HELGO's main focus is on education. But the organisation is trying to go further to help its children. One example of this broader view of needs are the monthly rations, supporting the families with food without which they could barely survive. Following this principle we started a vaccination programm in December 2009. With the help of Ute Sparenberg (http://www.kalkutta-hilfe.de) all children of our project are being vaccinated against diseases like tetanus, diphtheria and polio.
Now every Friday at 7.45 a group of 20 to 30 of our kids is walking in line through the streets. The vaccinations are done by a different NGO, which otherwise takes care of people suffering  from tuberculosis. Thanks to our special appointment we pass the first patients already waiting in line and take a seat in the small court yard. Some children are a little worried about the things coming. At 8 o'clock, our fixed time, the preperations are started – around 9 o'clock everything is ready to take the first patients. The children hand over their HELGO vaccination card, with the help of which a vaccination card of the other NGO is written. After writing the name into two more forms (!) the actual work can begin. It starts easy with a mouthful of Vitamin A. Then depending on the age different vaccinations take place. The small ones have to bear 3 injections. Of course there are some tears every once in a while. With some children it actually is a fight to get the vaccination done.
In the end everybody gets a chocolate, that makes up for a lot of things, and then everything is over – at least until the next vaccination will take place, ...