Lakshmi Dwivedula is an Electrical Engineering graduate from the then Regional Engineering College, Warangal. She joined Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd as a Technical Management Trainee and served HAL for about 15 years. Then her family moved, first to Muscat, Oman and then t the USA where after settling in she rejoined the manufacturing sector as a Process & Product Engineer.

In early 2013 she was diagnosed with Breast Cancer and have gone through the whole nine yards of treatment ranging from surgery, Chemos and radiation. Through out my treatment she kept working which helped her deal with the issue much better.

You battled cancer bravely but decided to do something with the experience that you went through. Please elaborate

I am the co-founder for Maanavseva. I do believe that because I live in the USA and there is a structured protocol for these cancer screenings, I am as well as I am.

So when my husband was considering a nonprofit organization to benefit the Indian village, Maanavseva with its current charter was a quick decision!

Now, I like to counsel any women who have been affected by the disease and are going through the rough treatment period and would like/need to talk!

Tell us more about the recent camp you conducted in Telangana?

The PeddaPahad camps near Warangal, Telangana were of special personal interest as the Alumni and professors of NITWA ( National Institute of Technology, Warangal, Alumni Association, of which I am a member) had taken interest in Maanavseva activities and showed support by attending the camp. These camps became possible because Sri BN Mohan who is also an alumni of NITWAA  adopted the village and prepared the ground for us. 

I wanted to see first hand how the women would respond and get screened. The earlier surveys that were conducted by Maanavseva, showed that even though they were aware of the cancers prevalent, they were not ready to agree to be screened! My role was to persuade them to get screened and remove some of their prejudices. Also, I noticed the the high school children were bright and ambitious. I was able to pool the high school female students into a class room and talk to them about feminine hygiene and cancer in general. I also enlisted their help in persuading their female elders, both friends and relatives to get screened and continued to follow the screening regime as needed.

What is the biggest challenges that rural women face in terms of health and nutrition?

In India, Cancer pre-screening is only just getting notice in towns and cities. In remote villages, it is practically unheard of. The only medical issues the villagers care about are aches and pains and not having children! As for nutrition, they have no thought beyond meat and rice with salty, hot pickles! Vegetables are hard to grow as the weather is very hot and dry and so they do not get them. The Alumni Association is trying to educate them in these aspects, by actually growing easily cultivated vegetables such as cabbage and teaching them about proteins and whole grains. They are also ensuring that the school children are served mid-day meal and an egg is part of the meal.

How do women respond to being screened? What are their biggest fears?

Given the choice, they would like to steal away without getting screened. I had to practically stand near the gate and halt each of the departing women. I was surprised to note that they equated cancer with sexually transmitted diseases and declared that they were 'good' people and they would not get 'those' diseases! I had to herd them all in to a room and speak to them at length as to what cancer was and how randomly it attacks us and that our only defense was to get screened, detect it early and get treatment. I was able to answer all their questions and calm their fears that if they get screened some thing or other would be found! I do have to credit my college alumni Sri B.N Mohan for the ground work he had done and ongoing services he is providing as this built up trust and of course Maanavseva legitimately identified itself as a complementing service.

What happens after a medical camps. What are the follow ups?

After the camp, the results are waited and based on the results any suspicious cases are further screened by Ultrasound. In this case, there were  16 women that needed to be further screened. They were taken to Warangal, the nearest town with the required facilities, and further tests conducted. At this particular juncture, in the case of PeddaPahad, fortunately, no malignancies were found. Had there been any malignancies, Maanavseva would have guided the women through further treatment leaning on Government Medical Schemes, but helping with expenses where needed. This exercise will need to be repeated in two years time.

In summary, while we would like that as many remote rural women as possible get screen regularly, we need ground support to prepare the populations to avail the screening opportunity at the camp. We will need the village to be tied to a nearby town with medical facilities for further follow-up. We will need partners to effect the process at each stage.

In the case of Vizianagaram district, we have the local Rotary Club, Vikasa Tarangini Mahila Seva wing and The Cancer Institute in Vishakhapatnam.

In the case of Peddapahad and near by villages, we have NITWAA and the Office of the District Medical Superintendent.

We will have to identify such partners in order to execute camps in different locations. Thus, we welcome enthusiastic volunteers who might want such a camp conducted in their hometown area and are willing to provide/acquire local support and ground preparation!

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