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Medical team aids India town

Barbara Rivera Holmes

ALBANY — During its 24 years, the Southwest Georgia Medical Mission Team has helped establish a hospital and clinic in southern India, one of the group's founders said Thursday.

Dr. Van C. Knowles of Albany spoke to Albany Rotarians about the mission team's work, giving details of the medical facilities and of the professionals and the patients who give and receive care in the town of Karakonam, India.

At the medical college, nurses and doctors are trained.

"A lot of these girls (nurses) ... would have never had the change to get out of the slums," said KNowles, a retired general surgeon. "They get an education, get a job and elevate their (standing)."

By contrast, those who study to become doctors typically come from wealthier families, he said, and are the children of professionals.

The Southwest Georgia Medical Mission Team was founded in 1983 after Knowles and a colleague heard a sermon at First United Methodist Church urging them to help those beyond the region. In 1984, the team headed to India with polio vaccines. Later, the got to work on a clinic.

"It was just a two-buck clinic in 1986 when we went," Knowles said.

The team then worked on a hospital and by 1995 had helped start the medical school

The hospital, Knowles said, serves mainly indigent patients who live within a 30-mile radius of the facility.

The team – whose major layers today, Knowles said, are himself, internist Dr. Bernard Scoggins, anesthesiologist Dr. Mark Shoemaker, and Jan Rodd, a nurse and nursing professor at Darton College – travel annually to India with supplies and funds.

The medical professionals pay their way to Karakonam and raise extra funds for their ongoing work.

When they arrive, usually in late January to early February, they are greeted by locals and welcome signs.

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