If you care enough, plant a tree

PUNE, July 17: The Cipla Cancer Palliative Centre at Warje is just a little over a year old and in this brief span it has bloomed beautif...

PUNE, July 17: The Cipla Cancer Palliative Centre at Warje is just a little over a year old and in this brief span it has bloomed beautifully. And this month, they have come up with some more ideas to green the area and generate funds at the same time. From July 4, every Saturday, they have planned to have a tree plantation drive. All those who wish to, can plant a sapling in the name of their near ones, on payment of Rs 1,000. In a few years they will provide a soothing relief to the otherwise stark hillside behind the complex.

“About 80 people have already sent in their requests for planting trees,” informs Lt Col R Mukerjea (Retd), director administration. “This is a fund-raising activity. We are also growing vegetables for use by the patients, as well as for sale. The proceeds from this will be utilised to run the area of five acres under us. Besides, with the help of noted environmentalist, Sheila Christian, we are planning to start vermiculture.”

That is not all. On July 1, they inaugurated a Day Care Centre and a Training Programme in Palliative Care. Managing Trustee, N A Raje, elaborates on these schemes, “The Day Care Centre is for the patients who are staying outside and their families. It will be like a picnic. But here, they will feel confident because doctors are present in case of some emergency. Later we intend to make it twice in a month and then maybe weekly or even twice a week.”

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“On July 1, we also started a Training Programme in palliative care so that more and more girls can go out and practise. It is a one-year diploma course and we have got 15 girls in the first batch. What we want is that maximum number of cancer patients are benefitted,” adds Mukerjea. “Initially our girls were trained by Gilly Burns, an English nurse who has been in India for the last seven years working with dying cancer patients in the rural areas.”

With its serene ambience, cheerful nurses in coloured dresses, walls of the wards hung with paintings and a little fountain gurgling merrily in the centre of a bright playground, the Cipla Care Centre provides the right touch and boosts the morale of those who come here to get relief from pain and depression.