Samuel Roland Doe, a local resident, swears by the treatment he received from doctors of the Indian FPU2 Level 1 Clinic in Zwedru when the peacekeepers reached out to the community through a medical camp organized in Tuzon, birthplace of former Liberian President Samuel Kanyon Doe.

A first cousin to the late President was first in the queue when some 800 men, women and children swarmed the camp at Tuzon Junior High School last November 26 to get free consultation and treatment from the Indian medics. His recovery from injuries received in a car crash on the Zwedru-Monrovia road several months back had been slow and painful.

“I can already feel some relief after the first dose of the medicine given me by the Indians,” he affirmed minutes after exiting the camp’s make-shift pharmacy. Doe, who brought along two of his children for treatment, sounded convinced that he had finally stumbled on the analgesic that had eluded him for months.

At the local health centre in Tuzon, drug supplies are limited in stock and range. Little wonder the massive turnout at the medical camp after town criers combed the town spreading word of the humanitarian assistance from the Indian FPU2.

“We have long yearned for the kind of medicines we are receiving here from the Indian doctors,” Doe confided to UNMIL Today. For the people of Tuzon, the distance to Zwedru greatly impedes access to better health facilities in the County capital. Hence patients were all praises to the Indian Contingent for reaching out to the small community.

As explained by Indian FPU2 Commander Col. Lal Chand Yadav, that was the very essence of the medical camp.

“Here in Liberia health delivery in the rural areas is very limited. That’s why we decided to come over and help the people of Tuzon,” Yadav said. He spoke of plans to reach out to other enclaves in Sector B3 with medical assistance, noting too, that the Indian FPU2 clinic in Zwedru is open to the public and receives, on average, 30 patients a day.

The Indian medics were assisted in their outreach by Dr Hatim Hujalahmadi of the UN Level 1 Hospital in Zwedru.

At the camp in Tuzon, they also donated First Aid kits, including mosquito repellants, to local school authorities and community leaders.