Saturday morning by 6o’clock I was supposed to be at the Bandra local train station to catch the car for Pune FOM meet along with Gita and Melissa. We met up as per schedule and it was a beautiful drive with breathtaking scenery and a fun trip to make with one’s colleagues.
We reached the venue by 10:30 am. The registration for the meeting had already started and it was our dear Ashok and Vandana, FOM Pune volunteer doing the registration and on the other side was Mini helping people to fill in the tribute sheets and cute David (Pramod and Mini’s son son) handing out the wrist bands and I should say he was very particular in doing so.
The meeting began with Sharon’s welcome speech followed by Shashikantji inviting our youngest and oldest recipients to come and light the lamp. Sharon took everyone through the Max foundation presentation and after that Amma explained how important it is to be compliant and take the medicine regularly and also to be in touch with TMF.
For the meeting we also had Beenaji (MaxIndia – South Region), who is based in Kochi and takes care of the Southern part of India, was present for the meet and it was really wonderful to have her with us.
Nearly 200 people (patients and caregivers) attended the meeting making it a success.
The Art Therapy session was also conducted with the theme of Compliance. Participants expressed their feelings, experiences in the drawing sheet and the outcome was awesome. Participants came forward explained their art piece and also shared their testimonials with all of us and it was really a heart touching session where people were sharing their never die sprit and encouraging other. At the same time forwarding their hand to help the new patients who have enrolled into the program to fight and live with courage and strength.
To energize everyone and see to it that no one dozes off after such a yummy lunch our volunteers got everyone to attention and in a cheerful mood by sings songs.
With the arrival of our beloved physicians Dr Vijay Ramanan and Dr Sameer Melinkeri (asst. to Dr Apte) after the cake cutting began the Q&A session and it was a hit with full participation from the audiences and also the way it was handled by the Physicians.
Had a very nice experience attending the meeting and the best thing which generally seen in all these meeting is the BONDING with the patients and volunteers which grows stronger and stronger with every meeting.
