The severe climate crisis, whose effects are hitting us so closely, does not spare India, a country very dear to us.
In August 2018 a severe flood struck Kerala, a state in southern India that occupies a narrow strip of the country's south-west coast.
Kerala faces the Indian Ocean. It has a flat coastal strip running the whole length of the state, behind which rise mountains with peaks over 2,500 metres high.
The flood swept away and destroyed more than 50,000 homes, killed hundreds of people and displaced more than a million.
The mountainous landscape and its steep slopes made the flooding rivers even more devastating.
This environmental disaster also hit the small town of Chungakkunnu, in Kannur district. At that time, Intermed ETS was setting up a dialysis unit at the Chungakkunnu hospital, run by the Daughters of St. Camillus. The sisters had stressed the need for a dialysis unit in a mountainous area where many people lack the money and transport to travel to the big cities for the treatment of serious kidney disease, which is steadily increasing in the area.
New floods in recent years have further devastated the land, the homes and the already difficult roads, leaving the mountain areas without adequate health facilities ever more isolated.
Intermed ETS will provide a new ultrasound scanner to the Chungakkunnu hospital so that mothers and unborn babies can be monitored regularly during pregnancy.
Proper monitoring of pregnancy significantly reduces the exposure of mother and baby to very high risks, including worsening health or death. If the foetus has a medical condition, prenatal diagnosis also makes it possible to offer the family appropriate medical and psychological support. This support is essential to prepare the mother and family to manage the condition more calmly and appropriately.