8. Free care

"Meager incomes don’t guarantee abysmal health statistics, but the two usually go together."

— Tracy Kidder

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Serving the community with a makeshift health clinic

"Can I help with this?" I asked.

Joy smiled and nodded.

Together we stacked an array of antibiotics, fungal creams, and cough syrups onto a wooden tabletop.

Members from the local community filed into the waiting benches. Next they were ushered through our various clinic stations—triage, vitals, consultation, medical record keeping, and finally the dispensary table where Joy and I provided each patient with his or her prescribed medication.

All of the services? Free.

Much of what we read in Integration & Development class emphasized sustainability. Robert Lupton wrote, “For disadvantaged people to flourish ... Initiatives that thwart their development, though rightly motivated, must be restructured to reinforce self-sufficiency if they are to become agents of lasting and positive change” (102).

Is a mobile, makeshift, free clinic provided by a neighboring organization actually sustainable? Probably not, because it depends solely on temporary aid. If not, were we wrong to put one on?

When it comes down to it, the temporary clinic recognized the real health needs of community members and gave them good care. Doctor Paul Farmer's practices weren't always sustainable, but care remained his priority. Tracy Kidder writes, “Of all the world’s errors, he seemed to feel, the most fundamental was the ‘erasing’ of people, the ‘hiding away’ of suffering. ‘My big struggle is how people can not care, erase, not remember’” (219).

Because our clinic was a means of addressing real suffering with real compassion, we did well.