid vaccination camp for such section of people on May 16 last .
The day long camp was held in Sipajhar BJ Girls’ High School with active support from the district health department . Talking to this correspondent Nani Saikia , Executive Director of SATRA informed that altogether one hundred eighty nos of beneficiary including forty mentally challenged persons and their care givers apart from physically challenged persons, volunteers of the ongoing community mental health programme and ‘Child Line’,Darrang among others . “ The camp was arranged in a short notice and in this partial lock down situation it is very difficult to bring the mentally challenged people from remote corners of Sipajhar . We will request the district health authorities to arrange more such camps in near future. Presently our community mental health programme is providing free treatment and medicine to three hundred and thirty mentally challenged people under Sipajhar develop block where in case of Darrang district it is more than six hundred . We have so far recorded more than twelve hundred such mentally ills across the district .” , Saikia reiterated .
