A Lesson in Corporate Social Responsibility

'There are corporations who don't act with entirely self-interested, profit driven motivations?!'

Swallow your cynical corporate bashing tendencies for just a second. At a slum rehabilitation complex in Andheri in Mumbai, over 100 patients received free medical care due to a generous Indian corporation. The manufacturing company not only helped these 100 patients in this community, but will in fact sponsor the medical team to come back again in three months to continue their treatment and care for the people in the Andheri rehabilitated slums. This same company will also spend over 100,000 rupees every month to send this medical team to 15 different communities every month. They see, on average, over 150 patients in three hours at their visits. I got to spent the morning with Dr Dinesh as he met with over 100 patients and using simple instruments was able to help them with a variety of problems – all for no charge.

The community members presented with many problems. Luckily for me (with my lack of Hindi) most of the diseases and problems were Indian-accented English words. 'Anaemia', 'diabetes' and my (personal favourite) 'sky-high blood pressure'. All easily understandable. What was hard to understand though was the fact that all 100 patients suffered from dietary deficienies that were affecting their lives. They had little energy due to a lack of iron in their diets. Dr Dinesh explained that the group of people living in this rehabilitated slum were from the 'trading class' and that they are all vegetarian and thus had little iron in their diets. I nearly fell off my stool for two reasons. One, an educated, well travelled doctor was still refering to different groups in their classes and castes. Two, due to a lack of education and availability of fresh iron-rich vegetables, these community members were struggling through their daily lives. Three (yes, I remembered another reason I fell off my stool in shock), the doctor checked for anaemia without blood tests or pee samples. He pulled down their lower eyelids and gave me a quick lesson in the corresponding scales of iron deficiency and the colour of your eyes. The doctor was able to diagnose so many problems in the patients without expensive equipment and lengthy waits. This means more people are able to receive the help they need.

In addition to dietary deficiences, the patients were suffering back and joint pain. The women had the worst pain due to the onerous manual labour that they must perform each day. (I have a new appreciation for clothes washing after watching women squatting over scrubbing clothes on the side of the road all day.) The community members were suffering respiratory problems due to working in or living near hazardous industries. One man worked in a paint factory and had to dissolve the paints with harsh chemicals. It is a small workshop with little ventilation. A mask that would cost next to nothing would have helped protect his lungs.

Multiple women also came for medical advice about family planning. One woman was 22 (my age!) and already had two children to care for. Another woman had three daughters and desperately wanted a son. Another woman wasn't ready to have children as her husband wasn't able to get stable work and they couldn't be responsible for a child. These women impressed me as they have obviously been educated and empowered enough to look at their roles as wives and reassess their own priorities.

Dr Dinesh was able to prescribe medication to help treat the community members' ailments. A mobile pharmacy (like an icecream truck full of pharmaceutical fun) accompanies the health clinic and provides medicines (like insulin, panadol, antibiotics) and vitamins to the patients for free. If the patient requires ongoing treatment, they are referred to a free clinic nearby that the manufacturing corporation also financially supports. As the mobile health centre visits every three months and the free clinic is nearby, patients are able to be monitored so that all medical advice is responsibly given out and followed up. One challenge that the mobile pharmacy faces is a struggle to ensure the drugs prescribed to these needy patients (often women) are actually taken by them. I was told of multiple stories of the husbands taking the medication instead for themselves. The doctors have attempted to stop this happening by prescribing a 'child specific', 'woman specific' and 'male specific' drug for the different problems. There is no difference in the drugs, except that the patients believe they are only effective for the prescribed person. Little white lies saving the world!

Another challenge is that patients often sell their medications instead of using them themselves. In an environment where incomes are stretched already, making a little money by selling medications is an attractive proposition. Even if it means that the woman herself will continue having debilitating pain or be stuck in bed with tummy problems. To try and curb this problem, and ensure that people are getting the treatments they require, the mobile pharmacy only gives out four-five days worth of drugs at a time. The patient will need to continue coming back for their medicines and as they are not complete packets they are unable to sell them on the black market. Solutions abound! Just another way they are ensuring that people get the help they need.

What excited me most about the mobile health clinic service, is that it was embraced by the community. It was a service that the women's group in the community had asked my organisation to arrange. As it was a direct need, that the community had directly requested, there was overwhelming support for the clinic. Not only did many people show up to take advantage of the free service, but they also went and spoke to their friends about the importance of check ups. The women's group also ran community education projects to help the slum dwellers make better eating choices to ensure that families have more balanced diets.

Not only is the medical clinic doing incredible work – but to think it's all funded by a company! A company who is breaking the self-interested, profit hungry mould. Who knew?