Life changing: Dr. Brian Kelly (in black shirt) of Life West and a team of volunteer chiropractors perform chiropractic adjustments and care to thousands attending a massive medical mission in Delhi last November. kilometers just to see the chiropractor. Challenges notwithstanding, Patel is having the time of her life practicing in the birthplace of her parents. In her own way, she is paving the way for other chiropractors to enter the Indian market. Her clinic has been host to several foreign chiropractors who found her online or through another connection and wanted to visit her clinic – some of them volunteering to work on her patients. “We are gaining more exposure for chiropractic in India on a global scale. Now, some (of the visiting chiroprac-tors) even want to come back and practice in India or open a clinic or start a mission trip,” Patel says. Giving back Aside from the advocacy and political work, the IACD is also instrumental in providing free chiropractic care to the poorer citizens of the country by hold-ing chiropractic mission trips. Along with a fellow chiropractor from the U.S., Nanda opened up the first chiropractic clinic in India in 2004. Once a week, the clinic would open its doors to provide free chiro-practic service to the community. As 24 Canadian Chiropractor April 2014 president and founder of the IACD, Nanda constantly encourages practi-tioners in India to continue to set aside time in their clinic for pro bono work. “Our vision is to treat humanity, treat the 1.2 billion people,” says Nanda. “Right now, we have eight doctors for 1.2 billion. That’s not satis-factory. We need more chiropractors, we need more volunteering.” Through several small initiatives, the IACD and other chiropractic organiza-tions held chiropractic missions in various parts of India. These charitable projects were a way of reaching com-munities that may otherwise have no easy access to health care. Last year, the IACD was offered an opportunity to reach a far wider crowd. Through a partnership with the Sant Nirankari Mission, a non-denomina-tional spiritual movement in India, the IACD was given access to a crowd of 1.7 million. Based in Delhi, Sant Nirankari holds spiritual missions twice every year – one in Delhi and one in Mumbai – that includes a massive medical mission offering free medical service provided by volunteer practitioners. Last No-vember, chiropractic care was offered as part of the free services for the fist time. Nanda and a small group of chiro-practors from Canada and the U.S., including students and faculty at Life West, participated in the mission in November. “There were 100,000 people per day coming through,” recalls Nanda. “But we could only see 5,500 in three days. That was our capacity. We had about 11 chiropractors there from all over the world.” The group went back to participate in another Sant Nirankari mission in January 2014. Nanda says chiropractic will continue to have a presence in the Nirankari missions moving forward. Life West sponsored the November mission trip and continues to support the India missions by sending students and faculty to participate in the free chiropractic clinic. This is not the first time the school has participated and supported similar initiatives, however. “For many years, Life West has had outreach programs for our students to different parts of the world,” says Life West president Dr. Brian Kelly. These outreach programs touched many countries including Ghana, Cambodia, El Salvador, Peru and Indonesia. “The notion of ‘service above self’ is part of the college’s DNA,” he says. Kelly says Life West’s introduction to the India mission is another opportu-nity to serve and for students to care for people “in all walks of life.” “It has literally been life changing for them,” says Kelly who personally par-ticipated in the November mission in Delhi. “It certainly moved me… to take care of people who not only don’t have access to any health care let along chi-ropractic, gave me a renewed appreci-ation for everything we have in life.” Kelly, who was given an opportunity to speak to the one million attendees at the November mission, says India faces major public health issues, including diabetes and obesity. “The Indian people resonate with the philosophy of chiropractic and they certainly embraced our message,” he says. Following that experience, Life West is offering academic scholarships to two deserving students from India to study at Life West. The objective is for www.canadianchiropractor.ca
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