Report and pics: Ravi Karkera
Daijiworld Media Network - Riyadh (SP)

Riyadh, Sep 3: Mangalore Association Saudi Arabia (MASA) successfully organized a free medical camp recently, at Aziziya, Saudi Arabia. On this occasion, a drawing competition for children and a public speaking contest for the adults were also held.

The camp was held with the help of ten prominent doctors from various hospitals. Sugar test, blood pressure, pulse, weight checks etc., were carried out by the doctors with assistance from nurses and MASA committee members. The availability of lady gynaecologist Dr Rita Jayachandra worked to the advantage of the ladies present. A special session was held exclusively for the ladies, to be able to interact with the gynaecologist on their specific health problems.

DR H Prabhakar Mallya, Dr Ketan Mallya, Dr Vinith Kumar Raman, Dr Prajakta Joshi, Dr Muralidhar S P, Dr Geeta Muralidhar, Dr K Suresh Shenoy, Dr Rita Jayachandra, Dr Devadas and Dr M D Manikkal took part in the camp, ably assisted by various nurses.

At the briefing session, MASA president Madhav Amin welcomed. Vice-president Ravi Karkera expressed his views on the importance of keeping good health. General secretary Santhosh Shetty introduced the doctors and judges of the drawing competition. Services of MASA members Jagajeevan Karkera, Amjad Bava, Chandrashekhar, Keshav Bantwal, Feroz Ahmed and Shiva Bhadur were appreciated for their for making the camp a reality. The doctors present, appreciated the arrangements and expressed their willingness to take part in any such future camps, whenever organized.

After lunch, a fun session titled 'jeopardy' was conducted. Simultaneously, a drawing competition was held for the children in the age group of three to eighteen years, under the leadership of Sheila Ram Deshpande and Pritam Milind Kambli. The first place in the competition for children from three to seven years of age, went to Tvisha Shetty, the second place went to Smriti Poojary while the third spot was taken by Snehal Shetty. In the next age group of children up to 12 years, Anushka, Siddharth J Shetty and Abhay were placed first, second and third respectively. Rajani Poojary won the drawing competition for the third group up to 18 years of age, while Sandeep Shriyan and Pooja Suvarna  shared the second and third prizes.

In the public speaking contest, the participants were called at random to speak impromptu on the given topics for two minutes. The participants spoke in English, Kannada and Tulu, drawing peels of laughter from the audience who enjoyed every minute of this contest.

MASA has expressed its thankfulness to the sponsors who took care of everything from breakfast to video and photography, relating to the said camp.