Tamkor, Rajasthan 
Tamkor was the first campsite for Project Healthy India. The villagers opened up their hearts and homes and taught us about their way of life, their style of cooking, their pride in their town, and most importantly gave us a glimpse into the town’s health.
This village is the birthplace of Acharya Mahapragya who was known for his knowledge in ancient medicine as well as meditation and pranayama. Unfortunately, very few people followed any of this. They were busy in their daily lives and we found an unusually high percentage of HTN as well as a moderate rate of diabetes and obesity.
Many villagers were farmers and thus quite active with access to homegrown fresh vegetables. Why then was there such a high rate of HTN? It couldn’t be all genetic when close to 75% of the town had untreated HTN!
For example, one villager told us that he had been diagnosed with high BP 2 years ago. He was given a packet of 30 pills and finished them. However, he was not told anything else and not asked to follow-up. He finished the 30 pills and assumed he was cured. He then came to our camp as it was easy access to him and his BP was 200/100!
What we found was that some basic education goes a long way. The diets consisted of home cooked meals with an extraordinary high amount of salt and oil/butter. This leads to high BP and diabetes. We also found due to a lack of consistent medical care, the basic understanding of medical problems needed to be taught.
Ongoing Efforts:
1. Basic dietary education to cut the salt, oil, sugar, and milk! One medical staff was so moved by this that he stopped cooking with oil and in 2 weeks, he has lost 4 kg! Another villager is now offering a free weekly cooking class to demonstrate food without oil and salt can taste the same with the use of spices!
2. Medical access: We helped introduce and build confidence in the medical team now serving the village in the local hospital being built and with the donated BP cuffs and glucometers/strips, the villagers continue to get ongoing BP and glucose checks for free.
We thank our volunteers and donors. Without a group effort, this would not have been possible. We also thank the villagers for opening up their hearts and homes and teaching us so much!
