CMC Vellore train missionaries to face medical challenges

A new initiative is underway to equip Christian missionaries face medical challenges in the mission field.

The Indian Evangelical Mission (IEM) and Christian Medical College (CMC), Vellore has rolled out a programme that seeks to enable missionaries be agents of 'holistic healing'.

The Community lay-leaders Health Training Certificate Course presents a unique opportunity for missionaries to equip themselves with medical skills to prevent and treat illnesses.

"The objective of the course is to equip Christian workers serving in rural India with basic primary healthcare knowledge and skills so that they could extend holistic care to the community they serve and to their own families," said Amiyanand Nag, IEM's secretary for Community Health and Development.

Several missionaries have already enrolled for the course which began in June. For the next session, IEM aims to send about 100 missionaries from different parts of the country.

The indigenous missionary organisation, which started with one worker in 1965, currently has about 580 missionaries working among 50 different people groups in India.

Through the CLHTC course, missionaries will be able to offer "preventive and curative care to the communities they have dedicated themselves to serve," said Nag.

The topics covered in the programme include health and sickness; promotion, prevention and principles of communication; belief and cultural practices; using medicines; and making puppets and flash cards.

"We plan to send at least two missionaries from each field so they can be equipped in primary healthcare knowledge and skills and thus give holistic care to the communities," informed Nag.

CMC Vellore is one of the largest and most reputed medical centres in India. The institution, ranked amongst the top three medical colleges in the country, was founded by American missionary Ida S. Scudder in 1900.