Dear friends
A warm hello from QMed! I know it is not just warm, but hot in most parts of India. April and May are vacation months for most. For us, these were leaner months as far as our lectures and workshops were concerned.
We also had some exciting times in. Our Program Associate, Lakshmi got married to Kamlesh in April. We wish the couple a wonderful married life! Lakshmi and I also got to attend some interesting events and seminars for NGOs, on branding, communications, volunteering and many other aspects. We were almost relieved to learn that creating newsletters, annual reports and other communications, was described as intensive work in these events, and by almost all participants! The lovely part of course was the actual learning and inputs from wonderful trainers. So we hope that we will make our newsletters better and better in the coming months.
Apart from our regular lectures (as I said, few in these two months), I had the pleasure of delivering one at the Ashwini Adivasi Hospital, in Gudalur, Tamil Nadu. Having gone there on a personal trip to visit my childhood friend Dr. Gita who currently works there, I used the opportunity to give a lecture on literature searching to the health professionals. It is amazing to see really dedicated health professionals and others who work in such areas and have made tremendous changes in healthcare for the rural and tribal population. I also had the pleasure of meeting Drs Shyla and Nandakumar who run the hospital and Ms. Jyothi Chinnappa who heads nursing education. Jyoti stole my heart by scheduling a Mendeley session with me later at night, so that she could teach her students and also maintain the hospital’s small library collection.
Another place that I visited for the first time was the Dr M L Dhawale Memorial Homoeopathic Institute. Set up by the Dr ML Dhawale Memorial Trust, in memory of Dr ML Dhawale, an MD turned Homeopath, the main location of the Trust and Hospital is at Palghar, but I was invited to deliver a lecture at another centre of their’s in Dahisar. This is a BMC centre and what struck me was the spotless cleanliness of the place. The students and faculty enjoyed the lecture, especially because I introduced a new resource – Homeoindex – which covers Homeopathy literature in detail.
And finally, we are excited that our E-Learning platform is progressing excellently. Lakshmi and I made a one day trip to Delhi to have some brainstorming on the next level. A lot has happened on the portal and we are now working hard at the content. The E-Learning portal is really like a baby – growing inside us just now – and taking the necessary number of months to evolve into a beautiful product. It does seem like a 9-month project!
Vasumathi Sriganesh
