12-year-old Khusboo Kumari from Kalidih village, Jharkhand suffered burns all over her foot during a freak bonfire accident.

Unfortunately due to poor economic situation, villagers fail to give importance to their health. Khusboo and her family avoided visiting the doctor due to the travel distances to far-flung hospitals and costs of medication and consultation. Around the same time of this incident, Hand in Hand India telehealth was launched. A telemedicine initiative providing maternal & child care and primary healthcare services and making it accessible to the rural population where there is no doctor.Anita Minj, a health worker working under the hand-in-hand telehealth project while doing home-visits, visited Khusboo’s house. As the nurse noticed her wound, she immediately decided to refer to a doctor in a city hospital as this was a critical case. Owing to the family financial crisis and poverty, Hand in Hand bore all the medical costs and also provided food for 10 days.

Khusboo – “I thank Hand in Hand for saving my life. They diagnosed my condition at the right time and referred me to a good doctor, we otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford. There are no hospitals or doctors in our village, but due to door-to-door visits by these doctors, my burns were diagnosed at the right time. Due to medication and timely diagnosis, my foot is healing gradually. I can now stand on my foot and walk comfortably”