A Journey to Dominique Dada's Sunderbans

On his trips to India he visited the 54 inhabited islands of the Sundarbans and he got a feel of the needs of the villagers. He began by providing a boat to them. Gradually he donated a second, a third and finally a fourth. These boats are a lifeline for inhabitants because they bring teams of medical specialists into the region.

Lapierre takes a personal interest in the TB centre. In the last decade almost one million TB patients have been treated. But he feels educating patients is as important as providing medical aid. He recounts cases of patients who felt better after three days of medication and then went ahead and sold the rest of their medicines. As a result numerous cases of relapses were reported. Now a team educates them on the importance of continuing the medication for a period of six months.

There are other projects he nurtures around here. Medical schemes and empowerment progammes have been initiated for inhabitants of the area. The eye hospital conducts almost 30 cataract operations a day, five days a week. The centre has a micro-credit programme offering loans to non-earning women members of the family. A laboratory to detect arsenic in water, a major hazard in this region, has also been set up.

His love for India is evident in every story he narrates: There was a time he helped a village to grow cauliflower. The joyous villagers gifted him their first cauliflower. Touched by their love, he still has it preserved in a glass case in his home in Paris! For him it is not just a vegetable but a precious gift steeped in love.

Also See: Chirac comes visiting