GGH Manava Seva attracts youth

- One volunteer works for one day in a month
- Youth find satisfaction in social service

Guntur: An innovative charity programme introduced at the GGH, aimed to improve patient services, is getting good response from all
corners. The philanthropic programme called ‘Manava Seva’ was designed to involve people interested in social service activities to help
patients in hospital. The aim of this programme is to facilitate patients with whereabouts of various departments in the hospital campus
and help them to get their treatment timely.

An idea conceived by Raghunath, Administrator of GGH, was introduced on experimental basis on January 26. Right from its inception,
Manava Seva attracts many, especially the young. As many as 556 volunteers registered to lend their services here on Wednesday. The
programme asks a volunteer to work for one day in every month. The choice of the day will be decided by the volunteer only.

This flexible approach has helped to attract a number of volunteers. Every day, on an average, 20 people are participating in Manava
Seva, with a maximum of 52 people turned up on a single day as against 2 people also, said Raghunath. “We will reach to the level of
having 30 volunteers everyday very soon,” he added.

Presently, patient assistance services in OPD and Causality are given to the Manava Seva volunteers. As the GGH campus is huge and has
many buildings with super specialty facilities, people wander where to go for their treatment. With thousands of patients coming
everyday, mostly poor and illiterates, they find it very difficult to identify the right place for treatment. This problem is more evident in
the out-patient department. Here these volunteers come to their help a lot. They even assist them to get the diagnostics done if required
and are also being used in causality to shift patients from ambulances, assisting with wheel chairs and stretchers.

“Though it is a little help, it gives us satisfaction,” said Jayaram, a second year degree student. “We are helping the poor and elderly who
do not know anything in the GGH campus,” says Shiva, another degree student. “I am doing this only for self-satisfaction,” said Upendar
Rao who comes all the way from Sattenapalli once in every month.

Sreekanth Aluru