Dateline Mussoorie: In a single step lie the beginnings of a thousand journeys. In this instance, it was a WhatsApp from the Sub Divisional Magistrate, Mussoorie. Milaap was doing a fundraiser for the Landour Community Hospital, Mussoorie. A couple of calls later, I managed to verify the contents of the fundraiser with its creator, Binu Thomas, a well-wisher and shared it with those whom I knew would help.
And lo and behold, a few hours later, help started trickling in. Anyone with a Landour connect came together to give back to the community, from its residents to an overwhelming response from the Woodstock alumni, here and overseas. The initiative has been funded by a spectrum of donors, ranging from those who had been to the hospital and also for those for whom it remains the first and last option.
The object was to get a ventilator, a first in the hill station, for a cost of eleven lakh fifty thousand rupees. This as well as other medical equipment needed in the difficult times of the present pandemic. As I write, the fundraiser has now crossed twenty-seven lakh donated by over three hundred people. All this has come together in a span of seventy-two hours after being shared within the community. “It is the sense of ‘Us.’ ‘Our’s, the community. We have been in Landour for the past six years and we already feel an indispensable part of the community here,” quips Binu Thomas who has been overwhelmed by the response to her fundraiser.
For the past eight decades the hospital has been an inseparable part of the community. It has served one and all. From ex-school students to elderly citizens, they have all been through LCH (Landour Community Hospital) at one point of time and left with an indelible effect enough for them to dip into their purses and make generous donations from two digits to even six.
The Landour Community Hospital came into being by the efforts of well-meaning missionaries eighty years ago. Today it provides services that would put to shame even the few posh hospitals. Many a timely interventions here has saved lives.
As luck would have it, few years ago, a philanthropist, had anonymously without plaques or drumbeats, quietly renovated the ageing hospital. And that is where you will find everyone on the hillside and abating villages heading to when someone is unwell.
Meanwhile, the Landour Community Hospital has perfected the art of doing so much with so little with a dedicated community standing strong behind it!
