HYDERABAD, India – The one thing Sandhya wants more than anything else is a better life for her son.

Her son Sai is only 1, but Sandhya dreams that he will get a good education and eventually a good job. She dreams that he will move out of the slums where they now live.

But for now, Sandhya and her husband do the best that they can. Her husband prepares vegetables for hotel kitchens, but the work doesn’t provide a steady income because he must go around to the local hotels each day to see if his services are needed.

The couple can barely afford necessities like food and there is nothing left to spend on medical care.

So when Sandyha and Sai both got sick with high fevers, the situation could have quickly turned critical for their health and survival had it not been for a timely intervention.

Operation Blessing’s Smile on Wheels, a mobile hospital that serves the slum population, was holding a free medical clinic in Sandyha’s community. In fact, the mobile hospital makes rounds to this and other slum areas once a month and Sandyha faithfully brings Sai every month for a check-up and for a little food to help them get by.

Thanks to Smile on Wheels, both Sandhya and little Sai were able to get the treatment and medication they needed to fight their illness.

Operation Blessing sponsors two Smile on Wheels vans that serve a population of approximately 150,000 people like Sandhya and Sai living in the slums of Hyderabad and the surrounding rural areas. The mobile clinics offer check-ups, free medicine, and even minor surgeries. Medical staff also focus on teaching women and children about hygiene, immunizations, vitamins and malnutrition.

HOW YOU CAN HELP

Be a part of OBI's ongoing medical relief efforts by making an online contribution to help those suffering from extreme poverty and sickness.