Transformation lives the idea of removing the log in one’s eye first. On Saturday, concerned citizens in Dimapur decided to live the tenet by completely renovating Dimapur district hospital’s neglected delivery room, reports our Senior Reporter Temjenrenba Anichar
DIMAPUR, APRIL 29
Transformation, it would appear, need not come with endorsement from Indonesia. Just ask the authorities of district hospital of Dimapur–they will tell you that it doesn’t come in the form of trophies and citations either.
Because on Friday morning, they were witness to a transformation engineered by the local youth with their “acts of kindness” and “makeover drive”, and gift-wrapped by a “goodwill” gesture from the army establishment at Rangapahar.
It was in the middle of last year that two groups of young people engaging in community service, under the names of Makeover Drive and Act of Kindness, decided to invest their service into transforming the district hospital. The hospital, as it is known, had been at the receiving end of neglect for decades.
One of the outcomes of this collective venture was the inauguration of a renovated 4-bed labour room inside the hospital’s maternity ward early Friday morning. The renovation works were done by the 3 Corps (Spear Corps) of Rangapahar, under their civil action project “Operation Sadbhavana (goodwill).”
It was the members from Makeover Drive and Act of Kindness who initially approached the hospital’s authorities, and then the army establishment for the renovation project. Quite curiously, the group Makeover Drive also includes members of the Dimapur district administration.
On Friday morning, before the inauguration of the renovated room, the deputy commissioner of Dimapur, Kesonyu Yhome, said that “of late” there had been an acknowledgement within the bureaucratic circles that the government’s focus on social sector had been minimal.
Thus, needing to “re-orient ourselves”, according to the DC, led the district administration to the realization that they must open the door to “all the stakeholders.” In other words, the citizens’ concern resulted in the formation of Makeover Drive, and later the fusion with Act of Kindness.
The restored labour room will be functional by next week, according to the Chief Medical Officer, Dr CW Tungoe. He told Eastern Mirror that besides the restoration works, the army establishment has also contributed 1 suction machine (aspirator), two 4-seater steel benches and 2 sets of delivery surgical instruments to the hospital.
In addition, the army has installed two air-conditioners inside the restored labour room, refurbished two toilet rooms with complete tiling and also renovated the old store room attached to the maternity ward.
According to Tungoe, the entire project was completed at the cost of Rs 7 lakh, approximately.
An army representative from the 3 Corps, in a brief speech, explained that the motivation behind the army’s venture came from the understanding that “society should provide a neat and clean delivery room to our mothers.”
A member from Act of Kindness also explained the reason behind their works for the hospital: years of neglect, in spite of the hospital’s status as a natural refuge for those who cannot afford the cost of high medical care at private hospitals.
She also served the reminder that even as citizens, they were also the stakeholders, the “safe keepers” of the hospital, and its facilities” were the doctors, ward-persons and the nurses working there.
“Let us all live our life with a due sense of responsibility, not as those who do not know the meaning of life but as those who do. May we continue this journey together,” she challenged.
In July last year, as the first phase of the transformation drive at the hospital Dimapur, members of Makeover Drive put fresh paints on the OPD section, swept the hospital premises, and donated fans, chairs, and working gloves.
