Moment of compassion

The charity program China Hearts sends medical professionals and volunteers to Nyingchi, a remote and underdeveloped area in the Tibet autonomous region. Doctors from Beijing offer free clinic services and medicine to local Tibetans. [Photo by Liu Xiangrui/China Daily]

Although the county hospital has better medical facilities and doctors, it is 70 km away in Bomi－more than two hours ride on the mountain roads, Yudron says.

Because of this, she rarely visits the county hospital and the small private clinics in Bomi county for her health problems, including the problem with her digestive system that has troubled her for nearly three decades.

"It's a lot of trouble and more costly to go to hospital in the county town. So we usually go there to buy medicine only once in a while and take the medicine back to be treated at the township medical center," Yudron says.

Several of her family members, who are all farmers, have different kinds of health problems. The cost for medicines are still a burden for them despite favorable policies that reimburse them to some extent. The family spent more than 30,000 yuan ($4,410) on medicine last year.

The medical team visiting Yuxu also attracted many residents from villages far away from the township.

Tsedro, 29, brought his mother on his motorbike from their village, which is nearly 40 km away.

"We were informed that experts from Beijing would be holding a free clinic in the township, so we headed out early to catch it," says Tsedro. "The doctors checked us and gave us some medicines, plus some suggestions for the future. It's helpful."