Swami Vivikenda Youth Movement

My heart is truly touched. Today, I saw a healthcare system that is holistic, that cares more about the well-being of the community than the machine of the body. The Swami Vivikenda Youth Movement was a hospital created by doctors in a rural community that includes tribal families.

This NGO provides basically free healthcare for people and has also set up a school for local children. What I liked about the system is that the people still pay a little bit, one rupee to be exact, and this gives them power. They don’t feel ashamed and can hold the doctor accountable. Secondly, the doctor now owes the patient something. The doctor isn’t providing just free healthcare.

The use of the school is so well executed. The children, who are tribal children, are not told to forget their cultures. They are equipped with the tools to survive in both the tribal world and the rest of Indian society. The children will ultimately decide what life they’d like to choose.

In America, we teach one culture. We misteach the history of Native Americans. We talk about the history of non-white cultures for a month if at all. We equip our students with one form of knowledge. So we grow up confused with how to reconcile the history of the traditions we grew up with in our multi-cultural families with the “white, European” education we receive. The Swami Vivikenda Youth Movement seems to have educated the children without the remnants of colonization. America still colonizes its non-white children.