Volunteer doctors help impoverished areas in China

Jian Dexiang, a 66-year-old farmer from Yangpu village, Zhaotong city, suffered from red eyes over the past eight years, and recently developed new symptoms such as itchy eyes and blurred vision.

He has however been reluctant to go to hospitals in the city due to his ailing legs and the long distance.

So on Monday when he heard volunteer doctors from big hospitals in Beijing were providing diagnoses at the village's health center, he joined the queue.

After waiting two hours Liu Xiaocui, a doctor from Beijing, received him, and after a checkup, Liu ruled out cataracts and gave him a bottle of eye drops.

"The doctor told me to use the drops and cover my eyes with a hot water-soaked towel four times each day," Jian said. "It is such as good opportunity to see so many doctors and I hope they can come again."

Liu, a doctor specializing in eye diseases at the Chinese PLA General Hospital, is one of the doctors organized by the Chinese Medical Doctor Association for the five-day program, which provided voluntary medical services for villagers in impoverished areas in Southwest China's Yunnan province.

"This is the first time I have taken part in such a kind of voluntary service, and I learned a lot," Liu said.

Liu was dismayed to find incidences of some eye diseases, such as cataracts, in Zhaotong are higher than northern areas, partly due to its tropical climate.

In addition, clinics in local villages and townships can suffer from serious shortages of medical staff and medicine, which has complicated the problem, she said.

Ling Feng, Chinese Medical Volunteer director, a group administered by the Chinese Medical Doctor Association, said the group has been dedicated to improving health at grassroots level, especially in impoverished areas, to help alleviate poverty.

"It is disheartening to see people fall ill, and equally disheartening to see people fall back to poverty due to disease," she said. "We hope with our time and skills we can contribute to poverty relief for locals."

The group provided free diagnoses to nearly 1,500 people and training to 280 local villagers in Zhaotong in the program that ended Wednesday, according to the group.

Prior to the volunteer program in Zhaotong, Chinese Medical Volunteer provided similar services to other impoverished areas in China, such as villages and counties in Hebei and Jiangxi provinces, and other countries such as Guinea, according to the group.