Acción Planetaria DSF Provide Dental Care in Parmarth Niketan
April 2, 2018
A facial expression of fear followed by a small sensation of pain and eventually a beautiful smile on the face. This scene repeats itself many times a day in the dental camp where a team of dentists from Spain is offering dental treatment to people from villages and schools around Rishikesh, India.
The service project is organized by Divine Shakti Foundation and Parmarth Niketan, in association with Accion Planetaria DSR*, an NGO from Spain which works to improve the environment and the quality of life, with the belief that a better world is possible.
This is their first time in India and were invited by Parmarth Niketan, under the auspices of the Divine Shakti Foundation. During the course of their dental camps they operated in different villages in the vicinity of Rishikesh: Veerpur, Kunoe, Shivaji Nagar, Visthapit Colony, Bairaj Road, Bhadsi and Toli. Also, they are in the following schools: Gumaniwala, Prakash Bharti and Swargashram Inter College. It’s a group of 20 professionals (10 dental practitioners, 5 assistants, 4 supporters and 1 social media) and more than 300 kg of equipment, materials and products. From 8am to 4pm they attend to 100+ children and adults a day and the treatments include fillings, cleaning and extractions. For the large majority of the patients it’s their first time to see a dentist and they all have the same view about the project: “It’s a wonderful initiative, it has to continue!”
Christian Vargas, the surgeon who founded the NGO in 2004, says that “everyone is able to do a small action, even once, to improve the planet. We love to be here, people are very polite, even when they are afraid of the treatments. And besides the Ashram is very organized and provide us all the structure and logistic to make things easy for us to work.”
The group of dentists and support volunteers from Accion Planetaria were blessed at Ganga Aarti, Parmarth Niketan, on Hanuman Jayanti – the birthday of Monkey God Hanuman who is seen as the epitome of selfless service, by Pujya Swami Chidanand Saraswatiji – Muniji, Pujya Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji and Sadhvi Bhagawati Saraswatiji for their dedicated efforts and service.
Pujya Swamiji and Sadhvi Bhagawatiji deeply appreciated their service and said, “Parmarth essentially means that the ultimate meaning of life is in the service of humanity. We hope your days and nights here in service have felt like you were truly living Parmarth. Through this dedicated and devoted attitude of “giving is living and living is giving” we cultivate the Divine Shakti (divine power) by which we are able to bring great change to the world simply by doing our karma (actions), in the umbrella of dharma (righteousness) with the awareness of brahma (the Creator).” They plan to make their visit to Rishikesh an annual feature in their service calendar!
“I’m very excited now because we have been honoured is this ceremony in a very privilege space. It’s an experience that I’ve never had before. I feel extremely happy to be in that position, everybody treated us so well, I’m very happy!” – Ana Sorio, #AccionPlanetaria Dentist
*Acción Planetaria DSR was founded by Christian Vargas, more than 10 years ago, with the goal to offer dental care to impoverished people around the world. Their first activities were focused on Senegal, Mauritania, Serra Leoa, Peru and Barcelona. Later, they expanded their profile of volunteering in order to be an open platform for anyone who, through their planetary action, wants to contribute to the construction of a better world.
