First stop.

First stop.

AT HD KOTE

St Mary’s Community Health Centre, HD Kote, 40 kms off Mysore, run by the Ursuline Fransiscan Sisters has been a boon for the local community over the past decade. 

Dr Sr Hilda Lobo

Dr Sr Hilda Rita Lobo, a Johnite of the 1989 Batch has been at the helm from the beginning rapidly turning around a fledgling health system to what has now become the premier maternity center in the Taluk. Serving the local community over the past 34 years, the Ursuline Fransiscan Sisters have over this time brought about a wonderful transformation in healthcare and Education.

Starting in the late seventies in the adjacent village of Naganahalli, the Congregation with its Nurse practitioners initially and then with Sister Doctors have been looking after the healthcare needs of the community.

Sr Hilda, who has been associated with the region from the 90s, first as an MBBS doctor in Naganahalli, and then post MD at St John’s Medical College in Naganahalli and HD Kote has quietly transformed what was essentially a primary care facility to one of the best referral centres in the region.

Oddorugudi

A marvel of multitasking, the centre has a nurse administrator and lab technician- anaesthetist among others. The fact that they still find the time to do outreach work among the tribals is a testimony to their commitment. I was fortunate to accompany them on one of their visits to Oddorugudi, a hamlet of the Jenu Kuruba tribals (one of the four prominent tribes of the region).

The centre at present has another Sister Doctor, Dr Sr Jyothi from the Batch of 2004.

Dr Sr Jyothi

On a personal note, this is the beginning of my travel and am already beginning to see what I feel are going to be recurring themes, stories of commitment and transformation of local communities.

In the scan room